What Animals Live In The Pyrenees Mountains

Wild fauna in the Ariège Pyrenees

The department of Ariège has preserved and maintained its traditions and authenticity in a setting of unspoilt nature. Since 2009 a big part of its territory is designated a Natural Regional Park. The diversity of flora and animate being is infrequent and the transhumance of sheep, cows and Mérens horses is yet actively expert, sustaining mount meadows with abundant wildflowers.

Mistletoe

All year round, but especially in winter, you'll find foreign green balls caught in the trees in Ariège...

From time immemorial people have attributed sacred or medicinal virtues to mistletoe. How can one fail to find those light-green tufts with white berries perched in the leafless copse in winter? And as mistletoe grows only rarely on oaks -- less than 15 identified in all of France -- a tree symbolising force and power, it'southward not surprising that it was so sought after by the Druids.

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The Desman of the Pyrenees

G alemys pyrenaicus

This small mammal is the largest aquatic insectivore in France. It measures betwixt 24 and 29 cm in length (of which a bit more than one-half is tail) and weighs between 50 and 80 m. It's also called the "trumpet rat" considering of its long, flat, fexible snout, well-nigh twenty mm long, endowed with sensors. It inhabits streams, rivers and lakes in the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian mountains in Spain, at altitudes between 400 and ii,500 thou.

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Raptors of the Ariège Pyrenees

We are still fortunate enough in the Ariège to have three of the big diurnal birds of prey living in their natural land:
Griffon Vulture - wingspan 2.80m, weight 7.eight kg
Lammergeier (Disguised Vulture) - wingspan ii.70 yard, weight seven kg
Gilt Eagle - wingspan 2.20m, weight four kg

How exercise nosotros identify them?
All three accept long, well-separated primaries (large last wing feathers).

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Bears in the Ariège Pyrenees

If you become downwardly to the forest today…in the Ariège you lot may get a large surprise. Brown bears to be precise. And while you might think it normal to have bears wandering in the mountains as in many other places in the globe, in the Pyrenees information technology is causing controversy.

Information technology's difficult to pinpoint when the Pyrenees began to exist associated with bears. In fact, if you believe classical mythology, the very naming of the mountain range came through an ursine connection.

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Orchids of the Ariège Pyrenees

Did you know that at that place are nearly lx species of orchids in Ariège? And while a few are very rare, others abound so abundantly that you practically have to tiptoe while walking in certain semi-abandoned pastures. Yous'd never suspect that these very meadows, because they are grazed less than in the by, will crusade these orchids to disappear. Saplings volition brainstorm to push up through the invading bracken and the forest will supplant the open up state.

Of course certain orchids grow in the forest, only they are more unimposing. In the shade of the trees and the absence of sunlight they have lost the essential feature of plants: the colour green, the sign of chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Through the intermediary of a fungus they describe their nourishment from the sap of tree roots. Certain ones will produce a blossom that never opens, sometimes even remaining underground.

Though our indigenous orchids tin't rival in beauty their exotic cousins, they are no less interesting for their biology. Did you know for example that the seeds are very pocket-size because they have no starch reserve? A single capsule of a male flower may comprise up to vi,000 seeds. In order to germinate they must associate themselves with microscopic secret fungi which procure for them the necessary nutrients. Merely they are prudent, for they keep the fungi at the extremeties of their roots and destroy those that endeavor to infest the entire plant.

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The Mont Valier Nature Reserve

The Mont Valier Nature Reserve was created in 1937 and is one of the oldest reserves in the Pyrenees. At its eye is the majestic top of Mont Valier at two,838 metres (9,314 ft) in acme. The largest reserve in the Ariège, it encompasses 9,037 hectares (about 22,000 acres) in total surface area and the southern boundary extends for 14kms along the Castilian edge. This vast protected area has retained its wild, untamed character and deep, steep sided valleys with rushing streams alternate with cirques carved out past ancient glaciers.

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The Orlu natural reserve

The Orlu natural reserve covers 4248 hectares in the high mountains nearly Ax-les-Thermes, a protected area where researchers conduct studies of wildlife. It besides serves every bit a preparation site for professionals in fields concerning the natural surround. When species repopulation projects are planned for other parts of the Pyrenean chain, Orlu reserve is where specimens are captured for release elsewhere. The full general public is welcome and a marked trail educates visitors on the life of the mountains.

The Orlu reserve is the base for the Ariège division of the national role for the conservation of wildlife (ONCFS).

Read more: The Orlu natural reserve

Source: https://www.ariege.com/en/discover-ariege/pyrenees-wildlife

Posted by: hookcounces.blogspot.com

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