Misplaced Pages

#238761

37-472: The park contains a wide stretch of land and accommodates around 9,000 people living in 92 villages. Spanning from a minimum elevation of 438 meters to a maximum of 1,486 meters at Montesinho, the park presents varied landscapes and panoramas. It has a varied avifauna (more than 120 species of breeding birds), including the presence of 70% of terrestrial animal species that occur in Portugal, with emphasis on one of

74-595: A century. They form the largest wolf population in Western Europe . Due to population controls and damage to livestock , Iberian wolves were, as of September 2021, the only Western European subspecies of wolf whose hunting remained legal, yet only in Spain. Nonetheless, very few hunting permits were given every year, strictly north of the Douro river . Along with the difficulty of their hunt by virtue of their vigilant nature and

111-444: A pale, undefined stroke on the cheek that contrasts with the white on the throat; C. l. signatus had a white stroke on the cheek that joins the white throat and with a reddish snout; and C. l. deitanus was much smaller and with more colouring than the wolves to the north. C. l. signatus is described by Cabrera as being 140–180 cm in head and body length, and 70–80 cm height at the shoulders. The Iberian wolf differs from

148-519: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Iberian wolf The Iberian wolf ( Canis lupus signatus , or Canis lupus lupus , Spanish and Portuguese : Lobo ibérico ), is a subspecies of grey wolf . It inhabits the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula , which includes northwestern Spain and northern Portugal . It is home to 2,200-2,700 wolves which have been isolated from mixing with other wolf populations for over

185-461: Is a system of rugged mountain ranges in the south of the Iberian Peninsula where a very small wolf population has lived in isolation for half a century. A breeding pair of wolves was last sighted in 2013, however an extensive survey in 2016 could not find a breeding population. The DNA of a road-killed wolf from 2003 indicated high levels of inbreeding and 30% of the genome being that of dog. It

222-609: Is built mostly of Mesozoic limestone and dolomite deposited on top of a huge Bahama-type carbonate platform, while a few kilometers thick carbonate successions have been deformed during the Alpine orogenesis. The main tectonic phase of the Alpine orogenesis in the Dinaric Karst region took place in the Cenozoic Era ( Paleogene ) as a result of the Adriatic microplate (Adria) collision with

259-508: Is communication possible across the Karst, and roads and railways tunnel through precipitous cliffs and traverse narrow ledges above roaring torrents. A number of springs and rivers rise in the Dinaric range, including Jadro Spring noted for having been the source of water for Diocletian's Palace at Split. At the same time, the purity of these rocks is such that the rivers are crystal clear, and there

296-472: Is little soil-making residue. Water quality testing of the Jadro River , for example, indicates the low pollutant levels present. Rock faces are often bare of vegetation and glaring white, but what little soil there is may collect in the hollows and support lush lime-tolerant vegetation, or yield narrow strips of cultivation. Ruins of fortresses dot the mountainous landscape, evidence of centuries of war and

333-776: Is often due to varying biodiversity throughout its range. Wolf populations strongly declined across Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries largely due to human persecution, and by the end of the Second World War they had been eradicated from all of Central Europe and almost all of Northern Europe . Their population decline continued until the 1960s, with isolated populations surviving in Italy , Spain, Portugal, Greece , and Finland . Wolf populations have commenced recovering naturally since then. The Iberian wolf consists of over 2,000 individuals in over 350 packs distributed across 140,000 km . Their densities in some regions are among

370-579: Is the most important corrosive force , dissolving the limestone by chemical action of its natural acidity. As it percolates down through cracks in the limestone it opens up fissures and channels, often of considerable depth, so that whole systems of underground drainage develop. During subsequent millennia these work deeper, leaving in their wake enormous waterless caverns , sinkholes and grottoes and forming underground labyrinths of channels and shafts. The roofs of some of these caverns may eventually fall in, to produce great perpendicular-sided gorges, exposing

407-470: Is the only place in Portugal where Euonymus europaeus can be found naturally. The government of Portugal maintains a registry and facilitates placement of Cão de Gado Transmontano for flock and wolf protection through its agency, Parque Natural de Montesinho. This Bragança location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a protected area in Europe

SECTION 10

#1732858166239

444-545: Is thought that as the population of these wolves declined, the inability to find a mate led to inbreeding and hybridization with dogs. The wolves in this region may now be extinct. Dinaric Alps The Dinaric Alps ( / d ɪ ˈ n ær ɪ k / ), also Dinarides , are a mountain range in Southern and Southcentral Europe, separating the continental Balkan Peninsula from the Adriatic Sea . They stretch from Italy in

481-692: The Gulf of Biscay in the west and the Mediterranean in the east. Height is 70–90 cm and body length 110–140 cm. Females weigh 25–35 kg while Males weigh 35–55 kg. The Iberian wolf lives in small packs. It is considered to be beneficial because it keeps the population of wild boars stable, thus allowing some respite to the endangered capercaillie populations which suffer greatly from boar predation. It also eats rabbits , roe deer , red deer , ibexes and even small carnivores and fish , depending on location. In Guadarrama National Park ,

