#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Yesterday, May 19, when the polar day began in Norilsk, Olga Shadrina, head of the Polar Bear educational center of the Arctic Development Project Office (PORA), conducted an online tour of the city’s central street. Together with her, a polar bear life-size puppet walked along Leninsky prospekt.
The viewers of the excursion learned interesting facts about polar bears associated with the city: what the northern predator depicted on the coat of arms of Norilsk personifies, how the bear Aika became a friend for the townspeople, and how the exhausted Martha was rescued in 2019.
“The Polar Bear center annually holds events dedicated to the beginning of the polar day. Usually these are big holidays at the Youth Center. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the format had to be changed: we came up with an interesting online tour. Olga Shadrina walked from the Polar Bear monument on the Metallurgists square to the Aika sports hall. By the way, the direction was not chosen by chance: Olga was moving to the East, towards the sun”, Olesya Kuzhel, coordinator of the Polar Bear center, told the This Is Taimyr.
Earlier Olga Shadrina wrote a children’s book Aika. In April, at the Severny Arbat festival in Norilsk, the author met the readers and told the amazing story of the Norilsk bear.
As a reminder, on April 26, white nights came to Taimyr. The polar day, which started yesterday, will last 68 days. As for polar bears, the cub rescued in the north of Taimyr lives in the Moscow zoo and is going to get a name.
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Text: Ekaterina Elkanova, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov and PORA
