NEWS

Golden Eagle — a Rare Eagle Species

The nobility of this feathered predator shines through in its appearance and manifests itself through its behaviour and habits. It is not accidental that the coats of arms of many countries feature the golden eagle that belongs to the large eagles. This rare and beautiful bird is of particular interest because it nests closer to the winter, lays eggs in February-March, and sometimes even in January – the coldest months in Turkmenistan. But the birds continue feeding the chicks after 45 days of incubation for a little more than two months during a comfortable period – in the spring, when there is a lot of food. The parents take care of the offspring until they fly out of the nest, bring the ground squirrels they have caught, sometimes hares, foxes, mountain partridges – chukars and various waterfowl. Their diet also includes turtles: these smart birds have learned to break their hard shells on the stones of deep echoing gorges or rocky mountain plateaus. They also catch monitor lizards on occasion. We should explain that this is a quite large bird. Its wingspan can be 2 metres, its claws are unmatched among eagles in size, and it can be recognised by a large “cap” on its head with elongated golden-yellow feathers. There are known cases of golden eagles hunting young gazelles, lambs of mountain sheep and goats. But never on adult ungulates: the golden eagle, whos

6 December 2024

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Newcomer Russian bear moves to Ashgabat Zoo

«7/24.tm»: №41 (228) 07.10.2024 A young brown bear has found a permanent home at the National Museum of Wildlife of Turkmenistan (Ashgabat Zoo). He arrived there from a division of the Moscow Zoo – the Volokolamsk Centre for the Reproduction of Rare Animal Species. The bear was donated to the Ashgabat Zoo by the Eurasian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EARAZA) in commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of independence of Turkmenistan.

6 October 2024

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An Adornment of Wildlife

This large bird with magnificent plumage is a representative of one of the numerous families in the order Galliformes. According to its distribution, the pheasant is a southern bird, found in Western, Central and Southeast Asia, inhabiting the forests of Eastern Tibet and Southern and Western China. In the Commonwealth of Independent States, pheasants live along the banks of the Volga River, in the river valleys of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, near Lake Balkhash, the Amur River and Primorye. Four subspecies are found in our country: Phasianus colchicus chrysomelas is common in the lower reaches of the Amudarya River, Phasianus colchicus zarudnyi – along the middle course of the river, Phasianus colchicus principalis settles in the tugai forests of the Tejen and Murgab valleys and the Karakum River, and Phasianus colchicus persicus can be found along the banks of the Sumbar and Etrek Rivers. This wild bird resembles domestic chickens in appearance; it is slightly smaller in size and has a thin long tail. Males with yellow-brown plumage, iridescent metallic, golden and purple hues are very beautiful. The adults weigh up to 2 kilogrammes. Females are smaller than males and have a more inconspicuous grey-sand colour. Pheasants spend most of their lives on the ground, feeding on small animals and insects, including ants, wood lice, spiders, worms and snails. Their plant f

26 May 2023

Planet of animals

An Adornment of Wildlife

This large bird with magnificent plumage is a representative of one of the numerous families in the order Galliformes. According to its distribution, the pheasant is a southern bird, found in Western, Central and Southeast Asia, inhabiting the forests of Eastern Tibet and Southern and Western China. In the Commonwealth of Independent States, pheasants live along the banks of the Volga River, in the river valleys of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, near Lake Balkhash, the Amur River and Primorye. Four subspecies are found in our country: Phasianus colchicus chrysomelas is common in the lower reaches of the Amudarya River, Phasianus colchicus zarudnyi – along the middle course of the river, Phasianus colchicus principalis settles in the tugai forests of the Tejen and Murgab valleys and the Karakum River, and Phasianus colchicus persicus can be found along the banks of the Sumbar and Etrek Rivers.

28 April 2023

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International Bird Day

«7/24. tm», № 14 (149), 03.04.2023. International Bird Day is celeb­ra­ted every year on Ap­ril 1 as an in­ter­na­tio­nal environ­men­tal ho­li­day. It aims to pre­serve the diver­si­ty and num­bers of birds.

