General information

Geographical coordinates: 50, 26' - 54, 09' North latitude
108, 32' - 109, 54' East longitude

Director: Melnikov Vladimir Stepanovich

Chief Forester: Ivanov Sergei Alexeevich

Deputy Director on Science: Ovdin Yevgeny Dmitrievich

Staff: 68 (including 6 researches and 31 inspectors).

There are 3 settlements within the park's border, where there live 180 men.
The area of the National Park is 269.1 thousand ha. All lands belong to the National Park. The territory of the park includes 37,000 ha of the Baikal Lake water area (it's 13.81 % of the total area of the park). The area covered by forest is 157.7 thousand ha (58.6%). Nonforest lands take up 71.5 thousand ha (26.6 %), including water - 6.9 thousand ha (2.6 %), marshes - 17,000 ha (6.3 %), sands - 0.4 thousand ha (0.1 %) and other lands - 47,200 ha (17.5 %).
There are two departments in the national park - the department of nature protection and the department of science and education in the sphere of ecology.

Climate
The territory of The Zabaikalsky National Park refers to the mid-Baikal Eastern climatic zone and is characterized by a continental climate with long cold winters and warm, sometimes dry, summers. The climatic of the coastal area is milder whereas. It is influenced by the Baikal lake. An average January temperature is -18-19 0C. In mountains an average temperature gets down to -23-25 oC and in some intermountain depressions to -27 0C. In intermountain depressions the maximum average temperature in July are up to +18 0C. The absolute maximum is +36 0C, the absolute minimum is -50 0C.
The temperature of the water of the lake even in the warmest period of summer seldom gets higher than +14 0C. An average annual precipitation varies from 350 mm on the coast to 450 mm in mountains. There prevail western and southwestern winds.

Geology and Topography
The Zabaikalsky National Park locates in a typical mountain-taiga area.
Relief here is mountainous. Within the borders of the park there are distinguished the following major orographic units: Svyatonossky Range, Barguzin Range, Chivyrkuisky Isthmus and Ushkanyi Islands.
There are two mountain ranges stretching through the territory of the park from north-east to south-west: the Barguzin Range gradually lowering from the Barguzin Reserve to the Barmashovoye Lake, the highest elevation of the Range within the territory of the park is 2,376 m above the sea level; and the Sredinny Range of the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula (the highest elevation is approximately in its central part, it is 1,877 m) gradually running low to the north and south.
The Chivyrkuisky Isthmus joins the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula with the eastern coast of the Baikal Lake. The Ushkanyi Islands (the greatest Ushkanij Island and the smaller Ushkanij Islands) are the summits of the Akademichesky Range, which divides the Baikal lacuna into to depressions: the northern one and the southern one. According to the slope rapidness the territory of the national park can be divided as follows: 260 and higher (rapid slopes) - 55%, from 160 to 250 - 28%, from 00 to 150 - 17%.

Hydrography
The land border of the national park stretches along the watershed of the Barguzin River, which is beyond the park. A great number of small rivers flow throw the territory of the national park. All of them have close basins and carry their waters to the Baikal Lake. The largest of them are the Greater and Smaller Cheremshanaya and the Greater Chivyrkuy River.
The largest lakes (Arangatuy and Smaller Arangatuy) are located on the Chivyrkuy Isthmus and connected with the Chivyrkuisky Bay. The next largest by area lake is the Lake Barmashovoye. It is known for its mineral waters. Besides there are more than 20 thermal water koerst lakes in the park.
The territory of the Zabaikalsky National Park has several thermal water springs. These are the Zmeinyi spring, the Nechayevsky spring and the Kulinoye spring.
Within the borders of the national park there are 37000 ha of the Lake Baikal water area - 27000 ha in the Chivyrkuisky Bay and 10000 ha in the Barguzin Bay. The bays are divided by the Chivyrkuisky Isthmus formed by alluvions of the Barguzin River and the Smaller Chivyrkuisky River.

