"Sea and the Sea of Chukchi surrounding Wrangel and Herald Islands are classified as a separate chemical oceanographic region. These waters have among the lowest levels of salinity in the Arctic basin as well as a very high oxygen content and increased biogenic elements. This remote Arctic island is believed to have been the final place on Earth to support woolly mammoths as an isolated population until their extinction about 2000 BC, which makes them the most recent surviving population known to science. Initially, it was assumed that this was a specific dwarf variant of the species originating from Siberia."
"being debated: for example, in Wrangel Island in Siberia the extinction of dwarf woolly mammoths (approximately 2000 BCE) did not coincide with the arrival of humans, nor did megafaunal mass extinction on the South American continent, although it has been suggested climate changes induced by anthropogenic effects elsewhere in the world may have contributed. Comparisons are sometimes made between recent extinctions (approximately since the industrial revolution) and the Pleistocene extinction near the end of the last glacial period. The latter is exemplified by the extinction of large herbivores such as the woolly mammoth and the carnivores that preyed on them."
"to about 200 animals. In 2002, wolves were spotted on the island; wolves lived on the island in historical times. The flora includes 417 species of plants, double that of any other Arctic tundra territory of comparable size and more than any other Arctic island. Forest occupies about 15% of the island's area. For these reasons, the island was proclaimed the northernmost World Heritage Site in 2004. Wrangel Island has a severe polar climate. The region is blanketed by dry and cold Arctic air masses for most of the year. Warmer and more humid air can reach the island from"
"pocket of mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 4,500 years BP. As some species became extinct, so too did their predators. Among the top predators, the sabre-toothed cat (""Homotherium"") died out 28,000 years BP, the Eurasian cave lion 11,900 years BP, and the leopard in Europe died out 27,000 years BP. The Late Pleistocene was characterized by a series of severe and rapid climate oscillations with regional temperature changes of up to 16° C, which has been correlated with megafaunal extinctions. There is no evidence of megafaunal extinctions at the height of the LGM, indicating that increasing cold and glaciation"
"genome sequences of the Wrangel Island mammoths indicate a sharp decline in genetic diversity, though the extent to which this played a role in their extinction is still unclear. Another hypothesis, said to be the cause of mammoth extinction in Siberia, comes from the idea that many may have drowned. While traveling to the Northern River, many of these mammoths broke through the ice and drowned. This also explains bones remains in the Arctic Coast and islands of the New Siberian Group. Dwarfing occurred with the pygmy mammoth on the outer Channel Islands of California, but at an earlier period."
"and one from Wrangel Island 4,300 years BP, indicates two major population crashes: one around 280,000 years ago from which the population recovered, and a second about 12,000 years ago, near the ice age's end, from which it did not. The Wrangel Island mammoths were isolated for 5000 years, and due to the small population present when the island was isolated by rising post-ice-age sea level, about 300 to 1000 individuals experienced a 20% to 30% loss of heterozygosity, and a 65% loss in mitochondrial DNA diversity. The population seems to have subsequently been stable, without suffering further significant loss"
"Wrangel Island Wrangel Island () is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland. The closest land to Wrangel Island is the tiny and rocky Herald Island located to the east. The distance to the closest point on the mainland is . Wrangel Island may have been the last place on earth where mammoths survived. Most of Wrangel Island, and Herald Island, is"
"vanished from Europe and southern Siberia about 12,000 years ago, but new findings show some were still present there about 10,000 years ago. Slightly later, the woolly mammoths also disappeared from continental northern Siberia. A small population survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, up until 3750 BC, and the small mammoths of Wrangel Island survived until 1650 BC. Recent research of sediments in Alaska indicates mammoths survived on the American mainland until 10,000 years ago. A definitive explanation for their extinction has yet to be agreed upon. The warming trend (Holocene) that occurred 12,000 years ago, accompanied by a glacial"
"until 5,600 years ago and on Wrangel Island until 4,000 years ago. After its extinction, humans continued using its ivory as a raw material, a tradition that continues today. It has been proposed the species could be recreated through various means, but none of these are yet feasible. Remains of various extinct elephants were known by Europeans for centuries, but were generally interpreted, based on biblical accounts, as the remains of legendary creatures such as behemoths or giants. It was also theorised that they were remains of modern elephants that had been brought to Europe during the Roman Republic, for"
