Natural History Wanderings

Having visited Turkey eighteen months ago I found the recent New York Times article on Turkey’s large biodiversity and lack of protections very interesting. The article reported on a paper published in the journal Biological Conservation that warned of the threats of development to the rich wildlife and plant flora of Turkey. Turkey has over 9000 species of  vascular plant, 3000 of which are endemic. The number of reptiles and amphibians are about the same as Europe.  Turkey’s flora and fauna are still being explored and documented.  New plant species are discovered  weekly and new species of mammals have been identified. As development continues at a rapid pace and protections are sometimes pushed aside the risk to Turkey’s natural world is great.

Read more in the article in the New York Times Biodiversity in Turkey, at Risk Yet Largely Ignored