“Wrangel Island is wild nature at its best,” says Joel Berger, wildlife biologist at Colorado State University. “It’s spectacular
.” At 7,600 square kilometers (2,900 square miles), the island is roughly the size of Yellowstone National Park. Its low, rounded mountains are arranged in ridges like a corrugated tin roof, and its wide coastal plains spill into the Arctic Ocean.
The island was named after a 19th century Russian explorer who inferred its existence by observing seasonal bird migrations and listening to stories from indigenous people in northeastern Siberia. Today, the island and its surrounding waters are classified as a zapovednik—the highest level of environmental protection afforded by the Russian government—as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site. These designations are a testament to the island’s rich diversity of plant and animal life, some of which found its way here thousands of years ago.
An arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus, standing next to a reindeer skull on Wrangel Island.
These photos originally appeared in bioGraphic, an online magazine featuring beautiful and surprising stories about nature and sustainability.