Editing Georgia (country) (section)

=== Biodiversity ===
{{See also|List of fauna of Georgia (country){{!}}List of fauna of Georgia|List of fish of the Black Sea}}
[[File:Female Georgian Shepherd - Khevi, Georgia (3).jpg|thumb|[[Georgian Shepherd]] Dog]]
[[File:Ჯიხვი ლაგოდეხის ნაკრძალში.jpg|thumb|[[East Caucasian tur]] on the cliffs of [[Lagodekhi Protected Areas]]]]
Because of its high landscape diversity and low latitude, Georgia is home to about 5,601 species of animals, including 648 species of [[vertebrate]]s (more than 1% of the species found worldwide) and many of these species are endemics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biodiversity-georgia.net/index.php?taxon=Chordata |title=Eucariota, Animalia, Chordata |publisher=Institute of Ecology |date=2015 |website=Georgian Biodiversity Database |access-date=7 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625014140/http://www.biodiversity-georgia.net/index.php?taxon=Chordata |archive-date=25 June 2016 }}</ref> A number of large [[carnivore]]s live in the forests, namely [[brown bear]]s, [[wolf|wolves]], [[lynx]]es and [[Panthera pardus tulliana|Caucasian leopards]]. The [[common pheasant]] (also known as the Colchian pheasant) is an endemic bird of Georgia which has been widely introduced throughout the rest of the world as a [[game bird]]. The number of [[invertebrate]] species is considered to be very high but data is distributed across a high number of publications. The spider checklist of Georgia, for example, includes 501 species.<ref name="Caucasus-spiders.info">{{cite web|url=http://caucasus-spiders.info/introduction/checklists/ |title=Caucasian Spiders " Checklists & Maps |publisher=Caucasus-spiders.info |access-date=5 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328225817/http://caucasus-spiders.info/introduction/checklists/ |archive-date=28 March 2009 }}</ref> The [[Rioni|Rioni River]] may contain a breeding population of the critically endangered [[bastard sturgeon]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?364051/ship-sturgeon-georgia |title=Dramatic Double Sturgeon Discovery in Georgia |publisher=WWF |date=15 June 2020 |access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref>

Slightly more than 6,500 species of [[Fungus|fungi]], including lichen-forming species, have been recorded from Georgia,<ref>Nakhutsrishvili, I.G. ["Flora of Spore Producing Plants of Georgia (Summary)"]. 888 pp., Tbilisi, Academy of Science of the Georgian SSR, 1986</ref><ref name="cybertruffle1">{{cite web |url=http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/robigalia/eng/index.htm |title=Cybertruffle's Robigalia – Observations of fungi and their associated organisms |publisher=cybertruffle.org.uk |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920032737/http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/robigalia/eng/index.htm |archive-date=20 September 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> but this number is far from complete. The true total number of fungal species occurring in Georgia, including species not yet recorded, is likely to be far higher, given the generally accepted estimate that only about seven per cent of all fungi worldwide have so far been discovered.<ref>Kirk, P.M., Cannon, P.F., Minter, D.W. and Stalpers, J. "Dictionary of the Fungi". Edn 10. CABI, 2008</ref> Although the amount of available information is still very small, a first effort has been made to estimate the number of fungal species endemic to Georgia, and 2,595 species have been tentatively identified as possible endemics of the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/gruzfung/eng/endelist.htm |title=Fungi of Georgia – potential endemics |publisher=cybertruffle.org.uk |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927173031/http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/gruzfung/eng/endelist.htm |archive-date=27 September 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> 1,729 species of plants have been recorded from Georgia in association with fungi.