Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Endangered Species
Anatolia's lions, beavers and Caspian tigers are extinct, and its lynx, striped hyena and
Anatolian leopard have all but disappeared. The beautiful, pure-white Van cat, often with
one blue and one amber eye, has also become endangered in its native Turkey.
Rare loggerhead turtles still nest on Mediterranean beaches, and a few rare Mediter-
ranean monk seals live around Foça (north Aegean). Turkey has been criticised by Green-
peace for not following international fishing quotas relating to Mediterranean bluefin
tuna, which is facing extinction.
Dolphins survive in İstanbul's Bosphorus, and the Anatolian wild sheep, unique to the
Konya region, is making a comeback.
Plants
As one of the world's most biodiverse temperate-zone countries, Turkey produces an in-
credible range of fruit and vegetables and has an exceptionally rich flora: over 9000 spe-
cies, 1200 of them endemic, with a new species reportedly discovered every week (on av-
erage).
Common trees and plants are pine, cypress, myrtle, laurel, rosemary, lavender, thyme
and, on the coast, purple bougainvillea.
Southwest Turkey has some of the last remaining populations of
Phoenix theophrastii
(Datça palm) and
Liquidambar orientalis
(frankincense trees).
Parks & Reserves
Turkey has 13 Ramsar sites (wetlands of international importance), 33
milli parkıs
(na-
tional parks), 16 nature parks and 35 nature reserves. Its 58 'nature monuments' are
mostly protected trees, including 1500- to 2000-year-old cedars in Finike, southwest of
Antalya.
Sometimes regulations are carefully enforced in parks and reserves, but in other cases
problems such as litter-dropping picnickers persist. Tourism is not well developed in the
national parks, which rarely have clearly marked footpaths, camping spots or other facilit-
ies.
Beach cleanliness, however, is prominent, with 352 beaches and 19 marinas qualifying
for Blue Flag status. Visit
www.blueflag.org
for the complete list.
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