Karadag Nature Reserve

 

Ukrainian State Enterprise of Posts Ukrposhta , issued  a souvenir sheet stamp consist of four stamps depict several endangered species, e,g: the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, Butterfly-lion, Saker Falcon, and Beech Marten on July 28, 2005.

Karadag Nature Reserve was organized in 1979 on the base of Karadag research station named after T. I. Vyazemskiy and founded by him back in 1914. Karadag Nature Reserve occupies the area of 2874 ha. It is a unique haven of landscape and biological diversity (2870 flora species and 5350 fauna species), a gene pool of rare plant and animal species, a kind of refuge of Mediterranean fauna in the Crimea.

 

Black Sea bottle-nosed Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus ponticus )

Bottlenose dolphins live in groups typically of 10–30 members but group size varies from single individuals up to more than 1,000. Their diets consist mainly of forage fish. Dolphins often work as a team to harvest fish schools, but they also hunt individually.

Bottlenose dolphins search for prey primarily using echolocation, which is similar to sonar. They emit clicking sounds and listen for the return echos to determine the location and shape of nearby items, including potential prey.

The Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphin.

The Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, or Tursiops truncatus ponticus , qualifies for listing as Endangered species.The range of the Black Sea subspecies includes the territorial waters and exclusive economic zones of Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine in the Black Sea.

Beech Marten (Martes foina Erxleb)

The beech marten (Martes foina), also known as the stone marten or white breasted marten, is a species of marten native to much of Europe and Central Asia. It is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN on account of its wide distribution, its large population, and its presence in a number of protected areas.

Plant foods eaten by the beech marten include cherries, apples, pears, plums, black nightshade, tomatoes, grapes, raspberries and mountain ash. Plant food typically predominates during the winter months.

In areas where the beech marten is sympatric with the pine marten, the two species avoid competing with one another by assuming different ecological niches ; the pine marten feeds on birds and rodents more frequently, while the beech marten feeds on fruits and insects.

Butterfly-lion (Ascalaphus macaronius)

Butterfly-lion or the neuropteran owlfly Libelloides (Ascalaphus macaronius ) was described in 1763 by the correspondent of Carolus Linnaeus, Johannes Antonius Scopoli.

Ascalaphus macaronius is a daytime predator inhabitating warm, dry, uncultivated meadows from Slovenia to Caucasus.

It is famous due to the unique spectral sensitivity of its dorsofrontal eye that ranges only over the ultra-violet part of the solar spectrum. Ascalaphus macaronius lives as an adult imago only for approximately two months in the summer; even then, it is actively hunting only under un-obscured skies.

 

Gray Falcon (Falco cherrug Gray)

The Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) is a very large falcon that breeds from eastern Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria.

It is mainly migratory ,  wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China. BirdLife International categorizes this bird as endangered, due to a rapid population decline, particularly on the central Asian breeding grounds.

The Saker Falcon have brown upper-bellies and contrasting grey flight feathers. The head and under-parts are paler brown, with streaking from the breast down.  The Saker Falcon is a large hierofalcon at 47–55 cm length with a wingspan of 105–129 cm .

The Saker Falcon is a raptor of open grasslands preferably with some trees or cliffs. It often hunts by horizontal pursuit, and feeds mainly on rodents and birds. In Europe, Ground Squirrels and feral pigeons are the most common prey items.