Reserve Name

The Prioksko-Terrasny State Biosphere Reserve was named after Mikhail Zablotsky.

The order was signed by Sergey Donskoy, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, on March 19, 2015.

In fact, Mikhaill Zablotsky (ссылка) founded Russia’s first Bison Breeding Centre in the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve. At his initiative at the end of 1948, the original population came from Poland.

Over the next 66 years of the Bison Breeding Centre functioning there were born more than 600 purebred bison, most of which were resettled in lowland and mountain forests of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania within the former habitat of this unique species.

According to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia, naming the reserve after M. Zablotsky will perpetuate the invaluable contribution to nature conservation made by that outstanding scientist.

Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources

Photo from the photo archive of the family, taken by the prominent scientist’s daughter – M.M. Zablotskaya, a biologist.