Читать книгу The Islands of Croatia. 30 walks on 14 Adriatic islands онлайн

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Wildlife

Croatia has an incredibly rich biodiversity for a country its size, with over 38,000 known species of plants and animals, including around 1000 which are endemic, and many species that are threatened or endangered. The Croatian islands are particularly interesting for the profusion of reptiles and invertebrates that can be seen, and for their extraordinarily rich plant life, while the surrounding waters of the Adriatic are inhabited by a wealth of marine life.

Mammals

Mammals including Red and Roe deer, Wild pig and Fox can be found on various islands on the Croatian Adriatic, along with smaller species such as Red squirrel, Pine marten and Common dormouse. There are several species of bat (at least five species on Lastovo alone), including Greater and Mediterranean horseshoe bat, Savi’s pipistrelle and Long-fingered bat (the latter classified as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List). Mouflon (wild sheep, ancestor of modern domestic breeds) can be seen on Dugi otok and Lastovo, having been introduced for hunting in the 19th century, and a few of the islands are home to an elusive and little-known carnivore, the European jackal (Canis aureus, also known as the Golden jackal). None of the other large carnivores present in small numbers on the Croatian mainland – Brown bear, Grey wolf and Lynx – are found on the islands. The island of Mljet is conspicuous as the only place in Europe where the Indian grey mongoose is found in the wild, having been introduced in the early 20th century to exterminate the island’s burgeoning native population of snakes. Incidentally, Croatia’s currency (the kuna) is named after the Pine marten – kuna in Croatian – the pelts of which were used as a unit of trade and measure of currency in the Middle Ages.