WILDLIFE AND FLORA

4

We have seven different

Regions in Turkey

Konya is in the Central

Anatolian region.

Provinces:

Ankara,Aksaray,Cankırı,Eskişehir,Karaman,Kayseri,Kirikkale,Kirsehir, K

ONYA,Nevsehir,Nigde,Sivas,Yozgat..

Sights:

Cappadocia,TuzLake,Catakhoyuk,Gordion,Hattusas,Alacahoyuk,Yazilika

ya,Phrygia and the Phrygians…

See also:Galatia, Ankara museums, Interactive Central Anatolia Map

Central Anatolian Region / The Anatolian Plateau

Although termed a plateau, this region is actually quite diverse.

Stretching inland from the Aegean, it occupies the area between the

two zones of folded mountains, extending east to the point where

the two mountain ranges converge. Central Anatolian region

occupies 19% of the total area of Turkey with its 151.000 square

kilometers of land, it's the second largest region

of Turkey after Eastern Anatolia.

The plateau-like, arid highlands of Anatolia are considered the

heartland of the country. Akin to the steppes of the Soviet Union, the

region varies in altitude from 600 to 1,200 meters west to

east, averaging 500 meters in elevation. The two largest basins on

the plateau are the Konya Ovasi and the basin occupied by Tuz

Gölü (Salt Lake). Both are characterized by inland drainage.

Wooded areas are confined to the northwest and northeast, and

cultivation is restricted to the areas surrounding the

neighboring rivers where the valleys are sufficiently wide. Irrigation

is practiced wherever water is available; the deeply entrenched river

courses make it difficult to raise water to the

surrounding agricultural land, however. For the most part, the region

is bare and monotonous and is used for grazing.

Rainfall is limited and in Ankara amounts to less than 25 centimeters

annually. Wheat and barley are the most important crops, but the

yields are irregular, and crops fail in years of drought. 1/3 of the total

wheat of Turkey comes from this region. Other important crops in the

region are potatoes, beans, chickpeas and lentils.

Stock raising also is important, but overgrazing has caused soil

erosion in the plateau, and during the frequent summer dust storms a

fine yellow powder blows across the plains. In bad years, stock losses

are severe, and locusts occasionally ravage the eastern area in April

and May. An area of extreme heat and virtually no rainfall in

summer, the Anatolian plateau Continental climate is cold in winter

and receives heavy, lasting snows. Villages may be isolated by

severe snow storms.

Carpet weaving is another important income for small

villagers, especially in Cappadocia and Konya.

Climate:summer is very hot

and arid

Central Anatolia’s uplands and plateau region is austere

compared to the mountainous or forested Turkish

regions or the more relaxed coastal plains. The land is

characterised by flat, fertile steppes and gentle rolling

hills, broken by occasional mountains such as the

snowcapped Mount Erciyes, an extinct volcano rising

3,917m (12,926ft) above sea level. The broad plains

make ideal agricultural land, and central Anatolia served

as a granary to both the Roman and Byzantine empires.

Its capture by the Turks in the 11th century deprived the

Byzantine Empire of its agricultural wealth and must

have contributed to its decline.

Blacksea Region

It is always green.

Black Sea region has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate

classification: Cfb); with high and evenly distributed rainfall

the year round. At the coast, summers are warm and

humid, and winters are cool and damp. The Black Sea

coast receives the greatest amount of precipitation and is

the only region of Turkey that receives high precipitation

throughout the year. The eastern part of that coast

averages 2,500 millimeters annually which is the highest

precipitation in the country. Snowfall is quite common

between the months of December and March, snowing for

a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows.

The water temperature in the whole Turkish Black Sea

coast is always cool and fluctuates between 8° and 20°C

throughout the year

Eastern Anatolia region

• Since most of the region is far from the sea, and has high

altitude, it has a harsh continental climate with long winters and

short summers. During the winter, it is very cold and

snowy, during summer the weather is cool in the highlands and

warm in the lowlands. The region has the lowest average

temperature of all Turkish regions, with -25°C. Although it can get

below -40°C. The summer average is about 20°C.

• The region's annual temperature difference is the highest in

Turkey.

• Some areas in the region have different microclimates. As an

example Iğdır (near Mount Ararat) has a milder climate.

• The region contains 11% percent of the total forested area

of Turkey. Oak and yellow pine trees form the majority of the

forests. It is rich in native plants and animals.

• The region has high potential for hydroelectric power.

