Scientists will take samples of hair, blood and fat from polar bears for organic pollutants

This year the participants of the first scientific expedition of the national Park “Russian Arctic” arrived in Franz Josef Land. The employees of the national park and the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after Aleksey Severtsov of the Russian Academy of Sciences will conduct the study of polar bears on the island of Alexandra Land.

According to the deputy director of the national park for scientific work Ivan Mizin, the best time to study polar bears on Franz Josef Land is in April. As the scientist notes, at this time she-bears with their cubs leave family dens. In addition, the light day on the archipelago is already quite long, and the snow cover is still strong, what will allow moving in search for animals over long distances. The members of the expedition group plan to take samples of hair, blood and fat from polar bears to determine the content of organic pollutants in bodies of the beasts of prey. In addition, collars with transmitting devices will be put on the animals, and they will track migratory paths of the bears, as the press service of the national park “Russian Arctic” informs. Through this expedition the specialists are resuming the work started in 2010 – 2012, as Ilya Mordvintsev says; he is a member of the expedition, a senior researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after Aleksey Severtsov. Within the previous time they took the bears’ blood to determine diseases, hair – to determine polluting with mercury and heavy metal, and this time they will take samples of fat to determine persistent organic pollutants that enter an animal’s body through the food chain. The members of the expedition will work till the end of April on the island of Alexandra Land, where the year-round field base of the national park “Omega” is located. The next scientific expeditions to the “Russian Arctic” will take place in summer. The scientists will fulfill biological, geological and archaeological work both in the north of Novaya Zemlya and on several islands of Franz Josef Land.