Sikhote-Alin
The Sikhote-Alin (, , , ) is a mountain range in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais, Russia, extending about to the northeast of the Russian Pacific seaport of Vladivostok. The highest summits are Tordoki Yani at above sea level, Ko Mountain (2,003 m) in Khabarovsk Krai and Anik Mountain (1,933 m) in Primorsky Krai. Geography. Although Sikhote-Alin is a temperate zone, species typical of northern taiga (such as reindeer and the Ussuri brown bear) coexist with the Amur leopard, Siberian tiger, and Asiatic black bear. The region holds very few wolves, due to competition with tigers. The oldest tree in the  region is a millennium-old Japanese yew. The Gur river has its sources in the range. The core zone can only be explored in a company of rangers. History. The name is thought to be of Manchu origin ( "mountain"). 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 was turned into an Oscar-winning film by Akira Kurosawa. The large Sikhote-Alin and Lazo wildlife refuges were set up in 1935 to preserve the region's unusual wildlife. On February 12 , 1947, one of the largest meteor showers in recent history occurred in the Sikhote-Alin mountains. The Sikhote-Alin meteorite exploded in the atmosphere as it fell, raining many tons of metal on an elliptical region about in area. Craters were formed by the meteors; the largest was in diameter. In 2001, UNESCO placed "Central Sikhote-Alin" onto the World Heritage List, citing its importance for "the survival of endangered species such as the scaly-sided (Chinese) merganser, Blakiston's fish-owl and the Amur tiger". The World Heritage site had a total area of , of which the terrestrial core  zone of Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik comprised . In 2018, the World heritage site was expanded by by including Bikin National Park under the name "Bikin River Valley".