This Saturday chatroom we open the discussion about Ukraine's flora and fauna. We'll talk about Ukraine's nature preserves, the rare species that can be found there and about places to go if you are a nature explorer, bird watcher, natural landscapes photographer or a biologist interested in Ukraine's nature.

Ukraine is a huge country which stretches across a number of natural zones. This makes it especially interesting for flora and fauna explorers, and we are glad to share everything we know about the best places for a natural observer to visit in Ukraine. Ecological nature lore tour including visits to natural preserves, dendrological, landscape parks and botanical gardens constituting natural wealth of Ukraine. In fact, Ukraine is one of the few spots on the Globe giving an opportunity to see rare species of animals and plants, visit unique places and enjoy primeval beauty of nature.

There are 11 national natural parks, 4 biosphere reserves, 16 national reserves, many arboretums, which are the monuments of horticulture and park arts in Ukraine. The most famous of them are Askania-Nova (Kherson oblast, the end of XIX century), Shatsky National Natural Park (Volyn oblast), dendrologic parks “Sophiyevka” (Cherkassy oblast), “Alexandria” (Kyiv oblast), Trostianetsky Dendropark (Chernigiv oblast) and also the monuments of nature – Rocks of Dovbush at Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions, Stone Graves at Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Great Canyon in Crimea.

The Sophia and Alexandria landscape and dendrological parks in Uman and Bila Tserkva, the Central Botanical Garden in Kyiv and Nikita Botanical Garden in the Crimea in which exotic trees and bushes from various climatic zones of the world are represented are just wonderful!

Askania Nova Reserve in Tauria close to the Black Sea is considered to be the only place on the Eurasian continent with big area of ancient feather grass steppe, which allows to keep the unique balance of wild life all over this teritory.

The National Reserves of Hortitsa in Zaporizhya, Medobory in Ternopil oblast, Danube Wetlands in Odessa oblast, Roztochya in Lviv oblast as well as the Black Sea biosphere, Carpathian and Yalta mountainous and forest reserve inspire the interest both among the tourists and scientists all over the world. While visiting Shatsk National Park in Volyn, Sinevir National Park in Precarpathian region and the Grand Canyon in the Crimea the tourists can admire the beauty of Ukrainian Polissya, the Carpathian and Crimean Mountains.
Tourists who love nature and wild life will find enjoyable recreation there.

Shatsky National Natural Park
The country has a wealth of rivers. More than a hundred of them are longer than 100 km. The longest among them are Dnepr, Dnister, Danube, Southern Buh. But even wealthier is Ukraine on its lakes which are over 3000 throughout the country. They are located mostly in the area of Volyn, the Black Sea lowlands and the Crimean Peninsula.

One of the most picturesque lake collections are the Shatsky Lakes called "the Blue Eyes of Volyn". This fascinating water system consists of near 300 lakes. The largest is called Svityaz. It is bigger than Hungarian Balaton and deeper than the Azov See. It is a pure artesian spring spread on 28 sq. km. Its waters are so clean that you could see a coin on a depth of 12 meters. Svityaz together with other 22 lakes are a part of the National Nature Park with diverse flora and fauna, warm  and tender climate.  Everything breathes nothing but pure natural beauty, so that no matter how good a photographer you are, you would hardly convey this feeling of purity in full.

The entire Park area is also a known SPA-resort providing resources for therapeutic mud-baths, mineral springs that favor tourism and recreation all year round. In order to preserve the region's nature resources a special investment policy for the Shatsky National nature park has been worked out by the state. A favorable climate is being created to attract foreign investments and technologies for refurbishment of the existing medicinal infrastructure, and construction of new facilities such as rest-centers, holiday-homes, tourist campings, etc. on the principles of minimum negative impact on the environment.

Preserve of Askania Nova
Another unforgettable tourist attraction is the Biosphere Preserve of Askania Nova, Kherson Region, not far from the Black Sea coast.
It is the only area on the Eurasian continent that has preserved huge tracts of feather-grass steppe that shimmers in silvery waves with every puff of the wind. Bisons, buffalos, zebras and Scottish ponies peacefully graze amid the feather grass. Askania’s pride is the Przhevalski horse, of which there are about one hundred out of the 1,300 extant in the world. Ukraine is considered the second homeland of this rare ungulate animal of Asia. To date the preserve’s collection of fauna numbers 5,000 animals and birds representing 110 species originating from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Askania is frequently referred to as a “kingdom of birds” – graceful swans, ostriches, pheasants, cranes, peacocks, pheasants. Adventure-seeking tourists are offered photo safaris for them to imprint this kingdom on film. For those who prefer eco tourism Askania is a wonderful place to tour on horseback to delight in the wild beauty of prime nature.

Dendrologic Park “Sophiyevka”

Crimea Nature Preserves

Also, you are welcome to visit pages of Discover Ukraine Network's travel site, to read about national zoos and see pictures of Kharkov zoo.

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