Wildlife of Iran includes bears, leopards, hyenas, ibex, wild boars, gazelles, and mouflons, which live in the wooded mountains. Rabbits and Jackals are common in the country’s interior. Wild asses live in the Kavirs. Partridges live in most parts of the country, and pheasants and cheetahs are found in the Caspian region. Aquatic birds, including ducks, seagulls, and geese live on the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, while buzzards nest in the desert. Hedgehogs, deer, foxes and 22 species of rodents live in semi-desert, high-elevation regions. Asiatic black bears, tigers, and palm squirrels are found in Baluchistan. Tigers also inhabited the forests of the Caspian region in the past but are now assumed to be extinct.
The Khar Touran National Park is the second-largest protected area in Iran which include rare animal and plant species, Moreover, it is known as the second biosphere after Serengeti in the world. The biosphere reserve of Khar Touran National Park with an area about 1470,640 hectares became the largest one in Iran. The total area of this region separated into three major part as follows: Eight percent belongs to the national park, 17 percent belongs to the wildlife, and 75 percent belongs to the protected area. Khar Touran National Park is known as the Africa of Iran.
Khar Touran National Park, located southeast of the Iranian city of Shahrud, is considered to be the Africa of Iran, From its low fields to its mountains, there are habitats of diverse and rare wildlife including mammals such as deer and Pallas cats, birds such as Houbara, Pleske’s ground jay, and White-eyed buzzard, and reptiles such as Desert Monitors, Ja’afari snakes and Iranian horned snakes. Still, Khar Turan’s wildlife is not important just because of the aforementioned rare species, but, for its Asiatic cheetah and Iranian zebra.
Khar Turan National Park contains 41 species of mammal, 167 species of bird, 42 species of reptile, and two species of amphibians. Asiatic cheetah and Persian onager are the prominent fauna of Khar Turan National Park. Khar Turan National Park probably contains a large number of Asiatic cheetah among different region in Iran. Moreover, goitered gazelle, chinkara, Persian leopard, caracal, urial, wild goat, sand cat, wildcat, Pallas’s cat, striped hyena, wolf, golden jackal, red fox, and Blanford’s fox are the prominent mammals of Khar Turan National Park.
Asiatic cheetah or Iranian cheetah, is a critically endangered cheetah subspecies surviving today only in Iran. It used to occur in India as well, where it is locally extinct. The Asiatic cheetah lives mainly in Iran’s vast central desert in fragmented pieces of remaining suitable habitat. Although once common, the cheetah was driven to extinction in other parts of Southwest Asia from Arabia to India including Afghanistan. As of 2013, only 20 cheetahs were identified in Iran but some areas remained to be surveyed.
Bustard, partridge, See-see partridge, quail, Eurasian stone-curlew, Rock dove, Laughing dove, White wagtail, Indian roller, sandgrouse, European greenfinch, Trumpeter Finch, crested lark, Isabelline shrike, sparrow, Ferruginous duck, and heron are the prominent birds of Khar Turan National Park. Also, this region contains different birds of prey such as Barbary falcon, kestrel, golden eagle, Tawny eagle, Eurasian eagle-owl, Scops owl, Egyptian vulture, Eurasian sparrowhawk, and Common buzzard. Khar Turan National Park is one of the best habitats of Pleske’s ground jay which is the only exclusive native bird of Iran. This native bird lives beside Zygophyllum shrubs.
One of the important and valuable habitats of water birds and drought in our country is considered. This international Lagoon or Wetland, known as bird sanctuary paradise in our country, is especially popular among nature lovers and bird watchers. This Lagoon or Wetland is part of the Miankaleh Nair Wildlife Refuge and is one of the most respected habitats for bird and drought. Among the many types of bird species found in this area, a wide range of migratory aquatic birds can be found, such as flamingos, peaches, ducks, swans, geese, and some species of bird birds such as Lagoon or Wetlands and turtles White and dry birds such as Caspian Pheasants, Dragons and Beeswax. In the waters of this Lagoon or Wetland, there are also several species of fish, such as carp, mullet, white, swarf and sturgeon, regenerated and cultivated.
Miankaleh Wildlife Refuge maintains numerous plant and animal species especially migrating birds that enter Iran from northern latitudes. The existence of rare animal and plant life must be counted as one of the most distinctive features of this setting especially within the southern Caspian coast. Since about two-thirds (288 species) of bird fauna pass through this natural resort, Miankaleh could be identified as the main center of bird watching in Iran. Except for spring and summer in which there is a relativistic decrease in birds population and species, in most times of the year, especially in autumn which is the main migration period, birds such as ducks, pelicans, flamingos, eggerts, cormorants, swans, teals, white-tailed sea eagles, francolins, Caspian pheasants and several more other aquatic and semi-aquatic birds are seen within this area. Large attendance of birds also brings to mind their nutrition resources, i.e. the numerousness of aquatic species especially fish, which is a strong attraction for those who like fishing. Entrance of tourists into Miankaleh Wildlife Refuge has to be conformed to the local environment protection organization, which could be done by your travel coordinator in Iran.
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