News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

All the polar bears on a Russian island may have been wiped out by poachers after ­investigators found butchered remains of the animals .

At least six bullet-riddled bodies were discovered and most had their heads and skins ripped off.

Bear carcasses are sold by trophy hunters and can fetch up to £13,000 on the black market.

The shocking find on Vilkitsky Island in the Arctic came after president Vladimir Putin sent an ecological team to clear the spot of Soviet-era toxic debris in his campaign to clean up the region.

There were fears of a cover-up after police initially appeared reluctant to ­investigate the massacre before launching a probe.

(Image: Russian Centre for Arctic Exploration) (Image: Russian Centre for Arctic Exploration)

Polar bears are ­endangered and it is feared the illegal ­killings may have left the island without any of the animals. Deputy governor of the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, Alexander Mazharov, said: “There were many polar bears at Vilkitsky island and ­unfortunately poachers came to hunt them. We will not let them get away with it.”

Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration chief Andrey ­Baryshnikov said the bears were only found after snow on the uninhabited Siberian island had receded.

He added: “This is a very serious case. We passed the information to the police.”

(Image: Russian Centre for Arctic Exploration) (Image: Getty Images)

Shell cases were found at the scene and a message was scrawled on the island’s lighthouse from one hunter called Stepan to another that read: “I was here, killed 5 bears, good luck to you.”

There may be as few as 26,000 polar bears left in the world. Animal rights group PETA praised the Russian authorities for launching an investigation.

Director Elisa Allen said: “Polar bears are already struggling for survival, as the ice fields they call home are melting away, a direct consequence of human behaviour that has put them in peril, so we owe it to them to offer them protection.

“Humans capable of killing magnificent polar bears and potentially orphaning their cubs just to hang a head over their mantle need to have their heads ­examined, and to be jailed.” Masha Kalinina, of Humane Society ­International, added: “As long as people continue to see wildlife as commodities, worth more dead than alive, poaching incidents like this will continue.

(Image: Russian Centre for Arctic Exploration)

“The gruesome images reveal the brutality of this senseless lust for wildlife products and for what? People are contributing to the extinction of these magnificent animals just for a few carpets. It’s extremely shocking. We hope the perpetrators are brought to justice.

“The public must call for a complete prohibition of the legal commercial trade in polar bear parts.

“With potentially as few as 26,000 polar bears left in the wild and the growing threat of global warming, the life of every single polar bear is that much more precious than ever before.”

Earlier this year, poachers were arrested after skins were found on Vilkitsky in April.