There is a diverse mix of flora and fauna in this region of Portugal. Firstly Porto e Norto is home to the Garrano do Gerês a species of small indigenous ponies, whilst the Peneda-Geres National Park was once where the brown bear and the mountain goat used to inhabit. Nowadays it is today one of the last places in Portugal where you’ll find the wolf and the royal eagle, and other important species like the roe deer, the wild boar, the fox, the wild ferret and the otter.
As the only National Park in existence in Portugal and the first protected area to be founded in1971, it is a nature-lovers paradise. Covering an area of 72,000 hectares and has an extraordinary diversity of climate, environments and scenery, and because of this, animal and plant life found here are rare or non existent in other parts of the country.
The typical vegetation of the region is oak. It is almost always the black oak, along with ferns, mosses, lichen, mushrooms and other plants such as the endangered holly and the Geres lily.
Alvão Natural Park, photo by Rui Morais de Sousa
Two mountain plains - Castro Laboreiro and Mourela form a granite semi--circle that makes up this Park and many sheep are to be found wandering about on their slopes as the mountain populations mainly survive from shepherding.
But sleepy sheep aren’t the only creatures to be found nestling on the mountains; slippery reptiles have been sighted such as the water snake, the water lizard and the green lizard, as well as the rare Sloane and Horned viper. And if you’re really lucky you even see the rare Lusitanian salamander or an Iberian frog….
ATOP members: Destination Portugal, Keytel International
