La Sierra Morena de Jaén, le domaine de l’Aigle ibérique et du Lynx pardelle

Despeñaperros Pass is an open gateway to any traveller who wishes to explore Sierra Morena de Jaén in Andalusia. Across this threshold lie thousands of hectares of Mediterranean woodland and scrub, Holm-Oak and Cork-Oak woods, vast pinewoods, rivers fringed by Oleander bushes and dense riparian woodland, hills and knolls dotted with round granite outcrops and gashed by cliffs, dehesas where fighting bulls graze, groves where silvery-foliaged Olives grow and fertile farmland washed by the great Guadalquivir. This natural scenario of serried sierras, gorges and plains stages a fascinating daily show of life in Mediterranean ecosystems. This area is one of the best in Spain (if not the best) to watch the Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle. It is also the domain of a lot of interesting birds (including White-Rumped Swift, vultures, Black-Shouldered Kite, Purple Swamphen, Rufous Bush Robin …,), rare amphibians, endemic plants …
We publish in this article one of the 15 trails presented in the second volume of the « Rutas para ver aves y naturaleza en Sierra Morena » collection dedicated to the Sierra Morena de Jaén.