Siberian Federal University (SFU) and Rosneft's subsidiary, East-Siberian Oil and Gas Company (VSNK), are implementing a joint project that is designed to contribute to the conservation of a large population of wild reindeer, according to the company's press service. The project's authors have joined a concerned working group that was created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

"Researchers acknowledge the importance of the Evenki Reindeer project in light of the diminishing population of wild forest reindeer in the northern regions of Russia. It will be the largest study of the wild reindeer population since the Soviet period. Researchers will use the data collected during the project to assess the wild reindeer population and to choose the most effective methods of its conservation," Rosneft's statement says.

Experts will soon start assessing the data they have collected, and then they will develop a joint plan aimed at diminishing current threats to the wild reindeer population.

The Evenki Reindeer is a social and environmental project that was launched in 2014. For the first stage, researchers collected information about the reindeer population, using land and aerial surveys to mark the reindeer's winter habitat and to determine the size of the reindeer population. They then analyzed the results of aerial surveys and also collected information from local residents. As a result, they have uncovered a missing population of wild reindeer.

For the second stage, SFU researchers monitored the migration patterns of the wild reindeer by putting satellite collars on them.