Le parc national des Abruzzes (Italie)

In the central Appenines, Abruzzo is one of Italy’s most famous national parks and the last stronghold of several mammals now extremely rare or extinct elsewhere in Italy. Although best known for its mammals Abruzzo has a good selection of mountain and forest birds in an area with good tourist facilities. The park covers more than 400 km² at altitudes between 700 and 2,200 m. Habitats vary but this is very much an upland area with ancient beech forest mixed with Black Pine on the lower slopes and Dwarf Mountain Pine and Juniper at higher altitudes. Higher still there are meadows and the higher peaks are generally bare of vegetation. The birds include the Peregrine Falcon, the Golden Eagle, the  Alpine Accentor, the Wallcreeper, the Snow Finch and the lilfordi race of White-backed. 
Abruzzo is famous for its small population of Brown Bears, belonging to the subspecies Ursus arctos marsicanus, and the now extremely rare Appenine Wolf.  Pierre Boutonnet, manager of the association Yuhina, has made a lot of nature trips in this park, and he proposes us to discover it in this article.