!!!Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe
Photos by Stanislav Sedov and
Natalia Sudets,
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

31 October 2018

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

A steppe (prairie) is a vast grassland plin with almost no trees, but
with the abundance of grass vegetation. Many nature reserves are created
for the protection of these ecoregions. The most "steppe" nature reserve
of Russia is the Orenburg Nature Reserve, which is divided into five
sections. One of them is Pre-Ural steppe occupying 16.5 thousand
hectares and being the largest part of the Orenburg Nature Reserve.

[{Image src='01_Orenburg Nature Reserve.jpg' caption='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='416'}]

The landscapes of Pre-Ural steppe are quite various: you can see both
lowlands and small hills, sandy cliffs and ravines. In spring, the
ground is covered by the feather grass, irises, tulips and other
vegetation: in total, there are around 250 species growing here. One of
the most noticeable natural monuments is the Banditskiye mountains — a
hillocky area with stone outcrops.

[{Image src='02_Orenburg Nature Reserve.jpg' caption='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='510'}]

Pre-Ural steppe is the habitat of European hares, badgers, foxes, wolfs,
roe deer and different species of birds. But the genuine claim to fame
of this region is the Przewalski's horse living in the wildlife. This
species is different to the domestic horse not only by its genetics (it
has two additional pairs of chromosomes) but also by their appearance:
these horses are short, stocky, always light-brown in order to match the
colours of the steppe, with a short as if cut mane, faintly striped legs
and a brush-like tail.

[{Image src='03_Orenburg Nature Reserve.jpg' caption='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='510'}]

These graceful animals used to live in the steppes of Eurasia hundreds
of years ago, but eventually, the population declined and almost
disappeared from the natural habitat — not only in Southern Ural but
within the whole area of the Przewalski's horse range. At the dawn of
the 20th century, several dozens of wild horses were delivered to the
European zoos from Central Asia in order to help to regenerate the
population of the species that was at the edge of the extinction.

[{Image src='04_Orenburg Nature Reserve.jpg' caption='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='519'}]

Different countries of the world have taken measures to return the
Przewalski's horses back to the wild. In Russia, the Orenburg Nature
Reserve was the first one to adopt these measures. The presence of these
animals is extremely important for the maintenance of the natural
balance.

[{Image src='05_Orenburg Nature Reserve.jpg' caption='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='452'}]

In 2015, the territory of Pre-Ural steppe became completely enclosed by
the fence in order not only to protect the animals from poaching but
also from cross-breeding with domestic horses.

It took them some time to adapt to new conditions and create families
consisting of a leader and several female horses. And a long-awaited
event occurred in spring 2018: the first free-ranging foals were born on
the territory of Russia.

Have a look at these rare animals and their picturesque natural habitat!

[{Image src='06_Orenburg Nature Reserve.jpg' caption='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='424'}]

AirPano team would like to express our gratitude to the administration
of the Orenburg Nature Reserve and personally Rafilya Bakirova, Zharkikh
Tatiana Leonidovna, Petrov Vladimir, Nemalcev Dmitry and Kuznecov
Vyacheslav for help with organisation of shooting the Pre-Ural Steppe.

\\ \\
[17 panoramas of Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/Panoramas_of_Orenburg_Nature_Reserve]

[{SET customtitle='Orenburg Nature Reserve. Pre-Ural Steppe (AP)'}]












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