518-534: The Ottoman Empire failed to fully subjugate the mountainous areas of Montenegro . In the 20th century, too, the mountains provided favourable terrain for guerrilla warfare , with Yugoslav Partisans organising one of the most successful Allied resistance movements of World War II . The area remains underpopulated, and forestry and mining remain the chief economic activities in the Dinaric Alps. The people of

555-428: The 1930s, Iberian wolves were relatively spread throughout Portugal, but destruction of habitat, loss of wild ungulates and the persecution by humans made it lose most of its territory (from around 44,100 km in 1900–1930, to only 16,300 km in 2002–2003) though populations have grown to about 29,000 km since. Some Spanish naturalists and conservationists such as Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente called for

592-530: The Balkans. No permanent ice caps existed, and there is little evidence of extensive glaciation . Only the highest summits of Durmitor , Orjen and Prenj have glacial valleys and moraines as low as 600 m (1,969 ft). However, in the Accursed Mountains ( Serbo-Croatian : Prokletije ), a range on the northern Albanian border that runs east to west (thus breaking the general geographic trend of

629-464: The Dinaric Alps are on record as being the tallest in the world, with an average male adolescent height of 185.6 cm (6 ft 1.1 in). The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina have the highest recorded average of any single country, with 183.9 cm average for men and 171.8 cm for women. The main mountain passes of the Dinaric Alps are: Major tunnels transversing the Dinaric Alps include: The famous Belgrade–Bar railway crosses

666-467: The Dinaric system), there is evidence of major glaciation. One geological feature of great importance to the present-day landscape of the Dinarides must be considered in more detail: that of the limestone mountains, often with their attendant faulting. They are hard and slow to erode, and often persist as steep jagged escarpments, through which steep-sided gorges and canyons are cleft by the rivers draining

703-566: The Iberian wolf primarily (82%) fed on wild animals, with domesticated animals only making up a small (18%) portion of the diet. Wild boar (44%) and roe deer (35%) were the most important prey items, with ibex (3%) and red deer (0.3%) barely being targeted. The structure and availability of prey populations, as well as the size of its prey, often affects the diet of the Iberian wolf as well, as it has been observed to occasionally consume smaller prey such as rodents and birds. The consumption of unusual prey

740-531: The Iberian wolf under Canis lupus signatus . In 2020, a genomic study of Eurasian wolves found that the populations of the Dinaric Alps - Balkan Mountains region, the Iberian peninsula, and Italy diverged from each other 10,500 years ago followed by negligible gene flow between them. Their long-term isolation may explain the morphological and genetic differences between them. Cabrera identified two types of wolves living in Spain. In comparison, C. l. lupus had

777-656: The Serbo-Macedonian and Rhodope Massifs, and the process is still active. The Mesozoic limestone forms a very distinctive region of the Balkans , notable for features such as the Karst Plateau , which has given its name to all such terrains of limestone eroded by groundwater. The Dinarides are known for being composed of karst – limestone rocks – as is Dinara , the mountain for which they were named. The Quaternary ice ages had relatively little direct geologic influence on

SECTION 20

#1732858166239

814-549: The Spanish-born zoologist Ángel Cabrera in 1907. The Iberian wolf's skull morphometrics , mtDNA , and microsatellites differ from other European wolves. In 2016, a study of mitochondrial DNA sequences of both modern and ancient wolves indicated that in Europe, the two most genetically distinct haplotypes form the Italian wolf , and separately, the Iberian wolf. The National Center for Biotechnology Information / Genbank lists

851-633: The animal's protection to the European Parliament Committee on Petitions . Over a few weeks in September and October 2013, about 30 puppies and young wolves were killed by hunters in Asturias, León, and Cantabria. Although hunting is banned in Portugal, about 45% of wolf deaths are due to human activities, including illegal hunting. Calling the rate unsustainable, 10 organisations signed a statement requesting stronger protection. Sierra Morena

888-565: The area. During the Alpine earth movements that occurred 50 to 100 million years ago, immense lateral pressures folded and overthrust the rocks in a great arc around the old rigid block of the northeast. The main tectonic phase of the orogenesis in the area of the Dinaric Karst took place in Cenozoic Era (Paleogene) as a result of the Adriatic Microplate (Adria) collision with Europe, and

925-520: The border with the Dalmatian part of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Names of the chain in local languages include Albanian : Alpet Dinarike [alpɛt dinaɾikɛ] or Dinaret ; Italian : Alpi Dinariche [alpi dinarike] ; Serbo-Croatian : Динариди , Dinaridi or Динарско горје Dinarsko gorje [dìnarskòː ɡòːrjeː] ; Slovene : Dinarsko gorstvo [dìnarskòː ɡòːrstvòː] . The Dinaric Karst region

