Golestan National Park (), commonly known as the Golestan Jungle (), is an
Iranian National Park in
Golestan Province, northeastern
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
.
Geography
The park is located in the eastern
Alborz (Elburs) Mountains range and the western edge of the
Kopet Dag range. It comprises 91,890 ha.
Wildlife
Golestan National Park harbours a variety of habitats, such as
deciduous forest
In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...
s, grasslands, shrublands and rocky areas.
The
wildlife of Iran is very rich and consists of
leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...
(''Panthera pardus''),
Indian wolf (''Canis lupus pallipes''),
brown bear
The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...
(''Ursus arctos''),
golden jackal
The golden jackal (''Canis aureus''), also called the common jackal, is a wolf-like canid that is native to Eurasia. The golden jackal's coat varies in color from a pale creamy yellow in summer to a dark tawny beige in winter. It is smaller a ...
(''Canis aureus''),
wild boar
The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...
(''Sus scrofa''),
Caspian red deer (''Cervus elaphus maral''),
roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''),
urial (''Ovis orientalis arkal''),
wild goat
The wild goat (''Capra aegagrus'') is a wild goat species, inhabiting forests, shrublands and rocky areas ranging from Turkey and the Caucasus in the west to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east. It has been listed as near threaten ...
(''Capra aegagrus''),
goitered gazelle (''Gazella subgutturosa''),
See also
*
Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests
The Hyrcanian forests (; ) are a zone of lush lowland and montane forests covering about near the shores of the Caspian Sea in Iran and Azerbaijan. The forest is named after the ancient region of Hyrcania. The World Wide Fund for Nature refers t ...
*
Wildlife of Iran
References
External links
{{authority control
National parks of Iran
Alborz (mountain range)
Biosphere reserves of Iran
Geography of Golestan province
Tourist attractions in Golestan province