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| Tuscan
Archipelago >> Nature
and environment |
 First
of all it is important to say that the only poisonous reptile,
the viper, is only present on Elba and on Montecristo and that
almost all big wild animals have disappeared due to the uncontrolled
hunting. Only the wild boar resists and is getting more common,
as the Central-European boar was introduced after the extinction
of the Maremman boar, and is much more prolific. The wild boar
damages the natural vegetation and the agriculture. On Montecristo
the savage and bare landscape makes it the perfect habitat for
the Montecristo goat, that was probably introduced by the monks
during the Middle Ages and is only found on Crete and in some
regions of Anatolia. |
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Some
examples of the nun seal have recently been seen close to the
rocks. This specie had disappeared from the Mediterranean basin
and the fact that it is back is a good sign. The few examples
of mouflons, enclosed in pens, have been introduced by man on
Giglio and on Capraia. And then lizards, green lizards, geckos
and tree-frogs, many endemic species that the scientists have
found among the invertebrates and molluscs, that completes the
fauna of the archipelago. But the real pearl is the avifauna
which makes ornithologists from the whole Europe come here.
All typical Mediterranean birds live here and build nests in
the fissures of the rocks, in the bush and in the forests, making
the archipelago an incredible shelter which is precious for
the survival and reproduction of many spices. The pilgrim hawk
build nests on the top of the mountains.  Birdwatchers
can indulge their fancies looking for the woodpecker and the
green cormorant that is brasking in the sun in order to dry
its wings, the big and the small shearwater that build nests
here and only have one chick at the time and the swift. But
the Tuscan islands also give shelter to the buzzard and the
pilgrim hawk, a bird of pray of extraordinary beauty, the imperial
crow, the hoopoe, the black heron and the golden oride with
its yellow feathers. Elba and Pianosa are the last bastion for
the protection of the red partridge that lives on the hills
and close to cultivated land and is seriously endangered due
to the unlimited hunting. Then it is worth to mention one of
the rarest gulls, the one with the red beck, that is disappearing
as the bigger and more aggressive herring gull, is getting more
and more common and is less disturbed by the building of houses
and can find food in the waste deposits. The National Park of
the Tuscan archipelago has chosen the gull with the red beck
as its symbol as it represents the hope of a better future for
all the spices that live in the archipelago. A difficult task
which has to be shared by all the visitors of this marvellous
place. We have to remember that this world is not ours, we have
just borrowed it from our children.
Photos from APT Tuscan Archipelago and Mediaweb srl.
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