page_title: Kologrivsky Nature Reserve
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Kologrivsky Nature Reserve / Flora and fauna
caption_attribution_description: English: Remains of Dam, Parfenyevsky District, Kostroma Oblast, Russia
context_page_description: Kologrivski Forest Nature Reserve is a Russian 'zapovednik' created to protect and study southern taiga nature complexes of the Russian Plain. The reserve includes the only two surviving old-growth southern European taiga arrays not exposed landscape changes. Some trees are 350–400 years old. The reserve hosts 38 out of 72 species of rare and endangered species in the Kostroma region. The reserve is situated in the Kologrivsky District of Kostroma Oblast. It was formally established in 2006, and is officially named State Nature Reserve "MG Sinitsyn", after its first administrator. The site covers 58,940 ha.
context_section_description: The forest protects communities of 'southern' taiga, exemplified by dark needle conifers: fir, spruce and Siberian pine.  Due to intensive commercial logging in the Kologrivsky area in the 20th century, this type of forest has been giving way to successional species of birch, aspen and alder.  (Before 1960, 80% of the area was covered with dark conifers.)  Today, most of the reserve is forested, but the actual islands of old-growth southern taiga are relatively small and scattered.  The largest virgin stand of southern taiga in the Kologrivsky Reserve is only 918 ha.  A key purpose of the reserve, therefore, is to regenerate the surrounding forest from commercial clear-cutting, through the secondary forest types and ultimately preserve a mature forest.
  The large northern sector (the Kologrivsky site) is predominantly a spruce forest, where virgin stands are inter-mingled with second-growth forests  on the sites of windfalls and wildfires.  The largest spruces are 45 m (148 ft) in height; the lower stories include Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and Mountain elm.  Some logging was done on a selective basis 75–100 years ago, but the under story was left intact; these plots have the highest biodiversity today.  The Kologrivsky sector is scientifically useful for studying the dynamics of forest regeneration under various conditions.  Scientists on the reserve have recorded 495 species of vascular plants.
  The animal life of the reserve is a mixture of boreal forest and mixed deciduous forest.  Although the fauna is mostly representative of the Kostroma region, there are recently introduced species.  The terrain, with many small slopes and soft soil favors burrowing animals such as shrews, moles, and badgers; and the extensive network of small streams and ponds supports large populations of beaver, mink and otter.  The sharp continental climate with cold winters reduces the number of wintering birds and large mammals.  The small number of swamps in the reserve limits waterfowl.  Extensive fields of ref bilberry do support some birds and bears.
  The fauna of the reserve is still little understood: significant scientific studies by staff only began in the 1980s, and the first inventory of ords was not made until the year 2000.   The bird inventory recorded 172 species.
caption: Remains of dam, northern sector of reserve, Parfenyevsky District
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