Pechora-Ilych Preserve

a preserve located on the western slopes and the foothills of the Northern Urals. The Pechora-Ilych Preserve was established in 1930 to protect the natural environment of the northeastern portion of the European USSR, in particular the habitat of the sable. Area, 721,300 hectares (1973). The preserve occupies three natural regions: the Pechora Lowland (overgrown with pine forests), the foothills of the Ural Mountains (spruce, fir, and mixed spruce and fir forests —mixed in places with cedar), and the Urals themselves with well-expressed geobotanical zones (dark coniferous taiga, elfin woodland, subalpine meadows, tundra, rocky deposits).

Animals commonly found in the preserve include the elk, reindeer, Eurasian brown bear, wolf, otter, wolverine, mountain hare, capercaillie, hazel hen, black grouse, willow ptarmigan, and common ptarmigan. The arctic fox is occasionally encountered. The sable and the European marten live in the same regions, sometimes crossbreeding to produce the kidas. The beaver has been reacclimatized. (The region’s beaver population was wiped out in the early 19th century.) The upper Pechora River is one of the main spawning grounds for salmon; other commonly found fish are the taimen (Hucho taimen), grayling, and whitefish. Attempts are being made to domesticate the elk (elk-breeding farm).

The Pechora-Ilych Preserve has published Trudy (Transactions) since 1940.