North Cyprus Flora and Fauna

North Cyprus Flora and Fauna, information about North Cyprus beauties...

The flora of the Cyprus island is typical of the Mediterranean region. Meikle (1977-85) has produced an authoritative account in two volumes. The chief point to bear in mind is what Christodoulou describes as 'a dramatic effort on behalf of every plant to find water and conserve it'. However in the spring, after the winter rains, there is a burgeoning of wild flowers, so that the flora of the mountains rivals that to be found in the European Alpine regions. Throughout civilised times, and probably previously, special crops have been introduced. There is mention of them in medieval and in earlier writings and several will be referred to in the following chapters. Many thousands of years ago, during the Upper Pleoistocene period, a pigmy hippopotamus and elephant existed on the island. When fossil remains of these extinct animals were found in the last century, peasants, and even local priests, came to the startling conclusion that they were the bones of early Christian martyrs. One suggestion as to how they got to the island is that the animals crossed over from the mainland at a time when the Mediterranean basin was a salt desert, approximately 5.5 million years ago; another is that they swam across from the Turkish mainland during a Middle Pleistocene glaciation when a low sea-level would have reduced the distance considerably. A recent test excavation on the Akrotiri peninsula, in the south of the island, has located a midden in which dwarf mammal bones seem to be mingled with human detritus and flint artefacts. This suggests that the mammals and humans might have co-existed and that the pigmy hippopotamus was hunted by man. Previously it was considered that the dwarf fauna became extinct in the Pleistocene, long before man came to the island. Up to the time of these discoveries, accepted wisdom has held that it was only in a comparatively late period that man arrived on this, in terms of human life, deserted island. No conclusive evidence had been found for either Palaeolithic or Mesolithic inhabitants; men of the Neolithic period arriving no earlier than around 8 to 9 thousand ye*ars ago, 7000 to 6000 BC. Bromage, working on a north-coast site, Tatlisu (Akanthou), urges caution until the finds are studied in greatest detail. If this new evidence were found to be conclusive, it could alter current theories about the beginnings of man's occupation of Cyprus and place his arrival considerably earlier. The mammals said to have been introduced by man when he colonised the island were the moufflon or wild sheep Ovis orientalise the goat Capra hircus the boar, Sus scrofa; the Persian fallow deer, Dama mesopotamica and the cat, Fells sp. Cattle were probably introduced in the Early Bronze Age. However, other new work on the animal bones of Cyprus suggests that some bones which were previously distinguished as Dama might actually relate to other species of deer, similarly dwarfed on the island, if they too had come across the salt desert with the elephant and the hippopotamus. If so, three other cervids could be represented; roe deer Capreolus capreolus, gazelle Gazella gazella and red deer Cervus elaphus. All this, much of it still tentative, is a good example of how archaeology is constantly subjected to revision in the light of new research. Dorothea Bate, a distinguished palaeontologist, visited Cyprus on behalf of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1901-2. In addition to discovering the bones of pigmy elephant and pigmy hippopotamus, this remarkable pioneer lady was the first to describe the Cyprus wren, and the Cyprus tree-creeper was named in her honour Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae. They are two of the relatively small group of birds who live on the island all the year round and breed there. The great majority, over three hundred species, are birds of passage, migrating across the island in the autumn and early winter from Asia and Europe to the warmth of North Africa, and back again in the spring. Bad weather which grounds them temporarily can offer great opportunities for birdwatchers. Native birds range widely in species as in habitat, from the griffon vulture to the warbler; birds of passage include many varied species, from the crane to the quail. Others are merely part-time residents, like the flamingo on the salt lakes of the south in the winter, or the nightingale in the summer woods.

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