Description of the attraction
The Katunsky Biosphere Reserve is one of the natural attractions of the Altai Republic. It is located on the territory of the Ust-Koksinsky region on the Katunsky ridge, which is the highest mountainous part of Altai. The total area of the biosphere reserve is about 151 thousand hectares.
The idea of creating the Altai Mountain Park appeared in 1917 and belonged to V. P. Semenov-Tien-Shansky. Officially, the Katunsky reserve was founded on July 25, 1991. Its territory was made up of the southern and part of the northern macroslope of the Katunsky ridge, as well as the northern macroslope of the Listvyaga ridge.
Initially, the Katunsky Reserve was considered as a territory of rational economic management. However, it included high mountains with snowfields and glaciers that form the flow of the upper Katun, amazing alpine meadows and high mountain lakes, so it was decided to organize a protected natural zone. The territory of the biosphere reserve is located on such mountain ranges as Southern Altai, Katunsky, Tarbagatai, Sarym-Sakty and Listvyaga, and also partially covers the massif of the highest point in Siberia - the Belukha mountains.
Almost all characteristic landscapes for the Southern and Central Altai are found in the reserve - mountain tundra, mountain taiga, glacial-nival highlands with snowfields and glaciers, subalpine large-grass and alpine-type low-grass meadows, as well as steppe, forest-steppe, meadow-forest and mid-mountain complexes. In total, there are more than 2 thousand species of higher vascular plants and about 68 species of mammals in the transboundary territory of the reserve.
In the Katunsky Biosphere Reserve, there is a fairly wide variety of alpine, forest, steppe and meadow plant communities.
In zoogeographic terms, the territory of the reserve is quite representative for the Central Altai physical-geographical province. Among forest hoofed animals there are elk, maral and musk deer, and fur-bearing animals - squirrel, sable and chipmunk. In the highlands, you can find the Siberian ibex. For the Katunsky Reserve, such predators as wolverine, brown bear and lynx are typical, and their small predators - weasel, Siberian weasel, ermine, American mink. Of the birds, the ptarmigan, the Asiatic snipe, and the capercaillie nest here.
In 2000, the Katunsky Biosphere Reserve was awarded the status of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
