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Polar bears on the Russian island of Vaygach in the Arctic have trapped a team of Russian weather researchers in their weather station.(Photo: © WWF-Russia/ Viktor Nikiforov)
Three unarmed Russian weather scientists<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a remote island in the Arctic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have been trapped<span style="color: Red;">*</span>inside their research station by five hungry, aggressive polar bears that have surrounded the facility,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to the World Wildlife Fund of Russia.
The predicament on the Russian island of Vaygach, between the Pechora and Kara Seas,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has made it difficult — sometimes impossible —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for the two<span style="color: Red;">*</span>meteorologists and an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>engineer to scamper a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>few hundred yards from the station to make their twice-daily weather readings in the ocean, according to the WWF website.
"It is not a problem that the polar bear is here, it is the territory for the polar bear," Viktor Nikiforov, "Bear Patrol" program manager of the WWF Russia<span style="color: Red;">*</span>tells the BBC. "But the critical situation is they (the research team) have not enough equipment to avoid the polar bear."
Three members of a weather research team are trapped by five polar bears that have surrounded their station on the Russian island of Vaygach.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: © WWF-Russia / Viktor Nikiforov)
One of the team members told<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Nikiforov that the bears have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>simply taken up residence<span style="color: Red;">*</span>by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the station, which is not fenced, and are aggressive.
Nikiforov visited the site recently and left behind a few<span style="color: Red;">*</span>flares and rubber bullets, but the team has no other weapons, WWF Russia notes.
"People living in the Arctic must be prepared to face with a polar bear," Nikiforov said.
WWF Russia says it remains in touch with the state and is preparing a formal appeal for the district administration to provide the station<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with more equipment and the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>means to drive off the bears.
The engineer on a weather station on the Russian island of Vaygach holds a flare, which is the only way to fend off five polar bears that have kept the team trapped for hours daily in their weather station.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: © WWF-Russia / Viktor Nikiforov)
Igor Koshin, governor of the Nenets Autonomous<span style="color: Red;">*</span>District, has promised to provide all the coastal communities with rubber bullets for protection against polar bears, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Koshin says bears are drawn to housing in remote location where there is no trash pickup. "This is especially true of garbage with food remains," Koshin told RIA.
Sergey Donskoy, Russia's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection,
says<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he had instructed the Russian federal weather service to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>find out why it<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had not provided the team with better means of protection.
"However, I instructed them,'Do not kill the bears" ... it is necessary to find ways to divert the predators, scare them," Donskoy says.
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