There are places on Earth so pristine that perhaps nobody should go there. This is the case of Russia’s highly protected Zapovedniks, a term that denotes territories that are so precious that they must be protected and kept “forever wild.” These frontier areas include Wrangel Island, on the eastern Siberian Sea, Kronotsky in the far east of Russia, the Putorana Plateau, an uninhabited tableland in the northern part of Central Siberia, and Franz Josef Land archipelago, located high in the Russian Arctic. Words aren’t sufficient to describe the beauty, of these places, and we turn to pictures to express our emotions to these wild and precarious habitats.
Wrangel Island
Tiny Wrangel island (225 km wide) lies astride the East Siberia Sea and the Chukchi Sea in the Artic Ocean. It and the surrounding waters are classified as a “Zapovednik” or “strict nature reserve” area and as such, receive the highest level of environmental protection that includes virtually zero access to all human activity except those on scientific missions.
Wrangel Island’s coastline at the break of day.A pair of polar bears descend the snowy slope on Wrangel Island.Musk oxen huddle in the spring. The area is also home to the artic fox, snowy owl, and Pacific walrus.An artic fox leaps in the air as the sun sets on Wrangel Island.
Kronotsky
In the remote far east of Russia, the land still roils with the primordial forces that created the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the 11,552-foot Kronotsky Volcano towers above nearby peaks, tundra, marsh, and forest. Kronotsky Zapovednik, situated along the Pacific coast, has been designated a protected nature reserve.
A brown bear splashes it way through Kuril Lake in Russian’s geyser and volcano-rich Kronotsky Zapovednik.Two brown bears tussle in the early morning mist that rolls in from the coast “I was at this spot a year earlier and saw these bears doing the same thing,” says John Paczkowski, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society. “They sparred for about 40 minutes, taking breaks to eat a few berries.” Bears in the Kronotsky reserve often encounter each other at salmon streams and seem to socialize more here than in some other food-rich areas.Born when a volcanic cone collapsed some 40,000 years ago, the Uzon Caldera continues to steam in places where magma heats the groundwater to a sizzle. The rock-rimmed crucible holds at least 500 geothermal features, from hot springs to mud pots.Whipped into shape by winds gusting over snowcapped Kronotsky Volcano, stacked lenticular clouds blush in the last light of day. Among the world’s most perfectly cone-shaped peaks, the mountain last erupted in 1923.A close-up view of the almost perfectly symmetrical Kronotsky Volcano.Kronotsky Zapovednik’s lakes and rivers provide some of the world’s largest spawning grounds for Pacific salmon.To Kronotsky ‘s eight hundred or so brown bears, this untouched land is as close to heaven as it can possibly get. Photo credit: Igor Shpilenok
Putoransky Zapovendik
The Putorana Plateau is a wild, uninhabited tableland in the northern part of Central Siberia cut by canyons, rivers, lakes and waterfalls. These were formed about 250 million years ago when a huge body of magma rose to the surface, causing the glaciers to expand the canyons to form river gorges and lakes. The lakes, some reaching 150 km in length and up to 400m deep are the largest in Siberia after Lake Baikal and Lake Teleskoye. At the center of the plateau lies the Putoransky Nature Reserve, a vast 1.9 m ha area of pristine wilderness. Part of this reserve is listed as a World Heritage Site for its complete subarctic and arctic ecosystems.
Cracks in springtime ice branch out like veins in Plateau Putorana in the Putoransky Zapovednik, some 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia.The Putorana Plateau is home to numerous waterfalls, including the the 108 m high waterfall in Kanda river gorge considered to be Russia’s highest.Sunset at a Putorana plateau in the Putoransky Nature ReserveAn icy hill is reflected in Lake Kutaramakan in Russia’s Putoransky Zapovednik.In a rugged land that is ruthless to the weak, hydrologist Valeri Ivanov embraces an Arctic bath on Russia’s Putorana Plateau, a primeval expanse of volcanic rock and pristine waters where man has barely made a ripple.
Franz Josef Land
High in the Russian Arctic, about 900 kilometers from the North Pole, sits Franz Josef Land, the world’s northernmost archipelago. Made up of 192 islands comprising more than 16,000 square kilometers, the uninhabited island chain has until recently been locked beneath ice for much of the year. Franz Josef Land is now part of the Russian Artic National Park. This icy biodiverse area is home to tens of thousands of nesting seabirds during the Arctic summer, which take advantage of its bountiful waters as sea ice melts in summer.
Penguins rest on an iceberg at Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land.The Barents Sea where Franz Josef Land is situated was permanently surrounded by sea ice when it was discovered and explored in the late 1800s. Today, the area is quickly warming and in summer, icebergs originating from calving glaciers are now more common than sea ice.Graham Bell Island, part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago.A polar bear stands sentinel on Rudolf Island in Franz Josef Land archipelago
Photo Credits:
All photos by Sergey Gorshkov in association with National Geographic unless otherwise indicated.
