Aksu-Zhabagly - Nature Reserve
Aksu-Zhabagly (South-Kazakhstan region). Set up in 1927. It derived its name from those of Aksu and Zhabagly. Quite remarkable is the canyon of the Aksu river: its banks are almost vertical (up to 300-500 m), often fairly inaccessible. Total area makes up 85,300 ha. It embraces picturesque Alpine landscapes of North-West ridges of the Talass Alatau and the Ugam range. In the reserve one can find 1,404 species of plants while the fauna is represented by 47 and 239 species of animals and birds respectively. Typical inhabitants – Siberian ibex, roe, Caspian deer, boar, weasel, vulture with rare species among them: snow leopard, Turkestan lynx, Pamir argali, red bear, golden eagle, saker falcon, short-toed eagle.
The reserve plays host to paleontological burial places Karabastau and Akbastau on the slopes of the Karatau mountain. We witness here rarest ever imprints of all sorts of fish, molluses, tortoises, insects of Jurassic period which once inhabited the sea basin that lapped here some 120 million years ago.
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