Southeast Anatolia region

• Southeastern Anatolia Region

has an area of 75.358 km² and

is the second smallest region

of Turkey. Southeastern

Anatolia Region has

asemi-arid continental

climate with very hot and dry

summers and cold and often

snowy winters.

The Mediterranean

Region

• The Mediterranean Region has

a Mediterranean climate at the

coast, with hot, dry summers

and mild to cool, wet winters

and a semi-aridcontinental

climate in the interior with

hot, dry summers and

cold, snowy winters.

Aegean Region

• The climate of the Aegean

Region has a Mediterranean

climate at the coast, with

hot, dry summers and mild to

cool, wet winters and a semi-

arid continental climate in the

interior with hot, dry summers

and cold, snowy winters.

Marmara Region

• The Marmara region has a

hybrid mediterranean climate/humid

subtropical climate on the Aegean

Sea coast and the south Marmara Sea

coast, an oceanic climate on the Black

Sea coast and a humid continental

climate in the interior. Summers are

warm to hot, humid and moderately

dry whereas winters are cold and wet

and sometimes snowy.

WILDLIFE IN TURKEY

WILDLIFE IN TURKEY

WILDLIFE IN TURKEY

• Anatolia is one of the foremost world sources of plants

which have been cultivated for food, and the wild ancestors

of many plants which now provide staples for mankind still

grow here.

• Wild forms develop defense mechanisms against

predators, extremes of temperature, flooding, frost and

drought. Moreover, they are resistant to the diseases so

prevalent among cultivated plants. In addition, they

preserve the taste, fragrance, color, hardness and other

original characteristics which tend to be lost in the course of

cultivation. Today thanks to strides made in biotechnology it

is possible to transmit useful qualities of this kind to their

cultivars. Moreover, wild forms are a fundamental reference

source for the development of new cultivars. To put it

metaphorically, wild forms of cultivated species are like the

national archive of a country, or the core memory of a

computer.

Turkey's flora

• According to the principal international organizations active in

wildlife research and conservation-the International Union for the

Conservation of Nature (I-UCN), the International Plant Genetic

Resource Institute (IPGRI) and the World Wildlife Found, there are

four gene centers in the world for cultivated plants used in

agriculture. Two of these are in the American continent and two in

Asia. In America, Mexico is the gene centre for maize and

tomatoes, and Peru for potatoes and beans, while in Asia China is

the gene centre for rice and millet, and the region of southwest

Asia covering most of Turkey and parts of Iran, Iraq. Syria and

Azerbaijan for wheat and barley. The most important of these

strategic agricultural plants is undoubtedly wheat, of which over

thirty wild species still grow in Turkey. The transmission of a

disease-resistant gene from a wild wheat form in Turkey to the

American cultivar has meant a saving of 50 million dollars a year

for the US economy alone

• Turkey is also the home of many other cultivated

plants, such as

chickpeas, lentils, apricots, almonds, figs, hazeln

uts, cherries and sour cherries. Their origin is

recorded in the Latin names for some of these

species, such as Ficus caria, meaning "fig

of Caria". Caria was an archaic civilization

of Anatolia in the southernAegean region.

Similarly the cherry's scientific name Cerasus

comes from the ancient name of its place of

origin, today the province

of Giresun on Turkey's Black Sea coast.

• Off the large number of ornamental flowers

cultivated from Turkish wild forms, we can cite

the tulip, crocus, snowdrop, lily and fritillary

Turkey's flora

• As the flora, Turkey is divided into 3 main division and 5

subdivisions, these are;

• I) Euro-Siberian Flora Area

a) Kolsik Provence: includes central and western parts of

the Black Sea Region and some of Marmara Region.

b) Oksin Provence: includes eastern part of the Black Sea

Region.

• II) Mediterranean Flora Area

a) Western Anatolia: includes Thrace, southern part

of Marmara Region and Aegean Region.

b) Taurus Mountains

c) Amanos Mountains

• III) Irano-Tranian Flora Area

includes the rest of the country

Turkey's flora

Turkey's Fauna

• The diversity of fauna in Turkey is even greater than that of

wild plants. While the number of species throughout Europe

as a whole is around 60,000, in Turkeythey number over

80,000. If subspecies are also counted, then this number

rises to over a hundred thousand.

• As in the case of plants, Anatolia is the original homeland of

several species. For instance, the fallow deer now common

in Europe was introduced from Turkeyin the 17th century.

