24 Nauki St., Kurortne, Feodosia, 98188, Crimea, Ukraine.

Phone/fax: (06562) 26 212;
e-mail: karadag@crimea.com

The Karadag Nature Reserve was established on August 9, 1979, when the Government of Ukraine declared it a State Reserve. It was organized on the base of the Karadag Science Station named after T.I.Vyazemsky and founded in 1914. Since 1963 it was the Karadag Department of the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas. In 2001 the plant and animal complex of the Reserve and its library of old books (17-19th centuries), collected by T.I.Vyazemsky, were declared the National Heritage of Ukraine.

Such prominent scientists as geologists O. P. Pavlov, F. Yu. Levinson-Lessing, O. Ye. Fersman, D. V. Sokolov, botanist D. P. Sireyshchykov, zoologist I. I. Puzanov, hydrobiologists V. L. Pauli, K. O. Vinogradov, physiologists E. M. Krebs, G. Ye. Shulman and others worked at the Karadag Science Station.

The main line of research in the Karadag Reserve are environmental investigations aimed at preserving biodiversity on key reservation territories of the South-East Crimea, which are carried out by scientists of environment monitoring department. Biochemical, physiological and reproductive peculiarities of hydrobionts are investigated in the department of experimental hydrobiology. In the dolphinarium, opened in 1966 as an experimental base for scientific work with sea mammals, fundamental research into dolphin bioacoustics is held, also studied is their behavior and psychology.

Karadag is one of the centers of volcanic activity in the Crimea, the remnant of a fossil Jurassic volcano that was active 150 mln. years ago. The Karadag Nature Reserve covers an area of 28.85 sq. km, including 8.091 sq. km of the Black Sea and is a unique reserve of landscape and biological diversity of the Crimean Peninsula and Ukraine. The list of Karadag flora and fauna consists of 3000 species of plants and 4000 species of animals. 73 plant species and 125 animal species are included in the Ukrainian Red Data Book. Many relicts of the Pre-ice Age nature are among them. Of 1170 vascular plant species of the Reserve (46% of the Crimean flora), 46 species are endemic and 106 species are rare and endangered, 75 species are rare in the Crimea. Among them is a Karadag endemic – Crataegus pojarkoviae (Kossych). 29 species of the Karadag flora are included in the European Red List, 18 – in the International Red List.

Fauna is represented by over 2600 insect species (1620 those of butterflies), fishes – 93, amphibias – 4, reptiles – 8, birds – 229, mammals – 35 species. Every year new finds are added to the list.

Many birds use Karadag for winter habitation: hen harrier, black vulture, bustard. Pond heron, imperial eagle, stort-toed eagle, rare Egyptian vulture and black stork have been recorded. Near the Karadag seashore 3 dolphin species are common.

The Karadag Reserve houses the Karadag background environment monitoring station. That is single in Ukraine and needs up-to-date equipment.

Karadag is widely known as a popular tourist place in the South-East Crimea.