Russia, US set up polar bear quotas

Russia and the United States have agreed upon polar bear hunting quotas in Alaska and Chukotka, allowing for the harvest of a total of 58 samples per year, including 19 females.

An agreement to this effect was reached at a session of the Russian-American Polar Bear Commission in Anchorage, which works under a treaty on the conservation and management of the Alaska-Chukotka polar bear population.

Earlier, polar bear hunting was banned in the Russian Arctic unlike the US, where Alaskan natives have always been permitted to harvest these animals. For the time being, the polar bear is on the list of endangered species in Russia.