My Science School

Spanning an area of more than 23 sq.km., the Fifa Nature Reserve is located in the southwestern part of Jordan. The wetland lies in the Jordan Rift Valley and is fed by several water sources from natural springs to seasonal floods. The lowest point in the Reserve stands at 420 mt below sea level, making it the "world's lowest wetland of international importance", according to the Ramsar Convention. Established in 2011, the Reserve's location in the Rift Valley makes it a significant spot supporting many species of wintering and breeding birds that migrate between Europe and Africa. It is important as one of the few remaining natural breeding habitats of Dead Sea sparrow" and is known to host the largest population of the Nubian nightjar. It also hosts the endangered killifish, houbara bustard, and the spiny tailed lizard. The Reserve is marked by saline vegetation, one of the several vegetation types of the country. The region is said to be home to a total of 4% of the country's plant species and 8% of animal species, including some that are endangered. Though the wetland is said to display semi-desert systems and high temperatures, the diverse flora and fauna seem to have adapted well to these seemingly difficult conditions.

Wildlife

The birds that can be seen in the Reserve are egrets, herons, bitterns, teals, mallards, garganeys, storks, pratincoles, snipes, redshanks, moorhens, stilts, plovers, lapwings, stints, sandpipers, ibises, grebes, falcons, finches, harriers. owls, shrikes, eagles, larks, doves, kestrels, warblers, sparrows, vultures, gulls, bulbuls, partridges, buzzards, gadwalls, terns, red knots, prinias, wheatears, rollers, bee-eaters, coursers, kingfishers, sunbirds, thrushes, nightjars, and bustards. Among the animals that one can spot in the area are lynx hyenas, deer, etc.

Lynx facts

• Found in the forests of North America, Europe, and Asia, the lynx belongs to the cat family.
• These carnivores can grow up to 40 inches long, but the sizes of the species vary depending on their geography. For instance, the Canadian lynx is smaller than its European cousins.
• These mammals have thick fur, and their paws are furry too, both of which help them survive harsh winters. Their sharp sense of hearing and vision help them spot their prey even a few hundred feet away!
• Though the lynx hunts small animals, deer, birds, squirrels, and mice, it feeds primarily on snowshoe hare. The change in the hare population, especially the decline, is believed to be affecting the cat population.
• These cats are said be hunted by humans sometimes for their fur. One of the species, the Iberian lynx is said to be the most endangered cat.

Houbara bustard facts

• Bustards are large, terrestrial birds, including some of the largest flying birds. They are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• The IUCN recognises two types of the houbara bustard - one in North Africa (Chlamydotis undulata) and the other in Asia (Chlamydotis macqueenii). At least 20,000 birds in each species exist today.
• Asian houbara bustards are found from northeast Asia and central Asia to the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula.
• The birds are faced with several threats - from habitat destruction to poaching and hunting.

Picture Credit : Google

Situated in the south-western part of the Asian country Sri Lanka, the Sinharaja Forest Reserve covers an area of more than 88 sq.km. The region is considered the country's "last viable area of primary tropical rainforest". Marked by undulating terrain, the area is interspersed with valleys, ridges, and streams. A fertile region with more than 220 species of trees and woody climbers, it has at least 16 species of trees that are rare. More than 30 mammal species, 140 bird species, 20 amphibian species, and 70 reptiles species can be found in the Reserve. It is most noted for its endemism (see box) in mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. Endemism is said to be particularly high in butterfly species. Among the threatened, endangered, and rare species in the Reserve are the Sri Lanka wood pigeon, the greenbilled coucal, the Sri Lanka white-headed starling, the Sri Lanka blue magpie, and the Sri Lanka broad-billed roller. The Reserve, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988, is a large area surrounded by forests that form a natural protective boundary. However, it is not without its threats such as encroachments and development activity.

Wildlife

Spurfowl, junglefowl, pigeons, doves, frogmouths, swifts, coucals, koels, malkohas, waterhen, egrets, owls, buzzards, eagles, kites, trogons, hornbills, bee-eaters, kingfishers, barbets, woodpeckers, parrots, parakeets, pittas, orioles, minivets, swallows drongos, shrikes, magpies, crows, tailorbirds, bulbuls, warblers, babblers, nuthatches, thrushes, mynas, flycatchers, flowerpeckers, sunbirds, and munias are among the birds that can be seen in the region. Among the animals and reptiles found here are leopards, langurs, macaques, jackals, wild cats, boars, sambar, barking deer, mouse deer, otters, pangolins, pythons, forest lizards, and frogs.

What is endemism?

• If any species is spread across only one specific region, it is said to be endemic to the region.
• It could be a small or large area. For instance, a country or even a continent. But the species is not found outside of this region in the wild.
• Usually, plants and animals become endemic to a region in two ways. One way is by evolving in and adapting to a specific environment and continuing to live only there. Sometimes this happens in remote locations. For instance, finches in the far off Galapagos Islands. Another way is when a species loses most of its original range over the years and remains confined to a small region.
• Some of the species endemic to India are the Asiatic lion, sangai deer, Nilgiri tahr, and Malabar civet.

Purple-faced langur facts

• One of the endemic mammals found in Sinharaja Forest Reserve is the purple faced langur. It is also an endangered species, mainly because of habitat loss due to deforestation.
• It has a few sub-species, including the western purple-faced langur. The face of this long-tailed arboreal monkey is actually greyish-black, as opposed to purple as its name suggests.
• It is a folivore, meaning it feeds on leaves. It is said to prefer young leaves for their high protein content. The langur is also known to eat fruit, flowers and seeds.
• Though the langurs habitat changes with the sub-species, it often seems to inhabit areas near permanent water sources.
• It requires a nice canopy cover, but there are very few such forests in the country now, and none of them inside protected areas.

Picture Credit : Google