Iran - Andrew Burke [63]
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Ancient Greek playwright Aechylus was killed when a tortoise landed on his bald head. This story was thought to be a myth until a bearded vulture was seen dropping a tortoise onto rocks to crack it open. It now seems a bearded vulture confused poor Aechylus’ head for a stone.
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Endangered Species
According to a 2007 World Bank report, 21 mammals, 18 birds and one major plant species are highly endangered in Iran. Habitat loss is the main threat but the one million hunting licenses (each with free bullets from the state) issued each year do not help. As well as the high-profile Asiatic cheetah, the Persian fallow deer remains vulnerable but is nonetheless a rare Iranian conservation success story. Once common in light woodlands across the Middle East, hunting decimated the population so badly that by the 1950s the Persian fallow dear was thought to be extinct. However a small population was discovered in Khuzestan Province, and intensive breeding efforts saw numbers rise throughout the ’60s and ’70s. Today populations exist in Khuzestan, Mazandaran, the Arjan Protected Area and on an island in Lake Orumiyeh. In the mountains of northwestern Iran, the lammergeier (bearded vulture) has been shot and poisoned to the brink of extinction due to a misconception among farmers that they attack sheep. In fact, this fascinating bird usually eats only what other vultures have left behind, and often breaks bones by dropping them onto rocks from a great height. They apply the same method to the unfortunate Greek spur-thighed tortoises in the area. The Siberian white crane is another high-profile but endangered bird in Iran.
Plants
Despite its extensive deserts and unrestrained urban development, Iran harbours more than 8200 species of plants, about 2000 of them endemic. The northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains are densely covered to about 2500m with broad-leaved deciduous forest, which forms the largest area of vegetation in the country. Here you will find species similar to those in many European forests (oak, ash, pine, poplar, willow, walnut, maple and elm) and the less common Caucasian wing nut. The loveliest pockets of forest are around Masuleh, in the Golestan National Park east of Minudasht, and, more accessibly, at Nahar Khoran, just south of Gorgan.
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WEBSITES FOR BIRDERS
Birding Pal (www.birdingpal.org/Iran) A list of professional and enthusiast birding guides in Iran.
Birdquest (www.birdquest.co.uk)
Oriental Bird Images (www.orientalbirdimages.org)
Ornithological Society of the Middle East (www.osme.org)
Wetlands (www.wetlands.org/RSOB/default.htm) List of 22 protected Iranian wetlands.
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There are smaller, less dense forests of oak and juniper on the higher slopes of the central and northwest Zagros Mountains. By contrast, southern and eastern Iran are almost – but not entirely – bare. Particularly during spring, vibrant dashes of green, such as the 20km long ‘walnut jungle’ at Bavanat, can be found hidden in valleys between barren brown hills. Palm trees grow on the southern coastal lowland, especially near the Strait of Hormuz, and nomadic herders travel up and down between the warmer coast and cooler mountains in search of seasonal pastures.
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More than a thousand wetland sites around the world are protected under the framework of an agreement signed in 1971 in Ramsar, on the Caspian Sea coast. Known as the Ramsar Convention, birds and their wetland habitats are the greatest beneficiaries.
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But it is the luxuriant oases dotted around the bone-dry barrenness of Iran’s deserts that are most amazing. Here, where temperatures regularly top