<ref name="cybertruffle1" /> According to the [[International Union for Conservation of Nature]], there are 4,300 species of vascular plants in Georgia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iucn.org/content/georgia-%E2%80%93-haven-biodiversity|title=Georgia – a haven for biodiversity|date=7 December 2012|website=IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature|access-date=29 June 2019}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Georgia is home to four ecoregions: [[Caucasus mixed forests]], [[Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests]], [[Eastern Anatolian montane steppe]], and [[Azerbaijan shrub desert and steppe]].<ref name="DinersteinOlson2017">{{cite journal|last1=Dinerstein|first1=Eric|last2=Olson|first2=David|last3=Joshi|first3=Anup|last4=Vynne|first4=Carly|last5=Burgess|first5=Neil D.|last6=Wikramanayake|first6=Eric|last7=Hahn|first7=Nathan|last8=Palminteri|first8=Suzanne|last9=Hedao|first9=Prashant|last10=Noss|first10=Reed|last11=Hansen|first11=Matt|last12=Locke|first12=Harvey|last13=Ellis|first13=Erle C|last14=Jones|first14=Benjamin|last15=Barber|first15=Charles Victor|last16=Hayes|first16=Randy|last17=Kormos|first17=Cyril|last18=Martin|first18=Vance|last19=Crist|first19=Eileen|last20=Sechrest|first20=Wes|last21=Price|first21=Lori|last22=Baillie|first22=Jonathan E. M.|last23=Weeden|first23=Don|last24=Suckling|first24=Kierán|last25=Davis|first25=Crystal|last26=Sizer|first26=Nigel|last27=Moore|first27=Rebecca|last28=Thau|first28=David|last29=Birch|first29=Tanya|last30=Potapov|first30=Peter|last31=Turubanova|first31=Svetlana|last32=Tyukavina|first32=Alexandra|last33=de Souza|first33=Nadia|last34=Pintea|first34=Lilian|last35=Brito|first35=José C.|last36=Llewellyn|first36=Othman A.|last37=Miller|first37=Anthony G.|last38=Patzelt|first38=Annette|last39=Ghazanfar|first39=Shahina A.|last40=Timberlake|first40=Jonathan|last41=Klöser|first41=Heinz|last42=Shennan-Farpón|first42=Yara|last43=Kindt|first43=Roeland|last44=Lillesø|first44=Jens-Peter Barnekow|last45=van Breugel|first45=Paulo|last46=Graudal|first46=Lars|last47=Voge|first47=Maianna|last48=Al-Shammari|first48=Khalaf F.|last49=Saleem|first49=Muhammad|title=An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm|journal=BioScience|volume=67|issue=6|year=2017|pages=534–545|issn=0006-3568|doi=10.1093/biosci/bix014|pmid=28608869|pmc=5451287|doi-access=free}}</ref> It had a 2018 [[Forest Landscape Integrity Index]] mean score of 7.79/10, ranking it 31st globally out of 172 countries.<ref name="FLII-Supplementary">{{cite journal|last1=Grantham|first1=H. S.|last2=Duncan|first2=A.|last3=Evans|first3=T. D.|last4=Jones|first4=K. R.|last5=Beyer|first5=H. L.|last6=Schuster|first6=R.|last7=Walston|first7=J.|last8=Ray|first8=J. C.|last9=Robinson|first9=J. G.|last10=Callow|first10=M.|last11=Clements|first11=T.|last12=Costa|first12=H. M.|last13=DeGemmis|first13=A.|last14=Elsen|first14=P. R.|last15=Ervin|first15=J.|last16=Franco|first16=P.|last17=Goldman|first17=E.|last18=Goetz|first18=S.|last19=Hansen|first19=A.|last20=Hofsvang|first20=E.|last21=Jantz|first21=P.|last22=Jupiter|first22=S.|last23=Kang|first23=A.|last24=Langhammer|first24=P.|last25=Laurance|first25=W. F.|last26=Lieberman|first26=S.|last27=Linkie|first27=M.|last28=Malhi|first28=Y.|last29=Maxwell|first29=S.|last30=Mendez|first30=M.|last31=Mittermeier|first31=R.|last32=Murray|first32=N. J.|last33=Possingham|first33=H.|last34=Radachowsky|first34=J.|last35=Saatchi|first35=S.|last36=Samper|first36=C.|last37=Silverman|first37=J.|last38=Shapiro|first38=A.|last39=Strassburg|first39=B.|last40=Stevens|first40=T.|last41=Stokes|first41=E.|last42=Taylor|first42=R.|last43=Tear|first43=T.|last44=Tizard|first44=R.|last45=Venter|first45=O.|last46=Visconti|first46=P.|last47=Wang|first47=S.|last48=Watson|first48=J. E. M.|title=Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity – Supplementary Material|journal=Nature Communications|volume=11|issue=1|year=2020|page=5978|issn=2041-1723|doi=10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3|pmid=33293507|pmc=7723057|bibcode=2020NatCo..11.5978G |doi-access=free}}</ref>