Abstract: One of the methods for estimating the number of breeding female polar bears is air or land surveys of birth dens. This is a very complex event in terms of logistics and financial costs. To solve the problems that arise in this case, it is recommended to identify areas that are completely unsuitable for arranging dens before the start of field work, i.e., carry out preliminary zoning of the territory. For this purpose, modeling and mapping of potentially suitable dens for the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago was used in this work.

Keywords: methodological approaches, potentially suitable habitats, dens, polar bear females, the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago.

For citation: Belikov S.E., Gnedenko A.E., Plotnitskaya D.A. Modeling and mapping of potentially suitable habitats for dens of breeding female polar bears on the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago // Environment protection and nature reserve management. 2023. Vol. 4. No. 3. P. 5–12.