[1][2] The Kurilsky Reserve consists of three separate sectors: Kurils is located in the South Sakhalin-Kurile mixed forests ecoregion.

Characteristics mammals of the forests are brown bear, fox, hare, chipmunk, sable and weasels.

The reserve is a part of globally important transcontinental flyway for bird migration to the arctic.

Hundreds of thousands of colonial seabirds, including cormorants, ducks, loons, gulls, and auks, winter in the area around the reserve.

The reserve reports 26 nesting pairs of the endangered Blakiston's fish owl (Bubo blakistoni).

[2] The main office is in the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk on Kunashir island, about 20 km northeast of the southern sector of the reserve.