Restoration of rare animal populations planned in Karabakh

The jewel among Azerbaijan’s animal kingdom, the gazelle (also referred to as “jeyran”), has returned to it’s historical habitat in Karabakh, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva present for this celebration. The gazelle population in Azerbaijan has been restored and it’s number is increasing – this is a fact.

As Caliber.Az reports, the Head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Irada Ibrahimova, gave this statement, additionally noting that the gazelle population in the Shirvan National Park alone has reached 6,228.

Since 2010, the Ministry, in partnership with the IDEA Public Association and the Azerbaijani office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been working on the “Protection, reintroduction and restoration of gazelle habitats into Azerbaijan” project, aimed at returning gazelles to their natural habitat with significant results already having been achieved.

Those include the reintroduction of 293 gazelles from the Shirvan National Park into the Absheron and Aggel National Parks, Vashlovani National Park in Georgia, Ilisui and Korchay State Nature Reserves, Gakh State Nature Reserve as well as into the Jangi area.

Such projects are also being implemented in Karabakh and East Zangezur, where in addition to the jeyran, the reintroduction of bezoar goats, East Caucasian turs and red deers is planned.

As part of this project, 18 gazelles have already been released into the Jabrayil region with more to come in the following years. Due to the bezoar goat population being at dangerous levels, several animals will be brought from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in 2022-2023 and released into the appropriate lands, including the Karabakh region.

“The WWF’s joint programme with IDEA has also led to the successful return of bison to their historical habitat lands, resulting in 26 bisons having been reintroduced into our country in 2019-2021. Their total population number has reached 31, with 9 more bisons expected to be brought in November 2022”, Ibrahimova said.