ENDANGERED ANIMALS ON ARMENIAN COINS
By Dennis G. Rainey, World Coin News
NumisMaster.com
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March 5 2008
WI
This column is about animals on some coins from the Red Book of
endangered and threatened animals of the Republic of Armenia, a small
nation bordered by Georgia on the north, Azerbaijan on the east,
Iran on the south and Turkey on the west. It is part of the Caucasus,
an area of great ecological significance.
Armenia’s size is 11,483 square miles, and it is typically mountainous
with a dry sub-tropical climate. There are six ecosystem types:
deserts (below 3,000 feet), semi-deserts (2,000 to 3,900 feet),
steppes (3,900 to 6,600 feet), forests (1,640 north-8,262 south feet),
subalpine and alpine meadows (7,546 to 9,186 feet).
Some 17,000 species of animals (mostly invertebrates) have been
recorded in Armenia including 75 kinds of mammals, 302 birds, 43
reptiles and nine amphibians.
Armenia has a long history of oppression by foreign governments,
the last being Soviet Russia. It became a Soviet republic in 1922
and did not become an independent republic until 1991.
Biodiversity suffered greatly during the Soviet period, and after
the Soviet breakup Armenia underwent a severe economic crisis with
additional dire consequences on habitats and animal life. The Spitak
earthquake of 1988 destroyed the city of Spitak and 58 villages, and
resulted in horrendous damage to industry including food production
and widespread environmental damage. Twenty-five thousand people were
killed, 20,000 injured and 500,000 made homeless. By 1998 the average
monthly earnings were equivalent to $16 U.S.! Now slow recovery is in
progress aided by a shift to democracy, market-based economy, private
ownership of land and decentralization in industry and agriculture.
Foreign investment is now encouraged.
All this has severely damaged biodiversity. Forests have been
particularly hurt with only 25 percent of the original left.
Deforestation has produced extreme erosion and subsequent flooding.
Equally severe soil erosion has occurred due to poor agricultural
practices and thousands of acres are now unusable. Vegetation cover
(up to 40 percent in some areas) has diminished because of overgrazing
of pastures by livestock. Pesticide residues from overuse also enter
into this sad picture resulting in heavy river pollution and changes
in plant cover. Mining and chemical industries have caused pollution of
several natural ecosystems with heavy metals (about 20,000 acres). All
of this unfortunate history has severely affected Armenia’s animal
life, but one has to admire the ongoing successful road to recovery
by the government.
The Central Bank of Armenia has issued several coins depicting
animals in Armenia’s Red Book, and hopefully sales revenue is being
used for conservation and research purposes. I gladly purchased all
the coins. Let’s discuss these animals on coins.
Eurasian Otter
A subspecies of the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra meridionalis) is
depicted on the 1997 100 drams (KM 71). This subspecies is called the
Caucasian otter on the coin. Otters (13 species worldwide) belong to
the "smelly" group of mammals – Family Mustelidae (skunks, weasels,
polecats, badgers, wolverine, sable, fishers and martens, etc.).
Otters are the only amphibious members of the family.
This species has an incredibly large geographic range, too large
to give details here. Suffice it to say it occurs in almost all of
Europe, northwestern Africa and much of Asia. They dwell from sea
level to 13,500 feet in Tibet. The IUCN (World Conservation Union)
Red Book lists it as near threatened. Its habitat is freshwater lakes,
rivers, ponds, swamps, rice fields, marine coves and estuaries.
This species is 3 to 4.5 feet long and weighs 15 to 20 pounds. They
rely solely on their fur while in water to keep warm because their
body lacks a fat layer like in seals. The outer guard hairs keep the
fine insulating undercoat dry. The front legs are shorter than the
hind legs allowing them to swim better, and the toes are webbed. They
are said to be able to stay submerged for only 20 seconds. Its diet
is fish (80 percent), frogs, birds and small mammals.
A 2004 paper by G. Gorgadze titled "The Eurasian Otter in the South
Caucasus," published in the IUCN Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
indicated practically no research has been done in Armenia and
Azerbaijan in the past 20 years. Records are better for Georgia.
Trapping there for skins began in early 20th century and by the
1930s 4,000 otters were killed annually. At the beginning of the
1980s it was estimated there were 6,000 in South Caucasus and 12,000
in Russia. Of the 6,000, 4,500 were in Georgia, 1,200 in Azerbaijan,
but no estimates were given for Armenia. There was abundant evidence
of a serious population decline in the South Caucasus (and Armenia?).
Threats to the Eurasian otter in the three nations above are killing
by fishermen (viewed as competitors), illegal trapping for the fur
trade, unsustainable use of forests leading to loss of habitat,
and over-exploitation of rivers and lakes. Drainage of wetlands was
rampant in Soviet times. So, otter population declines are due solely
to human activities.
