Animals in Akrotiri

The animals of Akrotiri are very diverse and many are rare to this area of the world. Akrotiri is volcanic island in the Cyclades, a group of Greek Islands. Animals of Akrotiri live in a hot dry environment during the summer and cool during the winter, since it is located on the Eastern Mediterranean peninsula on the southwest coast of Cyprus.

Akrotiri is next to Red Beach and also has a salt lake, which is breeding grounds for the loggerhead and greenturtles. It is one of the rare places that people can still watch seaturtles built nests. Hunting of the greenturtles is an issue. The dry warm summer environment is also a natural habitat for lizards.

In the late fall, as the waters of the Akrotiri salt lake swells, thousands of flamingos fly in and stay over the winter. This is something beautiful and rare to Akrotiri. Another animal unique to Akrotiri is the only remaining colony of griffon vultures. Griffon vultures are large old world vultures with white bald heads, long wings, and short tail feathers.

There are many birds and fish. Some of the birds include, the cyprus wabler, cyprus pied wheateater, crested lark, wood pigeon, barn owl, bonelli's eagle, seagulls, and sandpipers, and as mentioned above the griffon voltures. There are water birds such as pelicans and storks. Many birds stop in Akrotiri as they migrate for the winter.

Akrotiri is a neat place to go dolphin viewing. In fact, the relics of Akrotiri has ancient vase and wall paintings of dolphins. In addition to birds and dolphins, Akrotiri is a fishing town, that has hundreds of fish. A wonderful habitat for the fish are the beautiful corals and sponges. The Mediterranean monk seal, is on the endangered list. It is a brown or grey seal with a white patch on its belly. The seal lives on a variety of fish and cephalopod, such as cuddlefish and squid.

Other animals of Akrotiri are jackals, wild goats, and porcupines. There are also wild mouflon, a subspecies of wild sheep. Mouflon have red brown hair with a dark back stripe and curved horns.