The Northern Black Sea coast is an amazing and extraordinary land. It is a world of huge, fantastic expanse, where under the blue dome of the sky, with frozen in it huge pearl clouds, for hundreds of versts stretch shallow, overgrown with water grasses limans, giving shelter to innumerable flocks of all kinds of fish. Nearby, on the endless sandbanks, spits and low marshy banks of the Dnieper delta, in the jungle of endless swamps, millions of birds squawk and squabble. Some of them gather in flocks before migrating to the south or north, while others hatch their chicks here year after year. On the largest spit — Kinburnskaya — famous for the genius of the Russian commander Alexander Suvorov, there are shady oak forests that give shelter to myriads of birds and insects. Boundless Taurian steppes adjoin the shores. The head is dizzy from the stupefying odor of steppe grasses, and the eye is attracted by the Scythian mounds with shrivelled stone idols at the top…. Once upon a time, up to the XIX century, steppe wanderers — tarpans — used to meet here.
And previously, herds of thousands of saiga antelope, aurochs, kulans, … were common.
All this abundance, like a magnet, drew people to the region. Who only was not on this fertile land, marked by the most colorful palette: Scythians, Polovtsians, Kipchaks, Nogai, Turks, etc. It is here from ancient times stood Greek colonies-fortresses, reflecting the raids of steppe nomads, and then Turkish troops fought with the Russians for possession of these lands….
But time passed and the abundance ended. People predatorily cut down forests, killed aurochs, horses and antelopes, burned and plowed the steppes, and then began to exterminate birds and their eggs. And apparently, they would have killed them all, but some bright heads created a reserve here, under the shade of which all kinds of living grace — birds, animals, fish, insects and unique flora — have been preserved for many years.
Along the northern coast of the Black Sea, from the southern shore of the Dnieper-Bug estuary almost to the town of Zhelezny Port stretches one of the oldest reserves in Eastern Europe — Black Sea Biosphere Reserve.
Back in the early XX century, the attention of many scientists, such as A. Brauner and I. Pachosky, was attracted by the natural complexes of the North-Western Black Sea region and the Lower Dnieper (Aleshkovsky) sands. On their proposal and recommendation these territories were taken under state protection, and in 1927 a reserve was established here. It included five mainland areas located on the Kinburn Peninsula and the Black Sea shores, shallow bays of the Black Sea — Yagorlytsky and Tendrovsky with small islands and one large one — Tendra; a strip of sea water area along it. In the reserve it is forbidden to capture and shoot all living things, to cut wood, to fish, to hunt, to cut grass, to graze cattle, to travel, to collect plants, mushrooms, flowers, seeds, etc.
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Such a regime ensures peace and favorable development of plant and animal ecosystems of this unique corner of nature.
Rare natural complexes of the Black Sea coast are preserved: azonal sandy forest-steppe, saline deserted steppe, islands and coasts, biota of shallow bays. The Ramsar Convention classifies all wetlands in this area as territories of international importance for nesting, migration and wintering of water-loving birds.
The total area of the present-day Black Sea Biosphere Reserve is 89,129 hectares. Of these, 5,600 ha are forest-steppe areas located on the Nizhnedneprovsky arenas, 6,695 ha are areas of the Black Sea steppe, and 1,853 ha are islands of the Tendrovsky and Yagorlytsky bays.
The area of the water areas of Tendrovsky and Yagorlytskyi Bays and part of the Black Sea along Tendra Island, which are part of the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve, is 56,361 hectares.
The diversity of natural conditions of the reserve has determined the richness of its flora and fauna. There are more than 700 species of higher plants, more than 3000 species of invertebrates, about 80 species of fish, 5 species of amphibians, 9 species of reptiles, 306 species of birds, including 140 species of nesting birds, 53 species of land and water mammals. A part of the preserved species of flora and fauna are rare, endangered and do not live anywhere else on Earth.
Typical inhabitants of wormwood-typchak and mixed-grass steppes, sandy steppes, forest-steppe, solonchaks, islands, fresh, solonetz and saline water bodies, shelf zone of the sea can be found in the protected areas.
In 2007 the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve turned 80 years old. It is rightfully considered one of the most interesting corners of protected nature in Europe as a benchmark of natural complexes of the south of Ukraine, a center of endemism, a place of preservation of many rare and in need of protection species of flora and fauna, an epicenter of nesting, migratory and wintering aggregations of birds in the Northern Black Sea coast.
So choosing vacation in Azure, you have the opportunity to personally touch the pristine nature of the reserve and see all its greatness for yourself.