__NOTOC__ Samogitia National Park or Žemaitija National Park is a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It is situated on the Samogitian Upland, 45 km from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. Lakes cover more than 7% of its territory. Lake Plateliai (12.05 km², 47 m depth) is the largest lake in the park. The town of Plateliai, situated on the shore of the lake, is the seat of the park's administration and a popular tourist destination. The Park has Category II in the classification of the IUCN.Zemaitijos Nacionalinis Parkas in Lithuania
''

Protected Planet The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 260,000 protected areas as of August 2020, with records covering 245 countries and territori ...

Nature

The hilly terrain of the Samogitian Park was formed by the melting

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

about 12,000 years ago. The resulting hills are relatively high, about 150–190 meters.

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

s occupies more than 7%. park territories, the largest

Samogitia Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian language, Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' (Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see Samogitia#Etymology and alternative names, below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five ...

Plateliai Lake is concentrated here, in addition to which there are 25 smaller lakes. Forests occupy about 45 percent of the park. all areas. The forested wetlands of Plokštinė and Rukundžiai, the hydrographic complexes of Plateliai Lake, Laumalenka and Šilinė, the valleys of the Gardai

esker An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Amer ...

, Babrungas and Mergupis rivers, Paburgė, Siberia, Pakastuva, Užpelkiai, Ertenis and Paparčiai wetlands are especially valuable for science. and Pailgis forests and Juodupis wetlands

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s, rare plants and animals. Rare

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Hucho taimen, Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlan ...

and

freshwater whitefish The freshwater whitefish are fishes of the subfamily Coregoninae, which contains whitefishes (both freshwater and anadromous) and ciscoes, and is one of three subfamilies in the salmon family Salmonidae. Apart from the subfamily Coregoninae, ...

Coregonus albula ''Coregonus albula'', known as the vendace or as the European cisco, is a species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is found in lakes in northern Europe, especially Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia and Estonia, and in ...

'' and ''

Coregonus lavaretus ''Coregonus lavaretus'' is a species of freshwater whitefish, in the family Salmonidae. It is the type species of its genus '' Coregonus''. There are widely different concepts about the delimitation of the species ''Coregonus lavaretus'' and abo ...

'' breed in Plateliai Lake. Grows to 7.2 m in volume, 2.1 m in diameter and 34 m in height . Next to the park, in the village of , lies the largest

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

in Lithuania, the Barstyčiai stone.

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

and

lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

es found home here. Nine species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s fly at night.

References

National parks of Lithuania Protected areas established in 1991 1991 establishments in Lithuania Tourist attractions in Telšiai County Samogitia {{TelšiaiCounty-geo-stub

Nature

See also

References