Aksu-Dzhabagli Reserve

in the Kazakh SSR. The reserve is located 90 km east of the town of Chimkent, on the northwestern and western spurs of the Talas Alatau Range. The reserve was organized in 1926 for protection of the natural complexes in the northern regions of the western Tien Shan. The area of the reserve is 73,000 hectares (1967).

The altitude zones are quite pronounced. In the foothills there are steppes covered by quack grass, motley grass, feather grass, and wormwood, where bustards, little bustards, rose-colored starlings, jerboas, and other wildlife flourish. Higher there are sparse savin forests and subalpine and alpine meadows which border on the eternal snows and glaciers. Among the animals found are roe deer, marals, wild boars, Pamir argali, Siberian ibex, snow leopards, brown bears of the Ursus arctos leuconyx subspecies, porcupines, and snow partridges. The territory of the Aksu-Dzhabagli Reserve is crossed by the picturesque canyon of the Aksu River (up to 500 m deep).