Flora and Vegetation
The territory of the Zabaikalsky National Park is located within the zone of subtaiga forests of the southern taiga of Siberia. In the structure of the greenery cover there is a clearly observed vertical zonality typical of the Zabaikalsky mountains.
The forests are mainly represented by coniferous species: pine (Pinus silvestris) - 33,6%. mountain pine (Pinus pumila) - 29,2%, cedorpine (Pinus sibirica) - 13,5%, Cmeliny larch (Larix gmelmii) - 9,1%, Siberian fir (Abies sibirica) - 5,4%.
Deciduous vegetation covers much smaller area: birches (Betula ermanii, Betula platyfylla) - 4,3%, aspens (Populus trauma) - 3,9%.
There are some peculiarities in the distribution of mountain-taiga forests in the park.
Unlike the continental mountains of Siberia where the larch (Larix gmelmii) and cedar-larch (Pinus sibirica - Larix gmelmii) forests are prior developed in the forest zones, their areas in the national park are not large (about 14000 ha).
The disposition of the mountain-taiga forests, lying along the river terraces on moraines is isle-like. In the northwest of the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula larch vegetation (Larix gmelmii) intrude tongue-like up to the upper boundary of the forest. The rest of the peninsula's territory within the forest zone is covered by the pine (Pinus silvestris) forests. They also prevail on the western slope of the Barguzin Range (from the Greater Sithoy Spring to the Barguzin River mouth).
Dark coniferous forests in the park (Abies Siberian - Abies sibirica) take up some particular areas and tend to grow in the more humid coastal areas of the Baikal Lake. The also occur in the north-east of the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula. Along the eastern bank of the lake in the undergrowth there appear mountain pines (Pinus pumila).
In some particular areas of the coast these pines together with coniferous species form a specific type of communities, corresponding to the zone of humid Pribaikal forests. Their occurrence on the Svyatoy Nos is just fragmentary.
The flora here has many endemic species, rare and relic plants. Various species of steppe phytocenoses are of a relic origin, valuable are plant communities of high-mountain complexes with Alpine shrubs on the Ushkanyi Islands and the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula.
In the territory of the national park there are revealed over 10000 ha of natural plantings that are of special value, including pine forests (Pinus silvestris), larch (Larix gmelmii), cedar (Pinus sibirica) being over 200 years old. Communities of mountain pine (Pinus pumila and Betula divaricata) are considered to be extremely valuable.
Chosenia arbutifolia as a rare species at the western boundary of its area is viewed to be of a special interest. According to the anticipatory estimation flora of the park comprises over 700 species of vascular plants. Here are noted the habitats of many species listed in the Red Book of the russian Federation, including 19 endemic species and 9 species seldom found in Baikal; Borodinita tilingii is among the latters.

Fauna
Within the territory of the national park there are found 291 species of terrestial vertebrate animals including 44 species of mammals, 241 species of birds, 3 of reptiles and 3 of amphibian. The most overspread species of mammals of medium and large sizes are the following ones: mountain hares (Lepus timidus), squirrels (Sciarus vulgaris), musk rats (Ondatra zibethica), sobles (Martes zibellina), ermines (Merminea), brown bears (Ursus arctos), deer (Cervus elaphus) and elks (Alces alees). The Ushkanyi Islands are important rookeries of the Baikal seals (Phoca sibirica). 49 species of vertebrate animals found in the park are registered in the Red Book of the russian Federation and/or of The Republic of Buryatia.
Aquatic fauna in the Barguzin and Chivyrkuisky Bays, lakes and rivers of the park is represented by the following fish species: Coregonus autumnalis, white-fish (C. lavaretus), Siberian umber (Thymallus arcturus), burbot (Lota lota), pike (Esox lucius), perch (Perca fluviatilis), Leuciscus leuciscus, lide (Lidus) and roach (Rutilus rutilus). The Chivyrkuisky Bay is one of the principal places where lake white-fish spawn.

Natural, historical and cultural monuments.
There are a lot of unique natural objects in the territory of the national park. 17 of them were declared natural monuments long before the establishment of the park. These are the landscape monuments (Ongokonsky Cape, Greater Baklaniy Island, The Ushkanyi Islands), geological (Malocheremshanskaya cave, "singing" sands, Greater and Smaller Kyltygey Islands, Kameshek-Bezymyanny Island), water (Zmeinyi spring, the spring of Kulinyhh bogs, the Nechaevsky spring, Lake Arangatuy) and botanical (Cheremshanskaya grove).
Historical and cultural complexes in the park include natural and historical monuments (notches Monakhovskaya, Nizhneizgolovskaya, Zimoveinomysskaya, Shimaiskaya), a great number of archeological monuments, such as Neolithic camps, plate tombs of the second century B.C. and the tombs of later nomads of the XIV-XVth centuries, traces of an ancient irrigation system and 35 settlements of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages.

Functional zoning (Land use)
In 1989 the Institute "Rosgiproles" worked out a Project of establishment of the Park ("The scheme of the general plan of organization of the Zabaikalsky State Wildlife National Park"). According to the Project there were fixed several functional zones with different preservation regimes.
Toda the following land use zoning is adopted:
1. Strict protect zone - 107,000 ha (39,7 %).
2. Preserve zone in the Baikal Lake water area - 3,700 ha (1,4 %).
3. Controlled recreation zone in the coastal area - 93,400 ha (34,7 %).
4. Intensive recreation usage zone in the water area of Baikal and Arangatui Lake - 42,000 ha (15,6 %).
5. Zone with regime of an ornithological preserve - 14,200 ha (5,3 %).
6. Visitor's zone - 8,800 ha (5,3 %).
The protected zone of the National Park includes a coastal area covering 79,300 ha. Besides, the Project suggested inclusion of a water strip 3 km wide along the boundary of the Park (114,000 ha).