ArmenPress
March 28 2005
346 KNOWN SPECIES OF BIRDS LIVE IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS: A project by the American
University of Armenia, called “Birds of Armenia Project” organizes
field excursions throughout Armenia in the quest to map and study
Armenia’s bird population. It issued field guidebooks in both English
and Armenian languages and a technical handbook on the country’s
imperiled bird population. The Project was created by
Armenian-American philanthropist and conservationist Sarkis Acopian.
Matthew Karanian, an environmental attorney who teaches
environmental law at the American University of Armenia and Robert
Kurkjian, an environmental scientist from the University of
California, the authors of the “The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and
Karabagh,” joined “Birds of Armenia Project” in the excursion to find
out how environmental change has affected Armenia’s rich bird
population.
Ornithologists and other scientists have been drown to Armenia
partly because it has a disproportionately large number of bird
species. There are 346 known species of birds in Armenia and in
Europe only 450 species.
According to Dan Klem, an American professor of ornithology who
studies the birds of Armenia and who has co-authored books and
articles about the country’s avian population said “Birds are
indicators of environmental health. Changes in food supply, climate
and habitat loss, and threats from chemical contamination affect
birds and people in similar ways”.
Dan Klem noted that “Scientists use birds as tools to inform us
about the state of the environment and in Armenia the bird population
is telling us we need to use more care to conserve natural habitats”.
The researches show that birds began avoiding the region in 1960,
when the draining of Lake Gilli began by the Soviets, supposedly to
improve the region’s agriculture. The lake situated in southeast of
the Sevan basin.