Fauna of the Nothern Areas of Pakistan

Northern Pakistan once was crawling with wild game. Trophy hunting was not known to anyone. There were professional hunters all around and use to hunt wild animals as it was a fashion of the time. Later on trophy hunting introduced and managed national parks with help of those professional hunters in some parts of northern Pakistan, but in some parts it is still the same the as past, because of these the wild animals are extremely  timid and confining themselves and live and live in most remote and inaccessible areas.

  So you can see some of the wild animals such as ibex, Markhor, Marco polo, blue bharal, or urial sheep, in some parts of northern areas.

  Brown bears are still plentiful on Deosia plateau, and you sometimes see them on the passes between Chitral and Yasin. You can mostly see ibex or its footprints along the Baltoro Glacier and Biafo Glacier and you can rarely see ibex along the Khunjerab National Park. If you know what to look for, you can also find snow leopard scrapings in the Khunjerab.

  Wolves still roam in the remoter valleys of d Gilgit, Nagar, and Hunza especially in the far eastern parts of the Shimshal valley, where you may also bharal blue sheep and the occasional wild ass, Lynx martens, stoats and Altais weasels still live in the northern reaches of the Kaghan valleys, as well as in Gilgit and Hunza. There are musk deer on the Deosia, in parts of the Nelum and Kaghan valleys and in the wild of Indus Kohistan.

  You will have good chance of seeing in broad daylight on Himalayan fox on the hillsides, cape hares along the ablation valleys and golden marmots standing outside their burrows and imAitating the piecing parts whistles that echo through in most of the parts of North Pakistan in Chitral, Yasin, Khunjerab and Deosia.

     BIRDS

  

Pakistan is extremely rich in bird life, with 661 species. This is a result of its favour position straddling two major zoogeographic zones, the Palaearctic and the oriental. The Indus is one of the major birds migration parts of the world for Palaearctic species which breed in the north in the summer and fly south to the Indian Sub-continent for the winter. They are on the move spring and autumn, using the major north-south valley as convenient freeways through the mountains. Hundreds of species from geese and cranes downs to tiniest warblers fly thousands of Kilometres each year.

  Though you miss the main migration if you are in the mountains only in the summer, you are still likely to see circling in the main valleys Black Kite, the Bearded Vultures and the huge Himalayan Griffon Vultures, with a rounded tail and wingspan up to three metres.

  On remoter passé between 4000 to 4500 metres, you may see Himalayan snow cock large lumbering bird the size of the domestic duck. These birds try to escape by running away uphill; you may hear their wild whistling from a distance cries on the slopes above.  Occasionally you may see the beautiful pigeons flying across alpine slopes. You will certainly come across lots hoopoe, with their distinctive black and white stripes, fawn head and fan-shaped crest. In Chitral in the summer you can see frequently golden oriels, spur song-birds serenading from trees and swooping in streets of brilliant yellow from one tree to next. There brilliant turquoise European Blue jays and in forested areas, the occasional scaly-bellied or Himalayan pied woodpeckers. High in the trees you often hear the mouse like a squeak of white-cheeked Nuthatches or the loud double-tremulous whistle of the black and yellow Grossbeak. Flocks of Tits and treecreepers fly rapidly through the trees of foraging for insects, buds and seeds. The birds interested people must look for the areas where they can see the birds they like and I hope you enjoy your trip with them