Plants and Animals of Kyrgyzstan
Flora
Diversity of flora in Kyrgyzstan is determined by the altitudinal zoning. Slopes, varying by humidity, create different kinds of vegetation. On northern slopes steppes, meadow-steppes, meadows, bushes and forests are wide spread. On southern slopes, because of dry climate there are no zones of forests and alpine meadows; semi-deserts and deserts prevail here.
Flora of Kyrgyzstan numbers more than 3676 plants of lower species and 3786 plants of higher species. 600 types of useful wild growing flora are found in the territory of the Republic, among them 200 types of officinal plants are found: vasilistnik, Karakol akonit, big elecampane, Turkestan motherwort, Turkestan termopsis, St John’s wort, coltsfoot, origanum, sea buckthorn, horse-tail ephedra, Veratrum lobelianum Bernh. etc. Wild plants having an economic importance include tinning joinweed, saltwort, barberries, rhubarb, Leafless Echinochloa, ferulage types, Fergana spurge, golden drop, types of thyme etc. A unique natural formation in the south of Kyrgyzstan is the walnut forests. Walnut, Siverse apple tree, Sogdy alycha, standard pear, Korjinsky pear, Tian-Shan cherry, barberries, almonds, pistachio, Djungar and Turkestan hawthorn and many others are growing here and represent a valuable genetic material.
The most known plants of Kyrgyz Republic are:
Tulips of Greig (Tulipa greigii Regel)
Tulips of Kaufmann (Tulipa kaufmanniana Regel)
Tulips of Kolpakowsky (Tulipa kolpakowskiana Regel)
Edelweiss (Leontopodium ochroleucum Beauverd)
Tien-Shan Fir (Fir of Shrenk) (P. schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey)
Fir of Semyonov (Abies semenovii)
Archa (Juniper) (I. turkestanica Kom.)
Fauna
101 types of protozoa, 10242 insects and other arthropods represent fauna of Kyrgyzstan. There are more than 1.5 thousand other invertebrates, 75 fish species, 4 amphibious, 33 reptiles, 368 birds and 83 mammals.
At an altitude of 3400-3800m grey marmots, silvery and narrow-skull field vole are particularly distinguished. The Brown bear can be found in the alpine meadows in the summer time. A lot of wild rams, marmots, hares, and mountain goats are concentrated in the Alpine meadows as well. Wolfs can be found here also. At the altitude of 3800-4000m there are no mammals as permanent inhabitants but sometimes the grey marmot or narrow skull and silvery field voles can be found. Higher than the snow line, at the rock juts (up to the height of 4,4 km.) some types of birds make nests: red belly redstart and alpine mountain finch. There are a lot of other birds: mountain goose, rock pigeon, partridge, Alpine jackdaw, and big desert bullfinch. Mountain goats can be found at the height of approximately 4500-m, along with beasts of prey – snow leopard.
The rarest species of animals such as wild ram, aurochs, wild mountain goat, roe, red deer, bear, deer, lynx, and snow leopard are included into the Red Book.
National Parks of Kyrgyzstan
To help preserve the priceless, pristine, virgin, natural resources that it possesses, Kyrgyzstan has a total of 83 specially protected natural territories, with a total area of 761300 hectares, which is almost 4% of Kyrgyzstan’s total land area. Perhaps, the most famous of these specially protected regions is Ala Archa – just outside Bishkek. One of the main tasks of the National Parks is to organize tourism that is not harmful to the nature.
