Muransky Pine Forest

Muransky Pine Forest is a pine forest on the right bank of the Volga in Shigonsky District, Samara Oblast, Russia, near the villages of Shigony and Muranka. Its specially protected part covers about 12,000 hectares.

The forest has survived since the last ice age, roughly fifty thousand years ago, and is considered a relict of taiga forests within the forest-steppe zone of Samara Oblast. The terrain is shaped by low sandy hills with small bodies of water between them; the forest protects sandy terraces from wind erosion and helps preserve the area's water resources.

Nature monument and biosphere reserve

Part of Muransky Forest is designated as a nature monument, where giant pines grow, aged from 100 to 160 years.

Together with Racheysky Forest (in neighbouring Syzransky District), the Zhiguli Nature Reserve, Samarskaya Luka National Park and the forests around Tolyatti, Muransky Forest is part of the Middle Volga Integrated Biosphere Reserve, recognised by UNESCO in 2006. Orographically the forest belongs to the Privolzhskaya Upland, within the Samara Predvolzhye physical-geographic area, one of the most varied in the region in terms of terrain, flora and fauna.

Flora and fauna

At least 13 insect species listed in the Red Books of Russia and Samara Oblast have been recorded in Muransky Forest, including the steppe bush-cricket Saga pedo, the Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) and Southern Festoon (Zerynthia polyxena) butterflies, and the forest caterpillar hunter beetle (Calosoma sycophanta).

For Samara Oblast, Muransky Forest is of great value as an ecological and natural site, as well as a historical artefact testifying to the area's distant past.