World on the Move - a note from far away
- 11 Dec 07, 10:17 AM
We at the Natural History Unit Radio Team are working on a big series for next year at the moment. It鈥檚 called World on the Move and it will follow the movements of animals around the world as they migrate and disperse. It鈥檚 a major event for 91热爆 Radio 4 going out live every Tuesday at 11am from February 2008 - December 2008.
(Photo taken by Viktor Nikiforov/WWF - Tom Arnbom is the one in red, the others are like a white wall so that the male polar bear would not see him)
World on the Move reporter Tom Arnbom is out in Vankarem, Chukotka, north-east Russia at the moment with WWF's Polar Bear Patrol project.
Last year due to the lack of sea ice, polar bears were "trapped" on the peninsula where Vankarem is situated, waiting for the winter ice to freeze so that they could go out hunting on the sea ice after many months of starvation on land. Vankarem has about 150-200 inhabitants, and they had about 200 polar bears running around trying to find something to eat. Not a good combination - a couple of years ago a teenage girl was killed by a bear. So WWF together with the locals set up a 鈥淏ear Patrol鈥.
Tom鈥檚 out there this year to see what鈥檚 going on. He鈥檚 sent a note and these amazing pictures back. Here's what he wrote to me...
