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Northwest Wildlife Online
Afghanistan Wildlife
This is going to be a challenge. I am over here doing some defense work (hard to stop being a soldier) so I am attempting to photograph Afghanistan wildlife. The bad news is that I necessarily have to spend the bulk of my time inside US and Afghan Army compounds. This is not a country for wandering. But if you were able to wander about this beautiful land you could see snow leopards, bears, cheetahs and host of other exotic species. Afghanistan is overwhelming in its wonderful scenery and relatively unpopulated for a country about the size of Texas. I regret not being able to travel freely. The good news is that my work takes me around the country so I have the opportunity to see a number of different regions. A sample of the tiny ice berg tip that I can see from inside a Forward Operating are shown below. All of these guys were found at an altitude of close to nine thousand feet.
One of my favorites. He's a little fellow, but very aggressive when defending his territory. You can get an idea of his size in relation to my fingers.
These are two of the most common species I've found so far. Each is about four inches long. The one on the right, I call a Tail Lasher, has a range that extends all the way into Saudi Arabia.
This monitor looking lizard is the largest I have found in Afghanistan so far. The handsome fellow on the right was close to eight inches long. He shared his large rock with a hedge hog that inhabited the other side.
Afghanistan boasts a beautiful array of butterflies. The one in the upper left is the most stunning example I have seen anywhere.
The lizard above looks very much like the fringe footed species I encountered in Saudi Arabia. I found two other species of lizards, but was unable to get a picture. The tiny black spider is the only species I found. These photos were taken in March 2008 after a long and hard Afghan winter. The location is over a mile above sea level as well and the weather has not yet warmed up completely. We also have had very little rain so I expect to see a lot more when the rains come and the sun does its work.
One of the things that charms me about wildlife in the commonality of species found in many countries around the world. Pictured above are a couple of examples. I cannot think of a country I have been to that is without sparrows. Although they display some color variation, the ones here tend to be darker, they are amazingly similar birds no matter where you encounter them. Their adaptability is superb. The black and white Magpie is common here as are the ever present pigeons and doves.
One of the wild kingdom's all time champions of adaptability is the ant. The one on the left is a large type, well over a quarter of an inch long. Descending the scale in size, but topping all other species in numbers are these red black ants in the middle. Tinier still are the little black fellows on the right.
These little fellows are very interesting, but I have no idea what the crimson bits are. It looked like tiny bits of dried red pepper and there were quite a few scattered about the nest. They scrambled, of course, to save their eggs, and I noticed one very large egg that they struggled with. A queen or queen to be perhaps? I am not sure.
