Siberia

Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Siberian_Plain#/media/File:Západn%C3%AD_Sibi
ř.png
Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#/media/File:Inuit-Kleidung_1.jpg

Next post is going to be about Siberia, Russia. This is one of the harshest environments to live in on Earth, if not the harshest.

Here are a few facts you may not know about Siberia.

• Siberia takes up 77% of Russia and stretches out for 13.1 million square kilometres. 
• The highest point in Siberia is the volcano (which is active) called Klyuchevskaya Sopka, located on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is 15,253ft tall. This is the equivalent  to 10.4 empire state buildings stacked on top of each other.
• 40 million people live in Siberia, it's population density is in and around 3 people per square kilometre. Siberia is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world.
• The majority of land in Siberia is a boreal forest/snow forest called taiga. It mostly consists of pines, spruce trees and larch trees. To the north there is artic tundra and to the south, a temperate forest.
• Weather in Siberia does vary considerably. There are short summers and long winters. The average temperature is 0.5 degrees centigrade. In the summer the highest is around 20 degrees centigrade, in the winter however, it can drop to as low as -71 degrees centigrade.

There are many tribes of people living and travelling around Siberia. Some examples include the Dolgan, Khanty, Nenets and Chukchi people. These people travel in sleighs pulled by reindeer or dogs (Siberian Huskies). They set up tents made out of reindeer skin and herd reindeer. They wear animal furs and skins to protect themselves from the bitterly cold temperatures that freeze your moustache and your eyebrows if you're outside too long!


Lets talk about the clothes Siberian Eskimos wear to survive. Anyone own a parka? Eskimos wear layers of parkas made of caribou hide, they also have a couple of fur lined hoods which keep your head and face warm in the cold. They wear layers of mittens also made from deer hide. Eskimos even incorporated seal skin in. Often they wore big, heavy, well-insulated boots made of fur and seal skin.


If you're a vegetarian I wouldn't advise joining an Inuit tribe because surprisingly there aren't many quinoa salads lying around in Siberia. The Inuits in Siberia, just like other Inuit tribes, travel and survive on the land. Their diet includes reindeer, seal, narwhal, walruses or anything they can catch.