Altyn-Emel Mountains: Kaindy Gorge

The northeastern border of the tolai hare and the southeastern border of the mountain hare run along the Altyn-Emel ridge. Their ranges do not touch each other. Between them there is a strip up to 10 km wide, where both species are absent.

The steppe tolai hare lives to the south, and the mountain hare lives to the north.

Tolai, the steppe hare, the sand hare - Lepus tolai.

It inhabits almost the entire steppe and desert territory of the national park. It is found in the Ili river valley in tugai thickets, as well as in the semi-desert, in salt tree thickets and saxaul bushes.

Mountain hare - Lepus timidus.

It is found in the mid-mountains and highlands of Matai, Altyn-Emel and Koyandytau ("Hare Mountains"), in spruce and deciduous forests.

There are about a hundred species of birch in the world. In the mountains of Kazakhstan grows the Tien Shan birch, a tree with pinkish-peach bark that peels off into thin parchment-like sheets.

Tien Shan birch - Betula tianschanica.

Pink birch grows along the banks of mountain rivers and in damp hollows of mountain slopes.

By the way, many birch groves of the Dzhungarian and Zaili Alatau mountains (other species) are mostly planted artificially, this can be determined by the density and symmetry of the planting. Single trees grow naturally.

Of course, there are also natural birch groves. Perhaps the most famous of them is "Dancing Birches", which grows in the Burabai National Park in northern Kazakhstan.

Birch occupied an important place in the ancient mythology of many peoples - Slavs, Finno-Ugrians, Germans, Celts, etc. It was also revered by the Turks. In Tengrianism, the goddess of fertility, patroness of women and children Umai descends to the earth, leaning on two birches. Birch was considered a symbolic tree, a milk mother, protector and healer.

Back in the 11th century, Mahmud Kashgari, a philologist from the Turkic state of Karakhanid, drew attention to the similarity of the words meaning birch in the Kazakh language ("kaiyn" - "birch") and relatives on the wife's side ("kaiyng zhurt"). The energy of birch has a prominent "feminine" nature, the Kazakhs attributed to it the functions of a talisman and a sacred feminine principle, it can "tune" to a person, free from sick, heavy energy.

Birch was often used to make the central pole (bakan) for raising the dome of the yurt (shanyrak), which was considered an important ritual.