962-515: The end of the hunting and the protection of the animal. Today, the hunting of wolves is banned in Portugal, and in Spain since 2021. The 2003 census estimated the total Iberian population to be 2,000 wolves. Wolves have been reported as returning to Navarre and the Basque Country and to the provinces of Extremadura , Madrid , and Guadalajara . A male wolf was found recently in Catalonia , where

999-501: The higher slopes. The partially submerged western Dinaric Alps form the numerous islands and harbors along the Croatian coast. The most extensive example of limestone mountains in Europe are those of the Karst of the Dinaric Alps. Here, all the characteristic features are encountered again and again as one travels through this wild and thinly populated country. Limestone is a very porous rock, yet very hard and resistant to erosion . Water

1036-594: The highest in Europe, with up to 7 wolves/100 km . In 2018, a study identified that this wolf could be categorised into 11 genetic groups. Four groups were identified in the Portuguese regions of Alto Minho , Alto Trás-os-Montes , and one group located south of the Douro river . Seven groups were identified in the Spanish regions of western Galicia , eastern Galicia, western Asturias , central Asturias, eastern Asturias, south-eastern Asturias, and Castilla y León . Until

1073-732: The highest section of the entire Dinaric Alps; this section stretches from Albania to Kosovo and eastern Montenegro . Maja Jezercë , standing at 2,694 metres (8,839 ft) above the Adriatic , is the highest peak and is located in Albania. The Dinaric Alps are one of the most rugged and extensive mountainous areas of Europe, alongside the Caucasus Mountains , Alps , Pyrenees , Carpathian Mountains and Scandinavian Mountains . They are formed largely of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of dolomite , limestone , sandstone and conglomerates formed by seas and lakes that once covered

1110-500: The last native wolf was killed in 1929. However, this animal was not a member of the Iberian subspecies, but an Italian wolf ( C. l. italicus ) migrating from France . As of 2013, an estimated 300 individuals remain in Portugal. In October 2013, Ecologists in Action called for an urgent review of the Iberian wolf census, which may overestimate their numbers. Later that month, wolf association Lobo Marley sent 198,000 signatures calling for

1147-538: The more common Eurasian wolf with its slighter frame, white marks on the upper lips, the dark marks on the tail, and a pair of dark marks in its front legs that give it its subspecies name, signatus ("marked"). The subspecies differentiation may have developed at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Ages due to the isolation of the Iberian Peninsula when glacier barriers grew in the Pyrenees and eventually reached

Montesinho Natural Park - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-589: The most important Iberian wolf populations. In 2019 a Cantabrian brown bear was sighted. The ichthyofauna (fish) includes the Northern straight-mouth nase , Luciobarbus bocagei and the brown trout . Shale dominates the landscape but there are also limestone stains in plateau areas and granite in the Montesinho mountain range. Native trees include Prunus avium , Ulmus minor , Corylus avellana , Malus sylvestris , Quercus pyrenaica , among others. It

1221-453: The northwest through Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Serbia , Montenegro , and Kosovo to Albania in the southeast. The Dinaric Alps extend for approximately 645 kilometres (401 mi) along the western Balkan Peninsula from the Julian Alps of the northeast Italy, downwards to the Šar and Korab massif , where their direction changes. The Accursed Mountains are

1258-512: The process is still active. The Dinaric Alps were thrown up in more or less parallel ranges, stretching like necklaces from the Julian Alps as far as northern Albania and Kosovo, where the mountainous terrain subsides to make way for the waters of the Drin River and the plains of Kosovo. The Dinarides are named after Mount Dinara (1,831 m), a prominent peak in the center of the mountain range on

1295-588: The rarity of their sightings, they were strongly desired by many European hunters as a big-game trophy . The Iberian wolf Canis lupus signatus Cabrera 1907 is classified as Canis lupus lupus by Mammal Species of the World . Some authors claim that the south-eastern Spanish wolf, last sighted in Murcia in the 1930s, was a different subspecies called Canis lupus deitanus . It was even smaller and more reddish in color, without dark spots. Both subspecies were nominated by

1332-552: The refuge the Dinaric Alps have provided to various armed forces. During the Roman period, the Dinarides provided shelter to the Illyrians resisting Roman conquest of the Balkans, which began with the conquest of the eastern Adriatic coast in the 3rd century BC. Rome conquered the whole of Illyria in 168 BC, but these mountains sheltered Illyrian resistance forces for many years until the area's complete subjugation by 14 AD. More recently,

1369-1082: The surface to the water once more. The Dinaric rivers carved many canyons characteristic for Dinaric Alps, and in particular karst. Among the largest and most well known are the Neretva , the Rakitnica , the Prača , the Drina , the Sutjeska , the Vrbas , the Ugar , the Piva , the Tara , the Komarnica , the Morača , the Cem/Ciijevna , the Lim , and the Drin . Only along the Dinaric gorges

#238761