"survival of any known mammoth population. Wrangel Island is thought to have become separated from the mainland by 12000 BC. It was assumed that Wrangel Island mammoths ranged from 180–230 cm in shoulder height and were for a time considered ""dwarf mammoths"". However this classification has been re-evaluated and since the Second International Mammoth Conference in 1999, these mammoths are no longer considered to be true ""dwarf mammoths"". On Sulawesi and Flores, evidence of a succession of distinct endemic island faunas has been found, including dwarfed elephants, dating until the Middle Pleistocene. Around the early Middle Pleistocene these dwarfed elephants"
"However, after further evaluation, these Wrangel island mammoths are no longer considered to have been dwarfs. The presence of modern humans using advanced hunting and survival skills probably hastened their demise on this frozen isle, which until recently was ice bound for most years with infrequent breaks of clear water in some Arctic summers. A mirror development can be found with the dwarf elephant on Malta, originating from the European species. Evidence for prehistoric human occupation was uncovered in 1975 at the Chertov Ovrag site. Various stone and ivory tools were found, including a toggling harpoon. Radiocarbon dating shows the"
"time. Most populations disappeared between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. The last mainland population existed in the Kyttyk Peninsula of Siberia 9,650 years ago. A small population of woolly mammoths survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, well into the Holocene with the most recently published date of extinction being 5,600 years B.P. The last known population remained on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 4,000 years ago, well into the start of human civilization and concurrent with the construction of the Great Pyramid of ancient Egypt. DNA sequencing of remains of two mammoths, one from Siberia 44,800 years BP"
"island in 1889. It was reported to be surviving in Sakhalin island and perhaps the Kuril Islands in 1945, however according to the Soviet zoologist Vladimir Heptner it had not been seen on Sakhalin at the beginning of the 20th century, with vagrant specimens of Siberian forest wolf occasionally crossing into the island via the Nevelskoy Strait, though not permanently settling. Information on the animal's presence on the Kuril islands is often contradictory or erroneous. It was tentatively recorded to inhabit Kunashir, Iturup and Paramushir, while wolves reported on Shumshu were later dismissed as feral dogs. A survey undertaken in"
"Falkland Islands wolf The Falkland Islands wolf (""Dusicyon australis""), also known as the warrah ( or ) and occasionally as the Falkland Islands dog, Falkland Islands fox, or Antarctic wolf, was the only native land mammal of the Falkland Islands. This endemic canid became extinct in 1876, the first known canid to have become extinct in historical times. It was the only modern species in the genus ""Dusicyon"". Traditionally it had been supposed that the most closely related genus was ""Lycalopex"", including the culpeo, which has been introduced to the Falkland Islands in modern times. However, in 2009, a cladistic"
"is considered extinct. The last known specimen, named Lonesome George, died in captivity on 24 June 2012; George had been mated with female tortoises of several other species, but none of the eggs from these pairings hatched. The species inhabiting Floreana Island (""G. nigra"") is thought to have been hunted to extinction by 1850, only 15 years after Charles Darwin's landmark visit of 1835, when he saw shells, but no live tortoises there. The existence of the ""C. phantastica"" species of Fernandina Island is disputed, as it was described from a single specimen that may have been an artificial introduction"
"from the RSFSR in 1978, compared to 7,900 two years prior. With an increase in population, twice as many wolves were culled in the 1980s than in the prior decade. Wolves became extinct in Wrangel Island in the early 1980s. In 1984, the RSFSR had over 2000 wolf hunting brigades consisting of 15,000 hunters who killed 16 400 wolves. Overall, the Soviet Union culled over 1 500 000 wolves for a cost of 150,000,000 rubles on bounties alone. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many wolf bounties were lowered or dropped altogether. Wolf hunting continues in Russia, at the"
"consisted of large mammals such as deer, moose, and even brown bear, as revealed by the fauna remains found. Nevertheless, Sumnagin culture representatives moved northward and became the first to populate Siberia's Arctic tundra around 10,000 years ago. At around 9500 to 9000 years ago, Sumnagin sites spread to Zhokhov Island, where slotted bone and antler points, antler and ivory mattocks, and bone handles for cutting tools were found. Few wooden artifacts were also found, including a large shovel or scoop, arrow shafts, and a sledge-runner fragment. Fauna remains consist of reindeer and polar bear. Only isolated bones of walrus,"
