| Plants | 6,000 | 2,500 | 41.7 | | Mammals | 142 | 10 | 7.0 | | Birds | 362 | 0 | 0.0 | | Reptiles | 116 | 12 | 10.3 | | Amphibians | 18 | 2 | 11.1 | | Freshwater Fishes | 90 | 30 | 33.3 |
unique and threatened biodiversityThe Irano-Anatolian Hotspot is home to at least 6,000 plant species, about 2,500 of which are endemic. This includes several smaller areas of endemism, including the Kopet Dagh, which has 332 endemic species, and the Zagros Mountains, which have at least 500 endemics. The remarkable Anatolian Diagonal is a floristic line crossing Inner Anatolia. The line starts in the southern foothills of the Eastern Black Sea Mountains in Turkey, crosses through Turkey, and then splits into two branches toward the Mediterranean, one through the Amanus Mountains and the other via the Bolkar Mountains. Nearly 400 plant species have distributions largely confined to this line, and many of Turkey’s 1,200 endemic species occur only to the immediate east or west of it.Some of the most interesting plant species in the hotspot are the extremely localized salt plants of Anatolia and Iran. These plants grow in the remaining salt steppes of the Irano-Anatolian closed basins and have adapted to extreme conditions of dry, saline soils with high temperatures and little water. Only these physiologically specialized species, characterized by the halophytes of the families Chenopodiaceae and Plumbaginaceae, can survive in saline soils. Hundreds of single-locality endemic plants occur in Turkey, most of them threatened, including many orchids, which are illegally collected in large quantities for the production of a popular traditional drink called sahlep. Because of the rapid decline of orchid species in Turkey, orchid collection has expanded to Iran.
There are more than 360 species of birds regularly occurring in Irano-Anatolian, although none are endemic. Nevertheless, several globally threatened birds have important breeding populations in the hotspot, including the white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala, EN), great bustard (Otis tarda, VU), marbled duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris, VU), and imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca, VU). A quarter of the world population of the sociable plover (Vanellus gregarious, CR) stops over in the plateaus of Eastern Anatolia in autumn. Furthermore, a large proportion of the world population of crimson-winged finch (Rhodopechys sanguinea), Finsch’s wheatear (Oenanthe finschii), rufous-tailed wheatear (O. xanthoprymna), Upcher’s warbler (Hippolais languida), white-throated robin (Irania gutturalis), and eastern rock-nuthatch (Sitta tephronata) occur in the hotspot.The wetlands of the Tuz, Van and Urumiyeh basins in Turkey and Iran support important breeding colonies of waterfowl, notably the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus rubber), great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), and glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus). These wetlands are also important for shorebirds migrating along the African-Eurasian Flyway, and in mild winters may hold over 100,000 wintering geese and ducks.While up to 40,000 pairs of greater flamingos have been known to breed in Iran and Turkey, mainly in Tuz Lake in Turkey and Lake Urumiyeh in Iran, there has been no breeding in Lake Urumiyeh since 2000 because of drought. These lakes are the only major breeding site for this species between Camargue in France and the Rann of Kutch in India.
More than 140 mammals are found in the hotspot, including roughly 10 endemics. Most of these endemics are rodents, including Dahl’s jird (Meriones dahli, EN) and the recently described Microtus quzvinensis, a vole from northern Iran.The Irano-Anatolian Region was once inhabited by several subspecies of Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus, VU). Today, only a few hundred individuals of the Persian wild ass subpsecies (E. h. onager) persist in Bahram-e-Goor in the Iranian portion of the hotspot, while another subspecies of wild ass, known as the kulan or Turkmenian wild ass (E. h. kulan, CR), survives only in a single population in and around the Badkhyz Nature Reserve in south Turkmenistan, just marginally outside the hotspot.Among the most important flagship species in this hotspot is the Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus, CR). Only about 60 Asiatic cheetahs survive, all of them to the south of the Kopet Dagh in Iran’s Great Salt Desert, the Dasht-e-Kavir. Another feline, the Caspian subspecies of the tiger (Panthera tigris virgata, EX) was recently reported from the northern Zagros Mountains in Turkey. However, this report requires further investigation, as the last confirmed individual of this subspecies was shot in 1970.
Reptiles are represented by more than 115 species in the hotspot, including about a dozen endemics. This includes four endemic and threatened vipers with very restricted ranges: Darevsky’s viper (Vipera darevskii, CR) from the Djavakhk Mountains in northern Armenia; mountain viper (Vipera albizona, EN), found in only 20 km² of rocky slope in the Kulmaç Daği of central Anatolia; Wagner’s viper (Vipera wagneri, EN), from near Lake Urumiyeh in Iran and in Eastern Turkey; and Latifi’s viper (Vipera latifi, VU), from the Elburz Mountains.
Roughly 20 amphibian species occur in the hotspot, including two endemic and threatened salamanders in the genus Neurergus: N. microspilotus (VU), restricted to the Avroman Mountains on the Iraq-Iran-Turkey border; and N. kaiseri (EN), found only in Iran. Both species have undergone declines in recent years as a result of habitat destruction, pollution and drought.
About a third of the roughly 90 freshwater fish species in the hotspot are endemic, mainly in closed-basin lakes (such as the Konya Closed Basin, Tuz Lake Basin, Van Lake Basin, and Urumiyeh Lake) and rivers. Several of these species are globally threatened, including Salmo platycephalus (CR). One endemic fish species, Chalcalburnus tarichi, has been used effectively as a flagship species by local conservation NGOs in the Van Province to trigger interest in conservation of the Van Lake Basin in Eastern Turkey. The rapid decline in the population of the species, which also has local commercial value, has directed the attention of local and national stakeholders towards the wider environmental problems of Van Lake. A number of conservation projects were initiated since then in the area to protect the basin.Although the invertebrate fauna of Irano-Anatolian is not well studied, it is known to be particularly rich in butterfly species, with at least 350 species. At least 240 of these are found in Turkey, nearly 20 of them endemic. Several globally threatened species occur in this hotspot, including the single-site endemic Polyommatus dama (EN). The hotspot is also known to be the richest part of the Palearctic region for scorpions, with more than 40 described species, at least half of which are thought to be endemic.
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© Gertrud and Helmut Denzau
A steppe tortoise (Testudo horsfieldii, VU) in Badkhyz Nature Reserve, Turkmenistan. The males are overexploited for the pet market, making it difficult for females of the species.
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