THE PRESERVATION OF ENDEMIK ANIMALS IN

ARMENIA

198 high school

THE PRESERVATION OF ENDEMIKC ANIMALS IN ARMENIA

;• The students of 198 High

school ,who are in the 10th grade, realized a project called “The preservation of endemic animals in Armenia”. Before beginning the project our students visited the Zoo in Yerevan. Our school has partnership with the Zoo for several years.

EREVAN ZOO

The administration of the Zoo agreed to help us in realizing the work and answered all the questions of students concerning to endemic animals. Today endemic birds, mammals, reptiles registered in Red Book live in Yerevan Zoo The collaborator of the Zoo walked together with the group , represented the endemics of the park, told about the reasons of reduction of their number.

The administration of the Zoo agreed to help us in realizing the work

The biologists of our school decided to help to preserve the endemics in their way. They decided to realize ecological education of population.

For realizing it they made buklets in which the following was represented

• 1.which animals are considered endemic

• 2. What kind of Armenian endemics are registered in the Red Book

• 3. Which are the main reasons of reduction of their number.

• 4. What do we need to regulate their number?

Bearded Vulture

• The Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), also known as the Lammergeier or Lammergeyer, is a bird of prey, and the only member of the genus Gypaetus. Traditionally considered an Old World vulture, it actually forms a minor lineage of Accipitridae together with theEgyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), its closest living relative. It is not much more closely related to the Old World vultures proper than to, for example, hawks, and differs from the former by its feathered neck. Although dissimilar, the Egyptian and Bearded Vulture each have a lozenge-shaped tail – unusual among birds of prey.

This species is almost entirely associated with mountains and inselbergs with plentiful cliffs, crags, precipices, canyons and gorges. They are often found near alpine pastures and meadows, montane grassland and heath, steep-sided, rocky wadis, high steppe and are occasional around forests.

Bearded Vultur

They seem to prefer desolate, lightly-populated areas where predators who provide many bones, such aswolves and Golden Eagles, have healthy populations. In Ethiopia, they are now common at refuse tips on the outskirts of small villages and towns. Although they occasionally descend to 300–600 m (980–1,),

Bearded Vultures are rare below an elevation of 1,000 m (3,300 ft) and normally

reside above 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in some parts of their range.

• They are typically found around or above the tree linewhich are often near the tops of the mountains, at up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in Europe, 4,500 m (14,800 ft) in Africa and 5,000 m (16,000 ft) in central Asia

970 ft The Bearded Vulture is sparsely distributed across a considerable range. It may be found in mountainous regions from Europe through much of Asia and Africa. In Eurasia, its found in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus region, the Zagros Mountains, the Alborzs, theAltai Mountains, the Himalayas, western and central China, Israel and the Arabian Peninsula

Armenian sheep

The Iranian r

• The Iranian red sheep lives mostly in open rough terrain at medium or high altitudes, where they inhabit rocky hill country, lowland and highland steppes, and rocky semi-deserts, as well as grass covered slopes and alpine meadows.

• They live in small or larger herds, and in the summer the older males live singly or in separate groups. They may live up to 18 years.

These alpine sheep spend summer at the highest elevations, up to six thousand meters, right below the permanent snow. In winter they move lower and may come into the valleys.

Macrovipera lebetina

• This is a large snake, with females reaching 150 cm (59.1 in) in total length (body + tail) and males a little less. Sizes vary among different populations, with M. l. lebetina being somewhat smaller

The head is broad, triangular, and distinct from the neck. The snout is rounded and blunt when viewed from above, which is why it is also called the blunt-

nosed viper. The nasal and nasorostral scales are almost completely fused into a single plate, although some variation occurs

When two rows are present, the spots may alternate or oppose, which can produce anything from a saddled to a continuous

zigzag pattern. The spots are usually brown, dark gray, or black, but are sometimes red,

brick, yellow, or olive in color.Males are usually 3 and a half feet (1.1 m) in total length, while females may attain a total

length of 5 fe

The color pattern is less varied than one might expect from a species that is so widely distributed. The head is normally uniformly colored, although it can occasionally be marked with a dark V-shape. 

Dorsally, the ground color of the body can be gray, brown, beige, pinkish, olive, or khaki. The pattern, if present, is darker. It can be gray, bluish, rust, or brown in color, and may consist of a middorsal row or double row of large spots.

• The dorsal scales are strongly keeled, except for those bordering the ventrals. M. l. lebetina usually has 146-163 ventral scales. The anal scale is single.

The young biologists realized an action oriented to preservation of the endemics :

They gave the buklets to people in the parks, in the streets and everywhere. Seminars were organized within the

framework of broad masses of the population ,during which it was said that the animals were in the Red Book due to

people and people had to solve that problem.