Skopelos Island, Greece Photograph by Pedro Regato/ WWF MedPO   Southeastern Europe: Along the coastline of Greece and Turkey, stretching into Macedonia Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub   51,500 square miles (133,500 square kilometers) -- about the size of Arkansas Critical/Endangered

· Islands Rife with Raptors
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
More Photos

Islands Rife with Raptors

Thousands of islands are sprinkled across this ecoregion, providing rocky, scrubby havens for many bird species, especially raptors. Falcons, vultures, and eagles can all be found along the coast of Turkey or Greece.

Special Features

This ecoregion stretches from the island of Corfu on the Ionian Sea to Turkey and into Macedonia. Greece has an extensive network of archipelagos containing more than 2,000 islands and a highly indented coastline with numerous peninsulas. Reed beds line coastal wetlands. Islands have oak trees with patches of olive and lime trees, and scrub habitat in the rocky cliff areas.

	The pygmy cormorant is considered near threatened worldwide. Extensive studies of this species involving techniques such as putting rings or bans on the birds leg, that mark the birds so that they can be monitored. This allows scientists to determine the time a pygmy cormorant has spent one area, its age, whether it breeds, and countless other observations that help to conserve this species.

Wild Side

Many globally threatened birds winter in or pass through this ecoregion, including lesser white-fronted geese, red-breasted geese, white-headed ducks, spotted eagles, imperial eagles, and slender-billed curlews. Globally threatened species that breed here include Dalmatian pelicans, ferruginous ducks, lesser kestrels, and Audouin's gulls. In inland rocky areas, breeding raptors such as peregrine falcons, griffon vultures, and Bonelliās eagles can be spotted nesting on cliffs. Manx shearwaters, cormorants, Eleonora's falcons, and Audouin's gulls can be seen along the shoreline. In the forests of oak, pine, and fir, storks, woodpeckers, short-toed eagles, golden eagles, and rock nuthatches can sometimes be seen in the trees. Mammals include beech martens, badgers, red foxes, golden jackals, wolves, eastern hedgehogs, and common dormice. Spiny mice and white-toothed shrews are endemic mammals found here.

Cause for Concern

Agriculture threatens most habitats of this ecoregion. The use of agricultural chemicals pollutes waters, lands, and other resources. Recreation, tourism, and road building increase hunting and fragmentation of forest habitats. Lowland forests are threatened by fire.

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