Nature reserve Cape Kazantip

Crimea is not only the Black Sea coast. The northern part of the Kerch peninsula is washed by the waters of the Azov Sea. Here lies Cape Kazantip, which since 1998 has the status of a reserve. Cape itself is an ancient fossil reef, but it is composed of bryozoic limestone. Includes both the territory of the cape Kazantip, and the coastal-aquatic complex. The area is 450.1 hectares.

The banks of Kazantip are so rugged by nature that they resemble a gigantic cog. In these places for millennia limestone was destroyed, and these processes led to the formation of bizarre outlines of the coast. The consequence was a chaotic conglomeration of stone blocks and the formation of individual figures of the most fantastic forms. If you include the imagination, then you can see the prehistoric birds and animals, the figures of people, non-standard arches and so on.

The predominant plant communities on the territory of the reserve are virgin lands of feather grass, petrophilic, shrub and meadow steppe. In total, there are 541 species of vascular plants at Kazantip, which make up 40% of the flora of the flat Crimea and 60% of the flora of the Kerch Peninsula. Of these, 25 species are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, among them: white violet, mantridat mothridate, Talieva cornflower, ophrys, Siberian smelt, Syreyshchikova resin, Smoothschikov tar, Astragalus Dneprovsky, Aspodelina yellow, Tulip dvuhvettsovy and Shrenka, Sternbergia latex, 5 species of feather grass.

The fauna of the reserve includes 188 species of vertebrates and more than 450 species of invertebrate animals. 35 species of animals are listed in the Red Book of Russia. Among them there are such species as the yellow-beluga, the yellow-belly and four-stripes, the steppe viper, the magpie-magpie, the shark, the kestre, the harrier, the large horseshoe, the bright polecat, the bee Andrena ornate.