Pakistan

Asia

304

Documented species

Parks and reserves

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Pakistan brings together three of the greatest mountain ranges on the planet in one country, the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush, along with some of the most arid deserts in Asia and the fertile corridor of the Indus, which runs the whole length of it. In the north, the Deosai plateau, above four thousand metres, is an alpine grassland that fills with flowers in summer and holds a recovered population of Himalayan brown bear, alongside glaciers that form the greatest concentration of ice outside the polar regions. In the south, the Indus delta sustains the largest arid-climate mangrove in the world, and the Thar desert and the Balochistan plains add fauna adapted to extreme dryness. The rivers and canals of the Punjab keep a very singular freshwater cetacean.

The nature of Pakistan

National animal: The markhor, the national animal; the chukar partridge is the national bird

Did you know?

The Indus river dolphin is effectively blind: its eyes have been reduced to tiny openings without a lens, because in sediment-laden water sight is of no use at all. It navigates and hunts purely by echolocation and swims on its side, brushing the bottom with one flipper. Its population fell to little more than a hundred animals in the 1970s and today stands at around two thousand thanks to protection of the river stretches it has left.

Biodiversity profile

Sur de AsiaAprox. 11,4% del territorio bajo areas protegidas oficialmente establecidas

Climate

•Arido y semiarido (BWh/BSh) en la mayor parte del territorio
•Alpino y de alta montaña en el norte (Karakorum, Hindu Kush, Himalaya occidental)
•Subtropical humedo en zonas puntuales del noreste

Main biomes

•Desierto y semidesierto (llanuras del Indo)
•Bosque de coniferas y estepa alpina en las cadenas montañosas del norte
•Manglares del delta del Indo (costa de Sindh)
•Alta montaña del Karakórum
•Pradera alpina de Deosai
•Manglar árido del delta del Indo
•Desierto del Thar
•Bosque ribereño del Indo
•Meseta árida de Baluchistán
•Glaciar de montaña

Marine and coastal ecosystems

•Manglares y estuarios del delta del rio Indo, en el Mar Arabigo

Flagship wildlife

•Leopardo de las nieves
•Marjor o markhor (cabra montes, animal nacional)
•Delfin ciego del Indo (bhulan)
•Faisan tragopan occidental
•Delfín del Indo
•Markhor
•Oso pardo del Himalaya
•Íbice siberiano
•Cocodrilo de las marismas
•Tortuga verde
•Urial
•Grulla damisela
•Buitre dorsiblanco bengalí

Notable endemic species

•Mas del 7% de las especies vegetales del mundo presentes en Pakistan segun estimaciones citadas por fuentes de conservacion, con numerosas especies animales endemicas de sus zonas montañosas
•Delfín del Indo
•Ardilla voladora de Cachemira

Notable threatened species

•Delfin ciego del Indo (En Peligro, uno de los 4 delfines de rio obligados del mundo)
•Faisan tragopan occidental (Vulnerable, solo el 2% de su habitat potencial esta dentro de areas protegidas con gestion adecuada)
•Leopardo de las nieves (Vulnerable, en la frontera con Afganistan y China)

Notable protected areas

•Parque Nacional Khunjerab (Karakorum, habitat de alta calidad para leopardo de las nieves)
•Machiara National Park (habitat del tragopan occidental)
•Parque Nacional de Deosai
•Parque Nacional Central Karakórum
•Parque Nacional de Chitral Gol
•Delta del Indo
•Parque Nacional de Kirthar
•Lago Manchar

Main conservation threats

•Deforestacion
•Sobrepastoreo
•Erosion del suelo
•Salinizacion y encharcamiento de tierras agricolas
•Caza furtiva
•Manejo debil de areas protegidas (la mayoria evaluadas con gestion "debil" o "pobre" segun estudio cientifico sobre el tragopan)

Notable natural phenomena

•Conectividad ecologica transfronteriza del leopardo de las nieves entre Pakistan y Afganistan a traves del paisaje del Hindu Kush

Conservation

Community markhor conservation programmes, which reinvest in the villages the income from a minimal quota of regulated hunting, have multiplied its population and are cited as an international case study. The country's vultures suffered a ninety-five per cent collapse from the veterinary use of diclofenac.

Where and when to watch wildlife

Deosai between June and September for brown bear and alpine flowers. Chitral Gol in winter for markhor. The protected stretches of the Indus, in Sindh, for the dolphin.

Sources: SlideShare - Threats and Conservation of Biodiversity Pakistan | PMC - Effectiveness Protected Areas Western Tragopan Pakistan | biorxiv - Priority landscapes snow leopards Pakistan

Desert Mountain Grassland Freshwater Ocean