Franz Josef Land and snow bunting. Some ivory gulls, little auks and Brünnich's guillemots opt to spend the winter on the islands. The polar bear population of Franz Josef Land lies within the Barents Sea subpopulation, which also includes polar bears inhabiting Svalbard and the western coast of Novaya Zemlya. In 2004, the Barents Sea subpopulation was estimated at 2,650. There is also a population of Arctic fox, which typically have their territories near seabird habitats. Being declared as a marine mammal sanctuary, the island has rich biodiversity of rare marine mammals. Three species of seals habit the archipelago. Harp seal is the
Pay-Khoy Ridge do not have permanent population. The closest permanent settlements are Amderma and Ust-Kara. The ridge is located in tundra, to the north of the tree line. The Pay-Khoy ridge forms a curved orogen together with the Ural Mountains, the Vaygach Island and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The Pay-Khoy and Novaya Zemlya are younger than the orogeny that formed the Ural mountains. They were formed during the Cimmerian Orogeny between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. Pay-Khoy Ridge The Pay-Khoy ridge () is a mountain range at the northern end of the Ural Mountains. It lies within the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.