Wildlife of Iran

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Long-legged Buzzard of Iran.

Wildlife of Iran includes it's flora and fauna and their natural habitats. One of the most famous members of wildlife in Iran are the world's last surviving, critically endangered Asiatic Cheetah also known as the Iranian Cheetah, which are today found nowhere else but in Iran. Iran had lost all its Asiatic Lion and the now extinct Caspian Tigers by the earlier part of the twentieth century.

Bears in the mountains, wild sheep and goats, gazelles, wild asses, wild pigs, panthers, and foxes abound. Domestic animals include sheep, goats, cattle, horses, water buffalo, donkeys, and camels. The pheasant, partridge, stork, and falcon are native to Iran.

The Persian leopard is said to be the largest of all the subspecies of leopards in the world. The main range of this species in Iran closely overlaps with that of Bezoar Ibex. Hence, it is found throughout Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges, as well as smaller ranges within the Iranian plateau. Leopard population is very sparse, due to loss of habitat, loss of natural prey, and population fragmentation. Apart from Bezoar Ibex, wild sheep, boar, deer (either Maral red deer or roe deer), and domestic animals constitute leopards' diet in Iran.

Iran is the only country where the last Asiatic Cheetah are found today.

More than one-tenth of the country is forested. The most extensive growths are found on the mountain slopes rising from the Caspian Sea, with stands of oak, ash, elm, cypress, and other valuable trees. On the plateau proper, areas of scrub oak appear on the best-watered mountain slopes, and villagers cultivate orchards and grow the plane tree, poplar, willow, walnut, beech, maple, and mulberry. Wild plants and shrubs spring from the barren land in the spring and afford pasturage, but the summer sun burns them away. According to FAO reports [1], the major types of forests that exist in Iran and their respective areas are:

Caspian forests of the northern districts (3.3 million ha)
Limestone mountainous forests in the northeastern districts (Juniperus forests, 1.3 million ha)
Pistachio forests in the eastern, southern and southeastern districts (2.6 million ha)
Oak forests in the central and western districts (10 million ha)
Shrubs of the Kavir (desert) districts in the central and northeastern part of the country (1 million ha)
Sub-tropical forests of the southern coast (500,000 ha)