The Taimyrsky Reserve has a complicated history of creation. Today it occupies an area of more than 1.5 thousand hectares; rare representatives of flora and fauna listed in the Red Book are protected in these territories. The official date of foundation is considered to be 1979, it was then that the reserve was created with the aim of a detailed study and conservation of forests, mountain, tundra and lowland ecosystems.
History of Creation
Back in 1939, researchers decided to create a large nature reserve on the Taimyr Peninsula. Its opening was planned for 1943, but, unfortunately, the war crossed out all plans. Then the issue of creating a protected zone was raised in 1949, but all the developments of scientists were rejected, since the state was just reducing the area of protected area systems. More than once, the Taimyr Biosphere Reserve has been in the spotlight. The territory was planned to be expanded to 10 million hectares in order to protect not only rare animals and birds,such as wild reindeer, musk ox, red-breasted goose, but also the entire ecosystem of the Taimyr tundra, from the Byrranga mountains to the Arctic coasts.
In 1979, the Taimyrsky reserve was still officially registered. This included the Logatskoye and Verkhnetaymyrskoye forestries, the Lukunsky and Ary-Mas branches. In 1994, coastal and foothill arctic tundras were attached to the reserve as a buffer zone. Today, researchers are doing their best to expand protected areas.
Natural landscapes of the reserve
The security zone is located on the Taimyr Peninsula. The organizers managed to cover a wide variety of landscapes: southern, arctic and typical tundra, forest tundra. The reserve "Taimyrsky" is located on the territory of permafrost, reaching about 0.5 km. The buffer zone is mainly located on a flat terrain, it is there that the rivers flow, which are tributaries of the Khatanga. The largest lake Taimyr is also located here, as well as several smaller lakes.
The climate of Taimyr
Climatic features of the Taimyr reserve largely depend on the phenomenon of the polar night. In this territory, it lasts a little more than two months, the polar day lasts for 83 days. On the Taimyr Peninsula, winter lasts up to 10 months, sometimes up to 8. But summer mostly comes at the end of June and lasts until August. In winter, in the flat areas, the temperature remains within -45 ° C, and in the mountains, the columnthermometer drops to -60 °C. In summer, there is a sharp warming, temperatures up to +30 ° C are possible, but it lasts no more than a week.
Flora and fauna of Taimyr
The vegetation cover of the reserve is very diverse. The buffer zone is divided into southern, typical and arctic tundra. There are not so many plants in the coldest Arctic part. Here you can mainly find mosses, tangled and snowy buzzard, alpine foxtail, polar willow. The typical tundra is richer, here you can find several varieties of mosses, the Arctic Siberian sedge, and the spotted dryad. The southern territory strikes with the greatest diversity, since there are thickets of dwarf dwarf, alder and willow, there are also red currants and rose hips. On the mountain slopes you can meet the Dike bladderwort, brittle bladderwort, odorous shieldwort and other northern ferns.
Although the climate is cold and harsh, the Taimyr reserve is rich in animals. Animals are mainly represented by wild reindeer, musk oxen, ermines, there are also wolves, lynxes. The main food of predators and at the same time the most important living creature in the tundra is the lemming. In the reserve, birds and animals are found in such large numbers that it is not even clear how such poor-looking nature can feed them. Although it only seems so, in fact, there is a high biological productivity of plants here, there are a lot of fish in rivers and lakes, mouse-like rodents multiply rapidly, so they are able to feed many snowy owls, arctic foxes, falcons and others.mammals and raptors.
Animals listed in the Red Book
The Taimyrsky Reserve has sheltered many representatives of the fauna that are on the verge of extinction. Scientists are doing everything to increase their population. Of the mammals, the Laptev subspecies of the walrus, the polar bear and the musk ox are included in the Red Book. There are many more birds: red-breasted goose, white-tailed eagle, peregrine falcon, lesser swan, lesser white-fronted swan, Siberian eider, gyrfalcon, mud gull, pink and fork-tailed gulls, Icelandic sandpiper, etc.
What is worth seeing on the Taimyr Peninsula?
One can talk a lot about the nature reserves of Russia, but it is better to see all this beauty with your own eyes once. Taimyr is far away, but it is still worth taking the time to visit it, because there are a lot of interesting places here. First of all, it is recommended to go to museums. The first one is dedicated to ethnography and nature, the second one is devoted to research on mammoths, and the third one is dedicated to the Dolgan poetess Ogduo Aksenova. In the protected zone, you can see the rookeries of walruses of the Laptev subspecies, forests located in the northernmost part of the world. On the Dyabyaka-Tari River there are fossils of marine fauna dating back to the Jurassic period.
Not all reserves in the world and Russia have as many interesting places to visit as there are on the Taimyr Peninsula. On the Upper Taimyr River, you can visit the ancient camp of deer hunters, and there are also settlements completely abandoned in the middle of the 20th century. Many will be interested in seeingthe ruins of the winter hut of the expedition of Khariton Laptev and explorers, as well as to the polar stations of the Waiting Bay, which are closed at this time. Also of great interest are the inhabitants of the reserve themselves. Here you can watch birds and animals all day long, they are not at all afraid of people, so you can look at them from a close distance.
The main reserves of Russia
The country has a huge number of protected natural areas. The map of Russian reserves will help everyone to get more information about these unique territories and their sights. Forest lovers can visit the Altai Territory. Many representatives of the fauna live in the reserve, valuable plants grow. There is a dark coniferous taiga complex in Buryatia. The Baikal Reserve covers the Khamar-Daban ridge and the southern coast of Lake Baikal.
It is also worth noting Primorsky Krai. The Kedrovaya Pad reserve is located here, in which there are more than 800 representatives of the flora of southern and northern species. Also in this protected zone you can see such animals as sika deer, Ussuri pipebills, leopard, Himalayan bear, raccoon dog, etc. There are many reserves in Russia, all of them are of great interest both for researchers of flora and fauna, and for ordinary tourists.
