Yagodnaya Polyana, Saratovskaya, Russia Photograph by Kris Ball   Palaearctic Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   383,800 square miles (994,000 square kilometers) -- about thrice the size of New Mexico Critical/Endangered

· Danube Delta
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Danube Delta

The Danube River drains only a small portion of this ecoregion, and its delta occupies just a triangle on a map, but its role is enormous. A vast wetland--one of the four largest in Europe--marks the river’s mouth on the Black Sea. In this steppe ecoregion, numerous rivers and the riparian forests that grow along their banks intersect open meadows and savannas. Abundant shrubland and thicket habitat exist where conditions are favorable. The shrublands provide excellent cover for species that would otherwise be exposed in the grasslands, including European rabbits, European mink, hares, and red foxes.

Special Features

The large rivers of this ecoregion--the Danube, Dneister, Dneiper, and Volga--support riparian forests that provide shade and a moist habitat in an otherwise arid and treeless landscape. The rivers and their deltas create prime habitat for a wide variety of plants, birds, and amphibians. The Danube, because of its abundant wetlands, supports more breeding species of birds than most other southern European areas. The pygmy cormorant, great white pelican, and rare dalmation pelican all breed here. Elsewhere, grasslands dominate the region. The combinations of long winters, dry summers, and occasional fires inhibit forests but encourage grasses and shrubs.

	The bearded reedling, as its name suggests, is a small bird that lives among the dense reeds of this ecoregion’s wetlands. There it builds a cup-shaped nest where it raises as many as 12 young in one season.

Wild Side

Visit the vast wetlands of the Danube River and you’ll find huge reed beds and floating reed islands filled with the sound of birds that build their nests here and feast on an abundance of aquatic animals. In the drier steppe, great bustards nest among the grasses and eat plant leaves, buds, shoots and seeds as well as insects and small vertebrates. Birds of prey, such as the white-tailed eagle, hunt from the skies, searching for other birds, fish, and small mammals to eat. European bison and wild sheep called argali, feed on grasses and other plants. Bison have been greatly reduced in number, but if current reintroduction efforts are successful they may once again migrate across these plains in huge herds.

Cause for Concern

Although the Danube Delta is now protected, it was heavily damaged by the draining necessary for agricultural development. Other wetlands areas face the same threat, and the grasslands are also threatened by agricultural conversion. As habitats decrease, pressure on plants and animals increases. Many of the animals described above are threatened or endangered. Population pressures from expanding cities and towns increase these threats, as does pollution from large industries and water diversion projects.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.