2 April 2023

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110 Years of Research in the Karakum Desert

95 years have passed since the establishment of the oldest nature reserve of the country out of nine existing ones – the Repetek Biosphere Reserve.  t was established in 1927 to preserve the black and white saxaul forests in the Eastern Karakum to replace the Repetek sandy-desert station that had existed since 1912 and had been established by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and its Vice-President, a traveller P.P. Semenov-Tien-Shansky and managed until 1928 by Director V. Dubyansky, who was one of the founders of desert science in Central Asia. So, the research of the Karakum Desert there has been going on for 110 years. The station, together with the Nature Reserve, existed until 1998, since 1962 as a division of the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna. Then, the reserve unit of international importance was transferred from the system of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan under the jurisdiction of the environmental department – now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection of Turkmenistan.

27 January 2023

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Unique Breed from Antiquity to the Present Day

Alabay dogs, long-standing and indispensable helpers in the traditional households, rightfully stand among the symbols of national pride of our compatriots. If, according to hippology, the “Nisean horses” belong to one of the oldest breeds in the world, then, according to cynologists, the Central Asian shepherd dog was bred at the earliest stages of historical development. The artefacts, which were discovered by archaeologists in the Neolithic settlements located at the foothills of the Kopetdag Mountains, make it possible to assume that a rather large dog was used to guard herds and houses. The Hero-Arkadag repeatedly emphasises the long and very complicated process of selecting, breeding and preserving this wonderful breed is a result of hard work and merit of our ancestors in the chain of many generations. It should be noted that among the representatives of the fauna that have gone through national selection, the domesticated dog chronologically occupies, perhaps, the initial position as the earliest domesticated mammal with subsequent divergence into various breeds, including our Turkmen Alabay dog.

20 January 2023

Planet of animals

Long-Awaited Guest – Wallcreeper

For true explorers, nature is full of amazing discoveries, we just have to take a closer look at it. Many miracles can be found in the Koytendag Mountains, where scientific expeditions go in search of rare animals and plants. There, the Koytendag State Nature Reserve operates to preserve and study the natural heritage, and scientific and practical research is carried out. Having a diploma of ecologist, I visited those places quite recently, any animal that I encountered in nature, previously known only from illustrations in educational reference books, aroused my enthusiastic interest. Of particular joy were trips deep into the protected area with researchers to carry out planned work, to monitor and record the inhabitants of the wildlife world. I remember a recent expedition with experienced colleagues from the Kopetdag, Badhyz and Kaplankyr Reserves, with whom we observed ungulates, the count of which continues until December, and carried out scientific field work and an examination of the state of the flora of a part of the canyons of all sections of the Koytendag Reserve.

9 December 2022

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Inhabitants of the Mountain Ranges

The Balhan Mountains, as old as the world, sung by Bayram Shahir in his poems, are the unique mountains of the sacred Turkmen land. Their peak – Mount Arlan, shrouded in snow and grey fog, rises at an altitude of 1,881 metres above sea level. The zodiac constellation Capricorn that looks like the horned inhabitants of the mountains flashes above it at night. The artiodactyls from the hollow-horned ruminants, including bezoar ibex that adapted well to the natural and climatic conditions of the mountains settled in those places long time ago. Their habitat is hard-to-reach mountain ranges and deep gorges, where the rays of the sun do not penetrate and people rarely set their foot.

22 July 2022

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Their Element Is Air

Our perception of birds is associated with expanses where feathered predators soar high in the sky or flocks of geese and cranes fly one after another. We know how mobile birds are, how fast and agile they are in flight. They fly over great distances, crossing seas, mountains and deserts during the migration season. Flying from one continent to another as the seasons change, the birds are active all year round. The ability of the avifauna to fly gives it an advantage over many other animals. They owe it to the physiological structure of their elongated body with the primary and covert wing feathers that form a dense surface area that supports the bird in the air. Birds lift their wings using the strong muscles attached to an inactive thorax. The bones of birds are very difficult to break and strong, as they contain more mineral salts. However, the skeleton of birds is very lightweight, because many bones are hollow and filled with air. Birds are warm-blooded, constant and high temperature (40-42 °C) allows them to fly in the high cold layers of air and enable them to live in a wide variety of climatic niches. Higher metabolic rates in birds make their heart work hard, and indeed birds have a much greater number of heartbeats than mammals, and small birds have the higher heart rate than large ones.

27 May 2022

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