Wild Field (russian: Дикое поле ''Dikoe pole'') is a 300 ha (740 ac)

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

near the city of

Tula Tula may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Tula Mountains *Tula Point India *Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar Iran * Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province Italy * Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...

Tula Oblast Tula Oblast (russian: Ту́льская о́бласть, ''Tulskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an Oblasts of Russia, oblast) of Russia. It is geographically in the European Russia region of the country and is p ...

in the European part of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, approximately 250 km (150 mi) south of Moscow. It was established in 2012 by Russian scientists

Sergey Zimov Sergey Aphanasievich Zimov (russian: Сергей Афанасьевич Зимов; b. 18 July 1955) is a Russian geophysicist who specialises in arctic and subarctic ecology. He is the Director of Northeast Scientific Station (a research institut ...

and Nikita Zimov as a companion to

Pleistocene Park Pleistocene Park (russian: Плейстоценовый парк, Pleystotsenovyy park) is a nature reserve on the Kolyma River south of Chersky in the Sakha Republic, Russia, in northeastern Siberia, where an attempt is being made to re-creat ...

in Siberia. Unlike Pleistocene Park, Wild Field’s primary purpose is not scientific research but public outreach, i.e. it will provide a model of what an unregulated steppe ecosystem looked like before the advent of humans. It is situated near a federal road and a railway station and is accessible to the general public.

The reserve

Wild Field comprises 300 ha (740 ac) of which at first 150 ha were fenced off and stocked with animals. In 2017 the fenced area was increased to 280 hectares. The area of the reserve will be increased to 500 ha in 2018–2019. For the future, plans call for a continuous increase of the area in relation to the increasing population of animals in the reserve.

Animals

Introduced between 2012 and 2015 were *

Bashkir horse The Bashkir or Bashkort ( ba, Башҡорт аты, ''Bašǩort aty'') is the horse breed of the Bashkir people. It is raised mainly within Bashkortostan, formerly known as Bashkiria, a republic within the Russian Federation which lies to the w ...

s (a strain of ''

Equus ferus caballus The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

''), from a

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

herd in the southern part of the Ural Mountains, * Altai maral/

Altai wapiti The Altai wapiti, sometimes called the Altai elk, is a subspecies of ''Cervus canadensis'' found in the forest hills of southern Siberia, northwestern Mongolia, and northern Xinjiang province of China. It is different from the Tian Shan wapiti in ...

('' Cervus canadensis sibiricus''), *

Edilbaevskaya sheep Edilbay sheep ( kk, Еділбай қойы, ''Edilbaı qoıy''), also known as Edilbaev(skaya) sheep (russian: Эдильбаевская овца), are a breed of domesticated sheep which originated in northern Kazakhstan. This breed belongs to ...

(a strain of '' Ovis orientalis aries''), *

Roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

('' Capreolus spec.''), * Kalmykian cattle (a strain of ''

Bos primigenius taurus Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

''), * Domestic yaks ('' Bos mutus grunniens''), both polled and unpolled. The total number of large herbivores in Wild Field Park numbered around 150 in April 2015. In 2016, several

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

s (''

Sus scrofa The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is no ...

'') and a female

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

^{BE">British_English.html" ;"title="/nowiki>British English">BE/nowiki>}/Alces">moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

The reserve

Animals

Notes

External links

References