"crossed to North America during the Irvingtonian (1.8 million years to 240,000 years ago), soon after ""Euceratherium"". Unlike ""Euceratherium"", which survived in America until the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction event, ""Soergelia"" was a lowland dweller that disappeared fairly early, displaced by more advanced ungulates, such as the ""giant muskox"" ""Praeovibos"" (literally ""before ""Ovibos""""). The low-horned ""Praeovibos"" was present in Europe and the Mediterranean 1.5 million years ago, colonized Alaska and the Yukon one million years ago and disappeared half a million years ago. ""Praeovibos"" was a highly adaptable animal that appears associated with cold tundra (reindeer) and temperate woodland (red deer) faunas"
"a hunting dog. However, a 2009 DNA study by scientists at UCLA suggested that the warrah arrived on the islands long before humans migrated to the New World, possibly during one of the particularly intense cold intervals 340,000 years ago, 150,000 years ago or 25,000 years ago. Its nearest relative was the maned wolf, an extant South American canid. It became extinct in the mid-19th century as human settlement spread. 14 species of marine mammals including killer whales, Peale's dolphins, Commerson's dolphins, leopard seals, southern elephant seals, and southern sea lions frequent the surrounding waters. The elephant seal, the fur"
"became extinct by human exploitation in the 19th century. Another species, ""C. abingdonii"", became extinct on 24 June 2012 with the death in captivity of the last remaining specimen, a male named Lonesome George, the world's ""rarest living creature"". All the other surviving species are listed by the IUCN as at least ""Vulnerable"" in conservation status, if not worse. An estimated 200,000 animals were taken before the 20th century. The relatively immobile and defenceless tortoises were collected and stored live on board ships, where they could survive for at least a year without food or water (some anecdotal reports suggest"
"of the genus ""Lycaon"", which includes the African wild dog and the extinct ""Lycaon sekowei"". As mentioned earlier, some species of ""Xenocyon"" are thought to be the ancestor of ""Cynotherium"". Another hypothesis posits that the Sardinian dhole is derived from a late population of ""Canis arnensis"" (or ""Canis mosbachensis""). Sardinian dhole The Sardinian dhole (""Cynotherium sardous""), also known as the Sardinian fox, was an endemic insular canid, that occurred on the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia (Italy) and Corsica (France). Its range was because both Sardinia and Corsica were joined for much of the Pleistocene. It became extinct when humans began"
"productive environment. The vegetation was dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs. The mammoth steppe was dominated in biomass by bison, horse, and the woolly mammoth, and was the center for the evolution of the Pleistocene woolly fauna. On Wrangel Island, the remains of woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, bison and musk ox have been found. Reindeer and small animal remains do not preserve, but reindeer excrement has been found in sediment. In the most arid regions of the mammoth steppe that were to the south of Central Siberia and Mongolia, woolly rhinoceros were common but woolly mammoths"
"trapped in ice near the Horse Islands. On March 15, 1931, a cache of dynamite being stored in case it was needed to break the ship free from the ice pans exploded, destroying the stern of the ship, killing 28 men, including Frissell. The ship subsequently sank, and Frissell's body and his pet Newfoundland dog, Cabot, were never found. ""White Thunder"", a National Film Board documentary on Frissell's life, directed by Newfoundlander Victoria King, was released in 2002. Varick Frissell Lewis Varick Frissell (1903 – March 15, 1931) was an American documentary filmmaker. His last film, ""The Viking"", set in"
"a federally protected nature sanctuary administered by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The island, and its surrounding waters, were classified as a ""Zapovednik"" (a ""strict nature reserve"") in 1976 and, as such, receive the highest level of protection and exclude practically all human activity other than for scientific purposes. The Chukotka Regional government extended the marine protected area out to 24 nautical miles in 1999. As of 2003, there were four rangers who reside on the island year-round. In addition a core group of about 12 scientists conduct research during the summer months. Wrangel Island is about wide"
"Sardinian dhole The Sardinian dhole (""Cynotherium sardous""), also known as the Sardinian fox, was an endemic insular canid, that occurred on the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia (Italy) and Corsica (France). Its range was because both Sardinia and Corsica were joined for much of the Pleistocene. It became extinct when humans began to settle on the island. Its scientific name means ""dog-beast of Sardinia"". When the ancestor of this canid, a species of the wolf-sized ""Xenocyon lycaonoides"", became confined to the island, its diet became limited to small and fast prey, such as rodents and rabbits. This lack of large prey"
