Russia’s war in Ukraine is first and foremost a human tragedy, but it has been dire for wildlife too, stalling scientific work on polar bears and other animals unaware of the borders drawn on maps by humans.
But after President Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine early last year, Regehr’s research in Russia stalled. “It’s bad timing,” Regehr said, “because things are changing fast.”
Russia, given its sheer size, is key to maintaining Earth’s biodiversity. By one measure, the nation is home to more remaining wilderness than any other country in the world. Its massive forest acreage, also the biggest on Earth, is crucial for keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. The loss of knowledge of polar species in particular comes at a crucial time in the Arctic, a region warming faster than anywhere else in the world.
Without U.S. government support after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, that research couldn’t move forward. “It was a real opportunity to really increase the amount of information we have on these animals,” Regehr said. While the bear population around the Chukchi Sea appears stable now at about 3,000, thinning ice threatens to drive down their numbers by making it harder for bears to hunt.federal scientists’ interactions with Russian researchers.
For years, wildlife managers put clutches of spoon-billed sandpiper eggs laid in eastern Russia into incubators. With only about 200 to 400 adults left, each egg is precious. Once hatched, the team penned the chicks to protect them from gulls, squirrels and other predators before release.“Russia itself never contributed much to the conservation program,” said Christoph Zöckler, coordinator for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force.
. A spokesperson for WWF International, an umbrella organization, said its Russian office is still operating, noting that it is “fully governed and managed by Russian citizens.”“The need for conservation is just as great, if not more so now,” said Dale Miquelle, an American big-cat researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society who continues to work with Russians on camera-trap monitoring of the Amur leopard.
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