Kenneth J. Almonte

The wildlife of Turkey’s Black Sea Region belongs to a connected sequence of marine waters, coastal lagoons, river deltas, humid forests, deep valleys and high mountains. Brown bears, Eurasian lynx, roe deer and forest bats occur inland; large wetlands support breeding, migrating and wintering birds; separate river basins contain distinct fish communities; and the southern

The Mediterranean coast of Turkey supports marine mammals, nesting sea turtles, lagoon fish, migratory waterbirds, wetland carnivores, maquis reptiles and mountain mammals within a narrow land-to-sea transition. Its fauna changes sharply between rocky bays, sandy nesting beaches, river deltas, salt marshes, coastal forests and the lower slopes of the Taurus and Amanos mountains. The biological

Eastern Anatolia supports mountain carnivores and ungulates, open-country mammals and birds, migratory waterbirds, rock-dwelling reptiles, stream-dependent amphibians and the Lake Van basin’s endemic pearl mullet. This fauna is shaped by the close contact between alpine ridges, rocky valleys, forest patches, high steppes, reservoirs, marshes and headwater streams. No checked source provides one complete official wildlife

Turkey supports many animal species whose accepted natural ranges lie wholly within its borders. Most belong to freshwater-fish, rodent, shrew, mole, salamander, frog, lizard and snake lineages. There is no single enduring total for all endemic animals, because published counts change with taxonomic revisions, checklist dates, geographic rules and the treatment of subspecies. A Turkey

The fauna of Turkey reflects the meeting of European, Mediterranean, Caucasian, Middle Eastern and Central Asian biological communities. Forested mountains, interior steppe, high plateaus, river basins, saline lakes, coastal lagoons and four contrasting seas support more than 1,700 vertebrate species in one published national synthesis, together with a much larger and less completely inventoried invertebrate