The Flora & Fauna of Datça (Plants & Wild Animals)

 

Datça and Bozburun Peninsulas, where Datça that is 63 km northwest of Orhaniye is located, are some of the most significant spots of Turkey in terms of flora and fauna.

Datça and Bozburun Peninsulas of the “9 Hotspots”:

In 1999, WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) has specified 100 most treasured forests of Europe in terms of biological diversity that are in need of urgent protection and named those “the European Forests Hotspots”.

Among these “hotspots” there are “9 Hotspots” situated in Turkey including Datça and Bozburun Peninsulas.

It is stated Datça’s flora consists of 861 different types of plants. Many daily used medicinal plants such as thyme, mint, sage, French lavender, wild mint, rosemary and harmal grow extensively in Datça.

Datça-Bozburun region is on the migratory routes of barn swallow, bee-eater, swift and alpine swift bird species.

Eleonora’s falcon, peregrine falcon, lesser kestrel, bonelli’s eagle, audouin’s gull and shag, on the other hand, are the other significant bird species of the region.

Mediterranean monk seal has spread around Datça Peninsula. The wild goats in Kocadağ demonstrate their utmost spreading in the west in Turkey. Lutra lutra (Eurasian otter) has spread around Hisarönü. Oriental sweetgum tree (Liquidambar orientalis) is specifically important for being relict endemic and Craten date palm (Phoenix theophrasti) is also specifically important for demonstrating a very limited spreading.