Wildlife

The Park area, about 50250 ha, is considerably diversified for the orographic features of the territory and typology of environments having a great variety of vegetal and animal species.
The big difference in height, the remarkable differences between slopes with a different exposure, the morphology marked by canyons, plateaus, deep gorges, cliffs and screens form an incredible diversification of environments, characterized by a wide variety of vegetal formations and faunistic species representing a model of the ecosystem biodiversity of Central Apennines.
Within this diversity of habitats and landscapes you can also identify wild and inaccessible places, with wide forests and rupestrian formations still populated by marsican bears, Apennine wolfs and royal eagles which are joined to areas where the historic presence of man is testified by ancient settlements and well-preserved historical centres.

It has been verified here the presence of about 46% of mammal species of Italian fauna, 32% of breeding birds, 17% of reptiles and 30% of amphibians. In the Park there are 216 species of vertebrates of which 43 species include the present faunistic emergencies (endemic species in danger of extinction or threatened).

In the protected area live species at risk of extinction as the marsican bear, here with 3-5 specimens whose conservation the Park is engaged for about a decade thanks to the realization of three successive LIFE projects, of which one is in course; like as the Apennine wolf, the royal eagle, the griffon, a wonderful vulture reintroduced by Corps of Foresters, the white woodpecker and the goshawk, these latter species, now rare and at way of extinction linked to forestal environment they find here wide forests where to build a nest. Rocky slopes and cliffs give a suitable habitat for building a nest also for the pilgrim hawk, the royal owl, the alpine chough, the rare lanner.

Some species are less well-known but however are still rare in the protected area, such as the italic hare and the alpine Rosalie, a colourful coleopter tied to beech woods. The protected area, resulted however from studies made in national sphere, is one of the few Apennine areas suitable for reintroduction Apennine chamois.

Among mammals, as well as the marsican bear and the Apennine wolf, are present: the wildcat, the marten, the deer, the roe deer, the porcupine, the dormouse.

Among the birds you can also note: the kingfisher, the coralline chough, the sparrow-hawk, the imperial crow, the green peak, the woodpecker, the alpine finch, the coturnix, the little shrike, wood lark.

Among the reptiles are present, in addition to the rare Orsini's viper, the cervone, the natrice, the grass snake.

Among the amphibians are reported the Apennine salamander, salamandrina dagli occhiali, the Apennine triton, the Apennine red frog and the italic tree-frog.