Black Sea Preserve

a nature preserve located in Kherson and Nikolaev oblasts, Ukrainian SSR. The Black Sea Preserve covers an area of 64,806 hectares (1976) on the northern coast of Tendrá and Iagorlytskii bays of the Black Sea and islands in the bays. It was established in 1927 to protect wintering, migrating, and nesting birds and their habitat. The preserve includes isolated sections of solonchak and sandy steppes; oak, birch, European aspen, and black alder groves; spits; and salt and freshwater lakes, as well as the water area of the bays.

The Black Sea Preserve is the nesting area for numerous sea gulls, terns, ducks, and birds of the suborder Limicolae, the family Rallidae, and the order Ciconiiformes. Large numbers of swans (whooper swan and mute swan), ducks, Limicolae, and Rallidae winter in the bays. Many geese (particularly the white-fronted goose), Limicolae, Passeriformes, and other birds stop there during migration. A few bustards and white-tailed eagles nest in the forest-steppe sections, and little bustards are occasionally encountered. The Japanese deer (Cervus nippon), which was introduced from Askaniia-Nova in 1957, has adapted well. Fish include mullet, the Black Sea flounder (Pleuronectes flesusluscus), and gobies.