The Chukochya River or Bolshaya Chukochya River is a river in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of the Russian Federation. It crosses the tundra roughly northeastwards and flows into the Kolyma Gulf

Kolyma Gulf

The Kolyma Gulf is the largest gulf of the East Siberian Sea...

 of the East Siberian Sea

East Siberian Sea

The East Siberian Sea is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukotka, and Wrangel Island to the east...

 west of the mouths of the Kolyma River

Kolyma River

The Kolyma River is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. Itrises in the mountains north of Okhotsk and Magadan, in the area of and...

. Its mouth is located at 70.1 N, 159.7667 E. Owing to its extreme northerly location the Chukochya River freezes up in early October and remains icebound until June.

The Chukochya River basin is located between the basins of the Alazeya

Alazeya River

The Alazeya River is a river in the northeastern part of Yakutia, Russia which flows into the Arctic between the basins of the larger Indigirka River to the west and the Kolyma River to the east. The river is long...

 and the Kolyma.
There are study sites near the Chukochya River in order to investigate the mineral transformations in the soils affected by permafrost

Permafrost

In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...

.

The Chukochya or Bolshaya Chukochya River in mainland Eastern Siberia should not be confused with the Chukochya River on Kotelny Island, the largest of the New Siberian Islands

New Siberian Islands

The New Siberian Islands are an archipelago, located to the North of the East Siberian coast between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea north of the Sakha Republic....

.

Ecology

The Kolyma Lowlands, the area where the Chukochya flows, is full of lakes and marshes. A great variety of birds, like Siberian crane

Siberian Crane

The Siberian Crane also known as the Siberian White Crane or the Snow Crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes...

s, wader

Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

s and sandpipers, make their habitat in this riverine area.

Fossil insects, early Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 equid

Equidae

Equidae is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, donkeys, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils. All extant species are in the genus Equus...

s and mammoth

Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...

s have been found in the basin of the Chukochya River.