Sikhote-Alin

From Freepedia

The Sikhote-Alin (also spelled Sikhotae-Alin) is a mountain range in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais, Russia, extending about 900 km to the northeast of the Russian Pacific seaport of Vladivostok. The highest summit is Anik Mountain (1,933 m).

Sikhote-Alin comprises one of the most extraordinary temperate zones in the world. Species typical of northern taiga (such as reindeer and the brown bear) coexist with tropical species, the Amur tiger, Siberian leopard, and the Himalayan bear. The large Sikhote-Alin and Lazo wildlife refuges were set up to preserve its unusual wildlife. In 2001, UNESCO inscribed Sikhote-Alin in the World Heritage List, citing its importance for "the survival of endangered species such as the Chinese merganser, Blakiston’s fish-owl, and the Amur tiger".

In the 1910s and 1920s, Sikhote-Alin was extensively explored by Vladimir Arsenyev (1872–1930) who described his adventures in several books, notably Dersu-Uzala (1923), which in 1975 had been turned into an Oscar-winning film by Akira Kurosawa.