form "semi-autonomous ecosystems" as home for migratory birds. For example, the seasonal marsh of Talab-e Aqgol, 20 km south of Malayer, is visited by 10 to 20 thousand birds every year during their route from the wetlands of Siberia and Scandinavia to warmer regions. These birds live here for 4 to 5 months out of the year. Among the birds that take part in this migration are geese, ducks, herons, cranes, and aigrettes. Several wildlife reserves in the province are home to other bird and mammal species. Larger birds include royal eagles, golden eagles, falcons, hawks, owls, vultures; and larger mammals include wild goats, ibexes, wild boars, wolves, foxes, jackals, and hyenas. There are about 100 each of wolves, foxes, and jackals in the province, and the hyena population is about 20. These numbers have been fairly stable, and in general the population levels of predators and prey are balanced. Demographics Population As of 1996, Hamadan province had a population of 1,667,957 people, in 342,084 households. A little under half these people (about 811,000, or 48.3%) lived in urban areas. About half of this group lived in the city of Hamadan itself. There has been increased urbanization since the 1990s. About 868,000 people lived in rural villages. About 10,000 people belonged to migratory tribes that spent either the summer (9,128 people) or winter (837 people) in the province. The largest tribe that summers in Hamadan province is the Tork Yaram tribe, with 7,234 members, while the largest tribe that winters in the province is the Torkashvand tribe, with 608 members. As of 1996, there were 1,122 rural villages in the province, with an average population of 773 people. This average is over twice the national average for village size. The population density was 86 people per square kilometer. Hamadan province has usually had net emigration, except for during the Iran-Iraq War when it took in a large number of refugees. This continuing emigration partly offsets the natural growth rate due to births. Slightly over 77% of the province's population was literate as of 1996 (83.1% for men and 71.3% for women). By this point, however, literacy was much higher in the younger population because access to primary education had increased - for example, the 6-10 age group had a literacy rate of 96.2% for boys and 94.9% for girls. Of the literate population, 53.3% had attended school up to the