Issyk-Kul Preserve

a preserve occupying the water area of Lake Issyk-Kul’, its coastline, and adjoining sections in the spurs of the Kungei-Alatau and Terskei-Alatau mountains.

The preserve was set up in 1958 to protect wintering water-fowl, pheasants, and the mountain fauna of Kirghizia. Area, 762,000 hectares (1969). Along the lake’s shores there are marshy bushes and reeds; further away from the lake are rocky deserts and wormwood and sheep’s fescue steppes; and higher up in the mountains there are forests and subalpine and alpine meadows. In the coastal zone, besides pheasant, there are Daurian partridge and tolai hare. Since 1944 the muskrat has become well acclimatized. Swans and ducks winter on the lake (mainly the red-crested pochard and the coot). Among the animals that are common in the mountains are mountain goats, roe deer, wild boar, Tien-Shan marmots, bears, stone martens, rock partridge, and snow cocks; the maral and snow leopard are sometimes seen.