Nigula Preserve

a preserve in the southwestern Estonian SSR; it was established in 1957 to protect high moors and forests. Area, 2,730 hectares (1970). Sphagnum mosses form beds of peat that extend for many meters. At high elevations there are marshes consisting of Scotch heather, marsh tea, cranberry, common sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), cloudberry, and deer-hair. White-beak sedge (Rhynchospora alba) and marsh arrow grass (Scheuchzeria palustris) grow at lower elevations. The northern section of the preserve has fir and broad-leaved forests, populated by elks, roe deer, wild boars, badgers, foxes, European martens, thrushes, chaffinches, titmice, and warblers. Limicoline birds (golden plovers, wood sandpipers), common cranes and herring gulls live in the marshes.