Northern Cyprus

Northern Cyprus will always have a special place in my heart after all this was a place where I spent most of my childhood growing up during the summer holidays when school broke up for 6 weeks. I have been going there for as long as I can remember, from the moment I was born and it was literally back to back every year, and we rarely missed a year at most. It was rewarding, and I considered myself quite privileged to be given this opportunity when I look back at it now. Why am I telling you this?

Sunset 1

I am telling you this because this was a destination where it all began for me. Northern Cyprus was the primary source and contributing factor to my passion for wildlife, and I will never ever forget where I am coming from. My fathers family are based within a little village called Cihangir on the outskirts of Lefkosia, and it is a beautiful place filled with landscape richness and biodiversity. Coming here as a child was the best experience ever because I was exposed to all kinds of wildlife from a very young age. Having the opportunity to witness native wildlife species which wasn’t present within the United Kingdom was always a blessing to me.

Seeing species like Mediterranean house geckos, bearded dragons, chameleons, praying mantis’s and much more roaming freely in great abundance was so cool. I am reasonably confident that seeing these amazing creatures contributed in a way or two to where I currently am today. Where we live in Cihangir, my uncle owns a lot of farm livestock, as the majority of his income comes entirely from sheep/goat milk and meat. It’s a popular livelihood in Cyprus to own a bit of land and own farm livestock as it can be beneficial if your flocks are producing a lot of resources and offspring.

I found myself shepherding from a young age and following my uncle around from dawn to dusk, as I just wanted to be around these animals. I just found great joy and fulfilment in observing these creatures although I never understood their behaviours and all. I just wanted to be around them as it meant so much to me.

I will always remember the time when I bargained with my cousin that he will have a go on my Gameboy Advance and play my Pokemon game if he went into the chicken hut and got me some eggs. When I reminisce on the thought, it is quite hilarious actually. But I just wanted to see a chick hatch and witness it grow and if it meant sacrificing my handheld game console then so be it.

A not so focused photo of me, my uncle with the farm livestock in the 90’s

As the years went on and I continued to fly over to Cyprus during the summer holidays, my love and passion for the wildlife never faded. I saw this for myself when I reflected at all of my photographs which have accumulated over the space of time. It was fascinating to see that although I went to Northern Cyprus for holidays and was meant to do things which are generally done on vacation. I frequently found myself out in the bush and was catching all kinds of critters which I could get my hands on.

Of course, none of my family felt what I felt and immediately thought that I was weird or something, especially my mother. If I caught a house gecko for example and wanted to show her my great catch, she would immediately sprint up the staircase because of the fear that I was going to let it loose within the household. I guess that kind of sucked that I couldn’t share my joy and excitement with them all, but what is great though is that my family have all seen where I have come from and I can confidently say that they must be proud of where I am today!

Northern Cyprus will always have a special place in my heart as it was a destination where my love for wildlife blossomed. Yeah sure the wildlife documentaries were a contributing factor too, but having the ability to observe different animal species for myself and handle them was always a joy.

As you know from my previous post ‘The Society for the Protection of Turtles’ it was a project which was here in Northern Cyprus, and what was exciting about that particular project is that my family and I always went to that beach as a family getaway whenever we flew over to Cyprus. I was still young and thought nothing of it or even knew that turtles favoured this beach as an annual nesting site.

It’s always nice when you look back at things and see how everything pieces together. I actually took a photo of one of the turtle nest cages in 2015, as I was fascinated that wild turtles were so close to my home in Cyprus. It was indeed an honour to come and work with them two years later and really give a helping hand towards conservation. Working with the turtles has by far been my most rewarding experience to date, and I am so thankful that I was able to conduct project work within my own country.

Marine wildlife is so important, and we are destroying the ocean ecosystems so much with the pollution of plastic and chemicals. Climate change is already a substantial contributing factor as it is melting snow ice at a rapid rate and coral reefs are dying out because of the changes of temperatures. The last thing we need to do is create a more significant burden for the marine wildlife. It was great to learn about this during my time at the project and makes me wonder how much more species are affected by these contributing factors. You can learn more about this topic from my previous blog post Here.