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Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve
| Site number: | 1023 |
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| Type of site: | Natural | |
| Date: | - | |
| Date of Inscription: | 2004 | |
| Location: | Eurasia, Russian Federation, Chukotka Autonomous Area | |
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| Description: | The Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve is located well above the Arctic Circle; the site incorporates the mountainous Wrangel Island (7,608-km2), Herald Island (11-km2) and nearby waters. During the Quaternary Ice Age, Wrangel was not glaciated which concluded in remarkably high levels of biodiversity for this region. The island prides itself on the world’s largest Pacific walrus population and the highest concentration of dens for ancestral polar bears. The migrating gray whale (from Mexico) uses the site as a major feeding ground; some 100 migratory bird species, many of them endangered, have found their northernmost nesting ground here. Presently, the island holds 417 species and sub-species of identified vascular plants, double the amount of any other arctic tundra territory of similar dimensions and more than any other Arctic island. A number of species have derived from widespread continental forms, others are the product of the latest hybridization, 23 are endemic. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available. | |
| Wrangel Island (Russian: о́стров Вра́нгеля, ostrov Vrangelya) is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International date line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as Chukotka on the Russian mainland. The island is about 125 km (78 miles) wide and 7,300 sq. km (2,800 sq. miles) in area. The highest point on the island is Sovetskaya Mountain (1,096 meters, or 3,596 feet). The closest land to Wrangel Island is tiny and rocky Herald Island located 60 km to the east. Wrangel Island belongs administratively to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. The rocky island has a weather station and two permanent Eskimo fishing settlements on the southern side of the island, and is a breeding ground for polar bears (having the highest density of dens in the world), seals, and lemmings. During the summer it is visited by many types of birds. During the last ice age, mammoths lived on Wrangel Island. It has been shown that mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 1700 BC, which is the most recent survival of all known mammoth populations. However, due to limited food supply, they were much smaller in size than the typical mammoth. Its flora includes 417 species of plants, double that of any other arctic tundra territory of comparable size and more than any other Arctic island. For these reasons, the island was proclaimed the northernmost World Heritage Site in 2004. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. | ||
| Source: | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1023 | |
| Reference: | 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page. | |