Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve

I said before that I love postcards with animals, but I really love the second postcard of this post because it looks a picture taken from a Star Wars movie! :)

Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve

This postcard was sent by Vadim

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

Muskoxen at the Mamontovaya River

This postcard was sent by Ira

The muskox (Ovibos moschatus), also spelled musk ox and musk-ox, in Inuktitut umingmak, is an Arctic mammal of the family Bovidae, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted during the seasonal rut by males, from which its name derives. (...) Muskoxen primarily live in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, with small introduced populations in Sweden, Siberia, Norway, and Alaska.

In Russia, animals from Banks and Nunivak alike were imported and released in the Taymyr Peninsula between 1974 and 1975, and from Nunivak to Wrangel Island in 1975. Both locations are north of the Arctic Circle. Once established, these populations have been, in turn, used as sources for further introductions in Siberia between 1996 and 2010. - in: wikipedia