This species comes from the foothills of the Taurus

Mountains between Antalya and Adana. Another example is

the pheasant which comes from Samsun on Turkey's Black

Sea coast. The scientific name of this beautiful bird is

Phasianus colchicus, "Phasianus" being the ancient name

for the Kizilirmak river, and "colchicus" deriving from Colhia,

an ancient kingdom which stretched along the Black Sea

coast to the Caucasus.

• The domestic sheep is a descendant of the wild sheep, Ovis

musimon anatolica, which as the scientific name indicates

was a native of Anatolia. Few people are aware that

the Anatolia leopard is one of the largest of these graceful

cats, and that it was the species used in gladiator fights by

the Romans constructed as traps for these creatures can still

be seen scattered in the Taurus Mountains, and are known

locally as tiger-traps. Indeed, the tiger is another creature

whose original homeland was Anatolia, a little known fact

reflected in the name tiger itself , which comes from the Latin

name Felis Tigris, or Tigris cat after the Tigris river. The lions

which survive only in Hittite statues today were once another

member of the Anatolian fauna.

• Birds have taken advantage of Turkey's strategic position as a bridge

connecting Europe to Asia and Africa for thousands of years. Two of the

four main migration routes in the bio-geographic region known as the

year, in spring and autumn. In spring migratory birds fly northwards from

Africa to Asia and Europe, and in autumn they leave their breeding grounds

to fly south to Africa again. One of these migration routes leads south from

Hopa in northeast Turkey along the Çoruh river valley into Eastern

Anatolia, passing through Kahramanmaras and Antakya in Southeast

Turkey. Most of the birds which take this route through the Çoruh River

valley are birds of prey, and at around 250,000 they from the largest

migratory group of birds of prey in the world. However, the most spectacular

migration in the world is the flight of storks down

the Bosphorus in Istanbul in spring and autumn. Over a quarter million

storks fly in clouds over the city in the course of a few weeks. Some species

of birds of prey also migrate along the Bosphorus, a waterway which is not

only migratory route for birds but also for fish making their way between

the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea. It is this phenomenon which results in

unusually high catches, delighting fishermen and their customers alike.

• Despite the fact that Turkey is an ancient land, crossed, exploited and

sought over by a succession of peoples for millennia, there are still many

areas which have remained virtually untouched, enabling many rare species

of wildlife which have become endangered or extinct elsewhere to maintain

viable colonies here.Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean shores provide a

refuge for monk seals and loggerhead turtles, while is wetlands house

colonies of numerous endangered species, such as the Dalmatian

pelican, pygmy cormorant and the slender billed curlew, as well as

flamingoes, wild ducks and geese.

• Under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment a program is

underway to project the last surviving colonies of monk

seal along Turkey's Mediterraneanand Aegean coasts, and in addition an

international project is being conducted within the framework of the Bern

and Barcelona conventions. Apart from a small colony of monk seals on the

shores of the Western Sahara on the Atlantic Ocean, the only remaining

colonies of this species are the eastern Mediterranean, the species having

been wiped out in the western areas. The fact that the species has survived

along Turkey's shores is due to the preservation of the natural environment

in many areas and low pollution levels.

• Further evidence that environmental conservation

along Turkey's coast is succeeding is the

continued existence of pine forest and long un-

spoilt beaches despite extensive construction in

recent years. Seals are seen to a lesser extent in

the Marmara and Black Sea, but they are most

common around Foça, near Izmir, on the Aegean

coast, a town whose name derives from the

ancient Phoenician for seal. A

local SealCommittee has beer set up in the

town, followed by another at Yalikavak

near Bodrum further to the south.

• The total number of monk seals in the world is between 300-

400, fifty of which live in Turkish waters.

• Other endangered species include turtles which lay their eggs in

the long sandy beaches of the Mediterranean. Two species breed

in Turkey, where efforts to protect them have been extremely

successful. A tourism development project at Köycegiz has been

scrapped to preserve the breeding grounds of Caretta

Caretta, and the lake and marshes of Köycegiz declared an

Specially Protected Area. These measures were received with a

standing ovation by the Standing Committee of Bern Convention

of the Council of Europe in 1989, and cited as an example for

other countries to follow. Studies of the turtles along all Turkey's

shores have been launched, and seventeen sand beaches of

foremost importance as breeding grounds for turtles are kept

under constant observation by the Turtle Preservation Committee.

The Ministry of the Environment's Authority of Specially Protected

Areas is in charge of protecting the Belek area, and the Ministry of

Forestry is responsible for the Yumurtalik and Akyatan wetlands.