Critically EndangeredAngelshark
Squatina squatina
Asia
Turkey is a biogeographical bridge between three continents and brings together territories as different as the Mediterranean coast, the steppe plateau of central Anatolia, the humid temperate forests of the Black Sea and the eastern mountains that rise above five thousand metres. That variety makes it one of the richest countries in plant species in the whole western Palaearctic, with thousands of endemics. The Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, together with the Mediterranean coast, funnel enormous flows of storks and raptors between Europe and Africa. Inland wetlands such as the Sultan marshes and the Kızılırmak delta support colonies of flamingos and pelicans, while Lake Van, saline and closed, has a fish of its own that runs up the streams to spawn. In the east the fauna turns Caucasian, with bears, wolves, lynx and bezoar goats.
National animal: The grey wolf is the traditional symbolic animal; the Anatolian shepherd and the Kangal are the national dogs
The northern bald ibis, a black bird with a bare head and curved bill that was once common in central Europe, died out on the continent centuries ago and today survives in only a handful of places in the world. One of them is Birecik, on the banks of the Euphrates, where the colony is kept under an unusual regime: the birds are taken into enclosures over winter to stop them setting out on a migration from which almost none returned, and released again in spring to breed.
Draining inland wetlands for irrigation has made entire lakes on the Anatolian plateau disappear. On the coast, the programmes protecting loggerhead turtle nests at Iztuzu and Dalyan are a Mediterranean benchmark.
The Bosphorus in September for passing storks and raptors. Iztuzu between June and August for turtles. Eastern Anatolia in summer for high-mountain wildlife and steppe birds.
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Same region: Middle East and Western Asia
Same region: Middle East and Western Asia
Same region: Middle East and Western Asia
Same region: Middle East and Western Asia
623 species found
Based on what we already know about Türkiye.
