Photographer captures polar bears with a drone living in a deserted village in the Arctic (+ photos)

Russian photographer Dmitry Kog has won the Drone Photo Awards 2022 photography competition in the Series section for his photographs of polar bears living in a deserted village on an island in the Arctic Chukotka Sea.

Kog took the photos in 2021, during a sailing trip to Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula and Wrangel Island. The expedition needed a place to shelter during a storm and approached Kolyuchin, a small island where a Soviet weather station was located.

At first he saw strange shapes in the windows of a deserted island town. Then he realized it was polar bears: about 20 of them, mostly males, who were wandering between the buildings. The females were indoors with the young men.

Photo: Dimitri Kog (Drone Photography Awards 2022).

Polar bears are one of the largest carnivores and the only predators in the Arctic. Cog decided to use a low-noise drone to take the strange photos without disturbing the bears.

The Natural History Museum in London has nominated one of his photographs for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.

Photo: Dimitri Kog (Drone Photography Awards 2022).

Photo: Dimitri Kog (Drone Photography Awards 2022).

Photo: Dimitri Kog (Drone Photography Awards 2022).

Photo: Dimitri Kog (Drone Photography Awards 2022).

Photo: Dimitri Kog (Drone Photography Awards 2022).

(With information from RT in Spanish)