Page 25 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italian Riviera

A POR TR AIT OF THE IT ALIAN RIVIER A  23

Wildlife in Liguria
The natural habitats of Liguria are very varied and the
animal species that live there are equally diverse. In
addition to the rich marine life, including whales in
the waters extending southwards towards Corsica,
there are many species of seabird (cormorants,
shearwaters, gannets and terns). The hills are home Roe deer, found in
to small mammals such as the fox, marten, badger and the hills
wild boar. In some areas roe deer and fallow deer have
been reintroduced. At higher altitudes, in a gradual recolonization
Seagulls are never far away of the Apennine mountains, wolves have returned.

The Hills The Mountains
Thirty per cent of Liguria consists of hill slopes, The Maritime Alps, to the west, and the
where the economy is based on the cultivation Apennines, to the east, account for the largest
of olives (producing high-quality olive oil), chunk of Ligurian territory: as much as 69 per
ornamental plants, flowers and vines. In places cent of the region is more than 1,000m (3,281 ft)
where nothing is grown, the natural shrubby high. The proximity of the mountains to the
vegetation of the Mediterranean (known as Mediterranean has resulted in some botanically
maquis or macchia) dominates, followed, at fascinating close juxtapositions of alpine and
higher altitudes, by pine woods and woods coastal plant and flower species. At the highest
of chestnut and oak. altitudes, conifers such as Scotch pine, silver fir,
Norway spruce and larch predominate.
Olives are
cultivated on hill
terraces, often
overlooking the sea, as in Edelweiss, a lovely
the area of the Cinque alpine flower, is found at
Terre. The best-quality higher altitudes. Look out
olive variety is the for it during the flowering
taggiasca, which yields a period, from July to August.
fine extra virgin olive oil.

The wolf has been gradually
The fox, like other moving up through the
small mammals, is a Apennines and has recently
constant presence in appeared in the Parco
hillside woods. Foxes can Naturale Regionale
also be seen searching for dell’Aveto, close to
food in areas populated the border with
by humans. Emilia-Romagna.

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