Wild Cat
The wild cat, Felis silvestris, may be the most widespread member of
the Family Felidae. It occurs in most of Africa, much of Europe and
western Asia. The subspecies, F. s. caucasica, is depicted on the
Armenia 2006 100 drams coin (KM 121).
The IUCN 1996 publication, Wild Cats, divides the species into three
groups: African (14 subspecies), Asiatic (3 subspecies) and European
(6 subspecies). The wild cat in Armenia is in the European group and
goes by the common name of Caucasian forest cat or Caucasian wild
cat. It is found in southern Armenia, most of the rest of Caucasus
and Turkey. I wrote about the life style of F. silvestris in detail
in the article "Wildcat and Woodpecker At Risk In Moldova" in the
December 2004 issue of World Coin News and will not repeat that here.
Brown Bear
The brown bear is depicted on the 2006 100 drams (KM 119). The
scientific name on the coin is Ursus arctos syriacus. The taxonomy
of brown bears in the Caucasus is unsettled as Dr. Gennady f.
Baryshnikov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences and specialist in
brown bears of Caucasus informed me in an email on 12 June 2007. He
said one view is all brown bears in the Caucasus belong to U. a.
syriacus and another view is the subspecies in most of the Caucasus
is U. a. meridionalis, and U. a. syriacus is in the southernmost
part including Armenia. However, he has not studied any specimens
from Armenia. I. E. Chertin and N. G. Mikeshina in the paper titled
"Variation in Skull Morphology of Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) from
Caucasus" that appeared in the Jour. Mammalogy, V.79, No. 1, 1998,
consider all brown bears in Caucasus to be U. a. syriacus.
Literature on the brown bear in Armenia is non-existent, at least
that I can find. I did find one sentence that stated the bears are
found in forests, steppes and meadows depending on the time of the
year. I was informed by an Armenian biologist that young mammalogists
there are reluctant to work on large mammals, and funds for research
are very scarce.
Long-Eared Hedgehog
The long-eared hedgehog is depicted on the 2006 100 drams (KM 120).
The scientific name on the coin is Erinaceus (Hemiechinus) auritus.
The corect name in my most recent reference is Hemiechinus auritus.
Again, I found no literature on this mammal in Armenia; however,
the same species was discussed in my article "Turkish Coins Feature
Ricochet Mammals," World Coin News, April, 2007. Refer to this article
for more information. I suspect it dwells mainly in the Armenian
semi-desert ecosystem.
Spur-Thighed Tortoise
In 2006 the Central Bank issued a 100 drams coin (KM 122) depicting
what they called the Mediterranean tortoise (Testudo graeca); this
scientific name is on the coin. This tortoise has numerous common names
such as Greek tortoise, Tunisian tortoise, Algerian tortoise, Moorish
tortoise, but I choose to call it the spur-thighed tortoise following
C. H. Ernst and R. W. Barbour, Turtles of the World, Smithsonian
Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1989, and other references.
What is the difference between a tortoise and a terrapin? They are
both turtles. A tortoise is a terrestrial turtle, and a terrapin is
usually an aquatic turtle.
An apparent valid subspecies has been described from Armenia that
also occurs in parts of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey and is named T.
g. armenica. A reference I found called it the Armenian tortoise.
Additional subspecies have been described, but many are considered
invalid.
This wide-spread species occurs in Albania, Algeria, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan,
Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Spain,
Syria, Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. It is
rare in Armenia and occurs in the Araks river valley in the south of
that country in dry steppes, shrubby mountain slopes and low forests
habitats. They are declining largely due to habitat loss. There are
only about 1,000 surviving in the wild in Armenia, but many are in
Russian and other country’s zoos. They are bred in captivity for
possible reintroductions by the Zoology Institute of the Republic
of Armenia Academy of Sciences. The species is protected in Armenia,
but some are still taken from the wild for the pet trade. The species
is listed as vulnerable in the 2006 IUCN Red List.
The species has been one of the most exploited chelonians for the pet
trade with millions captured and sold. For example, more than one
million captured in Morocco were imported to Great Britain between
1967 and 1971 (inquire for reference). It was estimated that only
five million were in Morocco in that period so the population was
severely damaged, but later they were protected. Again, apparently
this species has not been studied biologically in Armenia.
Do not fail to log on to the following Web site named "Persian
Leopard;" Then, click on the link
"Gallery" to the left and view some remote camera pictures of Armenian
mammals such as the brown bear and wild cat (notice "raccoon-like
tail."). This is the Web site of biologists Sh.
Asmaryan and Igor Khorozyan, the only scientists studying highly
endangered leopards (Panthera pardus) in Armenia. Igor furnished
valuable information for the brown bear portion of this article.
Lastly, kudos to the Central Bank of Armenia for putting scientific
and common names on their animal coins.