Wrangel Island

Wrangel Island is an island of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the 91st largest island in the world and roughly the size of Crete. Located in the Arctic Ocean between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea, the island lies astride the 180th meridian. The International Date Line is therefore displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland to keep the island on the same day as the rest of Russia. The closest land to Wrangel Island is the tiny and rocky Herald Island located 60 kilometres to the east. Wrangel Island is the last known place where woolly mammoths survived, until around 4,000 years ago.

Most of Wrangel Island and the nearby Herald Island is a federally protected nature sanctuary administered by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.