Putorana Plateau

A 108 m high waterfall, one of the highest in Russia, is located here. The area also includes a number of lakes, with some as deep as 400 m. The landscape of inland continental lake fiords is picturesque and spectacular.

Flora of the Putorana Plateau is dominated by circumpolar species and accounts for 1,300 different species. The basins of the Kutarmakan and Irkinda rivers comprise the northeastern distribution limits of the Siberian larch and fir.

The Putorana Mountains are the northern habitation limits of flying squirrel, lynx, sable and stone cock

of the woods. The Putorana Preserve also embraces the migration route of the world's largest population of reindeer (the Taymyr species). The Plateau provides a refuge for bighorn snow sheep, one of the least studied mammals on the planet. The bighorn snow sheep had been separated from the main population group about 15,000 years ago and since that time have been forming as a separate species. Among the rare and endangered birds in the Plateau, the Arctic falcon and the white-tailed eagle are of the greatest interest.