precious-postcards

Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve

Located well above the Arctic Circle, the site includes the mountainous Wrangel Island (7,608 km2), Herald Island (11 km2) and surrounding waters. Wrangel was not glaciated during the Quaternary Ice Age, resulting in exceptionally high levels of biodiversity for this region. The island boasts the world’s largest population of Pacific walrus and the highest density of ancestral polar bear dens. It is a major feeding ground for the grey whale migrating from Mexico and the northernmost nesting ground for 100 migratory bird species, many endangered. Currently, 417 species and subspecies of vascular plants have been identified on the island, double that of any other Arctic tundra territory of comparable size and more than any other Arctic island. Some species are derivative of widespread continental forms, others are the result of recent hybridization, and 23 are endemic.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1023

The Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve comprises a group of two islands north of the Arctic Circle with a remarkable high diversity of plants and animals.

Wrangel Island and Herald Island lie in the High Arctic Tundra ecoregion, with a very dry and cold climate. They have a mountainous landscape, with valleys, lakes and rivers. Vegetation consists of tundra and steppe underlain with permafrost. The surrounding waters are also part of the designated area.

The islands were not glaciated during the last Ice Age, and subsequently served as a refuge for Pleistocene species that have not survived elseweher. Wrangel also is on the intersection of two major continental systems – Asia and North America -and has species from both.

Notable features include:

• northernmost Migratory bird destination

• northernmost marine mammal location (gray whales and dolphins)

• breeding habitat of Asia’s only Snow goose population

• the largest population of Pacific walrus with up to 100,000 animals congregating

• a breeding ground for polar bears (having the highest density of dens in the world),

• woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 1650 BC, the most recent survival of all known mammoth populations.

• remains of a palaeoeskimo site as well as several small deserted reindeer herder’s settlements

Herald Island is uninhabited, and Wrangel is home to a handful of rangers and scientists.

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/list/id/1023