Fauna & Flora

Gavater (Sistan va Baluchestan). Photograph: ©Patrick Ringgenberg.

Outside of Iran, little is generally known about the extraordinary diversity of Iranian flora and fauna. Between East and West, Iran is at the crossroads of several natural complexes and climates. Between the dense forests of the Caspian regions and the Lut (one of the most inhospitable deserts in the world), the country offers often extreme contrasts. Its vegetation presents a gradient of humid, semi-humid or semi-arid and arid zones (deserts and steppes). Iran has a common flora with Central Asia in its interior plains and highlands, with Europe and Siberia on the shores of the Caspian, with Africa on the edges of the Persian Gulf and Makran, with the Indian and Himalayan world in its northeastern forests, and some plants belong to the Mediterranean, Saharan and Arabian groups.

Asian cheetah (cheetah). Photograph: © Erfan Kouchari-Tasnim News Agency (Wikimedia)..

Animals have also been omnipresent in Iranian arts since prehistoric times. 16th century manuscript binding. National Museum of Iran, Tehran. Photograph: ©Patrick Ringgenberg.

The same diversity is found in the fauna. Leopards, cheetahs, bears, deer, foxes, hyenas, wild boars, ibexes, gazelles, mouflons, jackals and onagers make up a remarkable, sometimes threatened, wild life. Species are on the verge of extinction, such as the Asiatic cheetah, living in the Kavir desert. The numerous species of birds are linked to the Western Palearctic and Eastern Palearctic faunas. Some two hundred varieties of fish are found in the Persian Gulf, as well as shrimp, turtles and shellfish.

Specialized trips devoted to fauna and flora are necessarily tailor-made trips, adapted to your desires – visiting national parks, ornithological trips, exploring the flora of a region. One piece of advice: contact us!