Black Sea Biosphere Reserve (Chornomorskyi biosfernyi zapovidnyk). A state nature preserve located on the sandy banks of the lower Dnieper River and the coast and the islands of the Tendriv Bay and Yahorlyk Bay of the Black Sea. The preserve was established in 1927. It covers 9,421 ha of dry land and 24,700 ha of water (in 1976, 64,806 ha). It was created to protect nesting, wintering, and migrating birds and to preserve the natural environment. The steppe section of the preserve—the Yahorlyk Kut Peninsula and Potiivka—consists of the remains of the Black Sea steppes and is inhabited by such rare birds as the great bustard (Otis tarda), the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax), and the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) and smaller animals such as the acclimatized bobac (Marmota bobak).

In the forest-steppe sections are found the remains of island forests and small groves (kolky) of oak, birch, and willow trees. The pheasant and the Japanese deer (Cervus nippon), which was brought in 1957 from the Askaniia-Nova Nature Reserve, are acclimatized here. Numerous gulls (genus Larus), swallows, snipe, ducks, and grouse nest here. Whooper and mute swans (Cygnus cygnus, Cygnus alor) and ducks in large flocks winter in the inlets. Among the migratory birds that pass through the reservation are numerous geese of various species, such as the white-fronted goose and the lesser white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons, Anser erythropus). The only nesting ground in the former USSR of the Mediterranean black-headed gull is located here.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]