"grizzly), red deer (""Cervus elaphus"") in Europe and the closely related elk (""Cervus canadensis"") in far eastern Siberia, American bison (""Bison bison""), and reindeer (""Rangifer tarandus"", known in North America as the caribou). Several large Palearctic animals became extinct from the end of the Pleistocene into historic times, including the Irish elk (""Megaloceros giganteus""), aurochs (""Bos primigenius"") woolly rhinoceros (""Coelodonta antiquitatis""), woolly mammoth (""Mammuthus primigenius""), North African elephant (""Loxodonta africana pharaoensis""), Chinese elephant (""Elephas maximus rubridens""), cave bear (""Ursus spelaeus""), and European lion (""Panthera leo europaea""). Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is one of the eight biogeographic realms on"
"polar bears are known to inhabit the island. In 2007, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Russian government approved a nature reserve on Vaygach island. The island's surrounding seas are home to many marine mammals such as walruses, seals and endangered whales. The name of the island translates from the Nenets as ""alluvial shore"", or by another account Vaygach means ‘terrible death’ or ‘territory of death’ in the local language. Until the 19th century, the island was an important shrine of the Nenets people. On the island of Vaygach since ancient times, two idols were worshiped. One,"
"the mid-1950s. The species was introduced from Banks Island to the Dovre mountain range of Norway in 1932 but were hunted to extinction there during the Second World War. It was reintroduced to Norway in 1947; this population expanded into Härjedalen, Sweden, in 1971. It was introduced in Svalbard in 1925–26 and 1929, but this population died out in the 1970s. They were also introduced in Iceland around 1930 but did not survive. In Russia, animals from Banks and Nunivak were imported and released in the Taymyr Peninsula between 1974 and 1975, and from Nunivak to Wrangel Island in 1975."
"for resources. The subspecies resident on the two northern islets are now listed as extinct, while the entire population on the southern islet of Estanque was probably driven to extinction by a single cat, present on the island only between 1998 and 1999. The species is currently listed as critically endangered by the IUCN, but since no living specimens have been seen for 20 years, , it may well be entirely extinct. If the species still survives, it is likely restricted to an area of no more than . Angel Island mouse The Angel Island mouse or La Guarda deermouse"
"clay and gravel, which are only a few tens of meters thick, rest upon the eroded surface of the folded and faulted strata that compose Wrangel Island. Indurated Pliocene mud and gravel, which are only a few meters thick, overlie the Late Neogene sediments. Sandy Pleistocene sediments occur as fluvial sediments along rivers and streams and as a very thin and patchy surficial layer of either colluvium or eluvium. Wrangel Island is a breeding ground for polar bears (having the highest density of dens in the world), seals, walrus, and lemmings. During the summer it is visited by many types"
"Clare's ""Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire"", the last book in the series, Wrangel Island was the seat of all the world's wards, the spells that protected the globe from demons and demon invasion. Wrangel Island Wrangel Island () is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland. The closest land to Wrangel Island is the tiny and rocky Herald Island located to"
"were previously widespread in their native habitat, but were annihilated by excessive hunting. Bernard's wolf Bernard's wolf (""Canis lupus bernardi""), also known as the Banks Island wolf, the Banks Island tundra wolf, and the Victoria Island wolf, is an extinct subspecies of the gray wolf that was limited to Banks and Victoria Island of the Canadian Arctic. This wolf is recognized as a subspecies of ""Canis lupus"" in the taxonomic authority ""Mammal Species of the World (2005)"". It went extinct around 1920. The wolf was described as ""white with black-tipped hair along the ridge of the back"". It was formally"
"also survived longer on Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea until 6000 BC. Survival of a mammoth population may be explained by local geographic, topographic and climatic features, which entailed preservation of communities of steppe plants, as well as a degree of isolation sufficient to delay colonization by humans. St. Paul Island shares this characteristic of geographic isolation, implying that human hunting may have played a role in the disappearance of the woolly mammoth. During the last ice age, woolly mammoths (""Mammuthus primigenius"") lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean and survived until 1700 BC, the most recent"