Nigula Nature Reserve has a rich fauna and flora. There are rare plants here. Nigula Nature Reserve is also home to Europe’s protected and not very abundant carnivores such as bear, wolf and lynx and to big game animals such as elk, roe deer, red deer, wild boar. The area is also an important bird sanctuary. In 2000, the Nigula Nature Reserve was added to the group of Natura 2000 (the largest network of protected areas in the world).

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Vihorlat Mountain is a protected area since 1973 and with the area of 17480 ha it is the smallest protected area in Slovakia. Protected Landscape Area Vihorlat includes several natural reserves such as Lake Morské oko (Marine Eye) and the highest mountain peak – Vihorlat, which reaches an altitude of 1076 m. Then it includes Ďurova mláka which is a typical circular crater in the Vihorlat mountains. In this area you can find a protected peat bog.

One of the parts of Protected Landscape Area Vihorlat is also Popriečny peak, which is 1024 m high, and also natural structure Snina Stone (Sninský kameň), that was created by the lava. Snina stone is about 20 m high and offers wonderful views of the surrounding area. Vihorlat protects about 35 species of plants. The most valuable are the Spring Snowflake, Soldanella carpatica and Telekia speciosa. Vihorlat is also home to 2,000 kinds of vertebrates, 100 species of birds and several species of carnivores (eg wolves, lynx, wildcat, otter).

Protected Landscape Area Vihorlat offers lots of trails. The most popular is the trail that leads from the Lake Morské oko through the Snina stone and ends at Snina’s ponds. The trails are open to the public since 1984.

Kyjovský prales, a primeval beech forest in Vihorlat Mountains, was proclaimed in 2007 by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site due to its comprehensive and undisturbed ecological patterns and processes.

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