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The Altai Nature Reserve, created in 1932, occupies the territory of the Ulagan and Turochak regions of the Altai Republic, with a total area of 871206 hectares, which leaves 10% of the entire territory of the Altai Republic. This is one of the largest reserves in Russia. The Nature Reserve has an elongated shape and, with an average width of about 35 km, extends in the meridional direction for more than 200 km.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
Altai Nature Reserve, in accordance with the geomorphological zoning of the forestry territory, belongs to the Altai province of the Altai-Sayan mountainous country. The territory of the Altai Nature Reserve includes five physical and geographical regions of three natural provinces. Almost all natural belts of Gorny Altai are distinguished in the spectrum of altitudinal zonation. Forests cover 34% of the total area of the main zone.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
Difficult relief with heights of up to 3500 m, various climatic and natural-historical conditions create a significant diversity of the vegetation cover of the Altai Nature Reserve. The predominant part of it (62% of the total area) belongs to the highlands, 36% to the forest belt, and only 2% of the territory falls on the forest-steppe.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
The reserve has a dense hydrographic network. Most of the rivers belong to the basins of Lake Teletskoye and the Chulyshman River, the main river of the Eastern Altai. Rapids and waterfalls are typical for rivers. The most famous of them are the Korbu waterfall (the height of the fall is 12.8 meters.) And the Uchar water slope on the Chulcha River - a 160-meter cascade of waterfalls.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
Altai Nature Reserve is the largest lake country, on the territory of which there are 1190 lakes with an area of more than 1 hectare. The largest is Lake Teletskoye. Most of the water area of Lake Teletskoye (11757 hectares) is included in the core of the Altai Reserve. Teletskoye Lake is located in a huge depression in the northeastern part of the mountainous country Altai at the junction with the Western Sayan Mountains.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
Teletskoye Lake is the largest mountain body of water in Russia, the second in Siberia in terms of volume (after Lake Baikal) storage of fresh, unusually pure water of the highest quality. The lake is inhabited by 16 species of fish, including narrow-localized endemics (Teletsky whitefish and whitefish pravdina). Many other groups of animals are also associated with the lake, including 15 species of birds and 9 species of mammals included in the Red Book of the Altai Republic.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
Altai Nature Reserve includes 4 Key Bird Areas (IBA) of international importance within the framework of the "Important Bird Areas" program developed by the BirdLife International. The variety of natural and climatic zones of the Altai Reserve has led to an exceptionally rich species composition of flora and fauna on its territory.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
In terms of the number of vascular plant species, the Altai Reserve shares the first place among the protected areas of Russia, along with the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve. By the variety of species inhabiting the territory, it is one of the five Russian reserves.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
On the modern territory of the reserve, representatives of flora are recorded in total - 3601, of which: bryophytes - 550, vascular - 1770; lower plants - 1245, of which: algae - 668, mushrooms - 314, lichens - 263. Ferns - 36 species are distinguished by a significant diversity. Of the total number of plants, more than 250 species belong to the Altai-Sayan endemics, 120 species are relics of different eras of the Paleogene-Neogene and Quaternary periods. During the existence of the Altai Nature Reserve, 16 species of fish, 2 species of amphibians, 6 species of reptiles, 337 species of birds, 73 species of mammals have been found on its territory.
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
At present, the fauna of mammals of the Altai Nature Reserve numbers 73 species belonging to 6 orders, 14 families, of which 19 carnivorous, 8 pair-toed, 24 rodents, 2 lagomorphs, 8 bats, 12 insectivores. The following species are listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): snow leopard Uncia uncia (Schzeder, 1775), Altai mountain sheep argali Ovis ammon ammon (Linnaeus, 1758), white-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla (Linnaeus, 1758), Peregrine Falco peregrinus (Tunstall, 1771).
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| Altai Nature Reserve |
The Red Data Book of Russia includes 32 plant species (including 7 species of lichens), 35 species of birds and 1 species of insects - Apollo Parnassius appolo (Linnaeus, 1758).