Where Six Continents Meet

Friday March 05, 2010
By Awake Reporter in Ukraine

DO you enjoy observing animals in their natu
ral setting? If so, you would delight in a visit to Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America all in one place.

How is such a visit possible? By a trip to the Askaniya-Nova Biosphere Reserve in southern Ukraine. Here herds of wild animals from these six continents roam the plains and live in peace and harmony.
The history of the reserve goes back to 1883. That year a German settler named Friedrich Pfalz-Pfein set aside a piece of virgin steppe as a reserve.

He already had a private zoo with over 50 species of birds and mammals there.

Later, in 1887, a botanical garden was added. Presently the Askaniya-Nova Biosphere Reserve contains a botanical park, a steppe reserve consisting of over 11,000 hectares of virgin prairie land, and a zoo.

Approaching the reserve, the botanical park comes into view first. Over the years a large variety of trees from many parts of the world have been brought here by scientists.

The trees dot the park’s area of some 200 hectares. Since the reserve is in an arid region of the country, artesian wells with irrigation ditches have been dug to water the trees and shrubs.

The original landscape and irrigation system were awarded a gold medal at the Paris World’s Fair in 1889.

Animals From Six Continents

From the shady park, we travel to the sunny steppe, where herds of wild animals of some 50 different species roam the nearly 2,500 hectares of fenced plains. First, let us observe some animals from Africa.

The Cape buffalo is one of the most famous and dangerous representatives of the big-game animals.

It is impressive not only because of its size – about 1.7 meters at the shoulder-but also because of its massive, one-meter-long horns.

Since the males are unpredictable and are known to attack, getting too close to them is not recommended.
Another animal that catches our attention is the eland, an antelope of southeast Africa.

Because hunting is prohibited in the reserve, eland have lived here in peace since they were first brought to this area in 1892. They pasture within view of visitors, of whom they have no fear.

Some of the eland are even domesticated and can be milked just as one would milk ordinary dairy cattle. Their nourishing milk, with its high fat content, is used for medical purposes, such as treating stomach ulcers.

The emu, a large flightless bird, comes from Australia. It is the second-largest of all birds-only the ostrich is bigger. Some emus reach a height of 1.8 meters and weigh 59 kilograms.

Though a net fence separates these birds from other animals, their area is large enough for them to run about freely.

A fascinating feature of the emu is that the unhatched baby birds react when they hear the sound of the male emu.

For example, it is claimed that when a recording of the male emu’s call is played shortly before the eggs hatch, the movements of the chicks inside cause the eggs to sway back and forth. Yet, the chicks inside their shell do not react to the call of the female. Why not?

Although the female lays the eggs, the male emu broods them.

He cares for them for about 50 days until they hatch, and then he cares for the chicks afterward.

So even while they are still in the egg, the unhatched chicks already know who is taking care of them. By the way, these are no ordinary eggs-they are dark green and huge-weighing about 700 grams each!.

The reserve contains herds of Przewalski horses. In 1899 they were brought here from the Mongolian prairies. It is believed that as a result of hunting and loss of pasture, Prze walski.s horses became extinct in the wild in the 1960’s.

Presently, approximately 1,100 Przewalski’s horses live in captivity in various zoos and parks, including about a hundred here in the Askaniya-Nova Reserve, Scientists are endeavoring to reintroduce these animals in to the Mongolia in 1992/93.

Posted under

Comments