Great Arctic State Nature Reserve

The Great Arctic Reserve (Russian Большой Арктический Заповедник, Bolshoi Arktitscheski Sapowednik ) is about 41,692 km ² area is currently Russia's largest Sapowednik ( reserve). The nature reserve consists of ( coastal ) land areas (about a quarter of the area) of the Taymyr Peninsula in northern Siberia (Asia) and marine areas belonging to the Arctic Ocean and the Kara Sea many islands.

Subregions

The reserve consists of these sub-regions:

• Large parts of the Taimyr peninsula, inter alia, with river Taimyra, Taimyrsee and Cape Tscheljuskin
• Dikson Island
• Middendorffbucht
• Nordenskiöld Archipelago
• Sibiryakov Island
• Numerous islands in the Kara Sea
• River Pjassina and Pjassinagolf

History and Description

In a German -Soviet expedition, which led, among other things, on the Taimyr peninsula, in 1989 the idea of ​​a sanctuary came on, which was founded on 11 May 1993.

This live about 4000 indigenous Dolgans and Nganasans, traditionally hunt there, fishing and reindeer breeding.

The reserve contains a man still little touched, great wilderness. The area includes tundra with mosses and lichens and arctic cold and frost rubble deserts, which are home to polar bear, reindeer, walrus and beluga. In the summer there millions of nesting seabirds. As early as 1974, long before the establishment of the protected area, a herd of musk oxen from Canada and Alaska was successfully settled, the stock is now estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 animals.