Читать книгу Walking in Bulgaria's National Parks. Pirin, Rila and Central Balkans National Parks онлайн

11 страница из 63

The fauna too is extremely interesting and diverse, a meeting place for European and Asiatic species, including 100 of mammal, of which 33 are bats, 421 of bird, 207 of fish, some 37 of reptile, 18 of amphibian, and an estimated 27,000 species of invertebrate, which includes over 200 species of butterfly and 68 species of dragonfly.

Sokolna Reserve information boards (Walk 4)

Protected Territories

Bulgaria has a long tradition of nature conservation. Its first protected area, the Silkosiya Reserve was created in the Strandzha Mountains in 1931. Three years later, in 1934, a People’s Park was established on the Vitosha Mountains, becoming the first such ‘national nature park’ on the Balkan Peninsula. Today, Bulgaria’s protected areas encompass approximately 4.3 per cent of the country’s territory, and include 90 nature reserves, 10 nature parks and three national parks. It is these three national parks – Pirin, Rila and Central Balkan – that are the focus of this guidebook, for they not only represent some of the finest wilderness regions in Europe, they are also conveniently accessible, being crisscrossed with a well-marked and well-maintained network of hiking trails.