Asturias is home to a large and varied community of wild animals that are very easy to see while travelling along the routes. The wildlife enjoy special protection in the natural reserves created especially for them.
The wildlife in the coastal fauna consists of numerous examples of invertebrates as crustaceans; fishes like sea bass, mackerel or tuna and aquatic mammals such as dolphins.
You will also find wildlife such sea birds as the seagull, gannet, heron and cormorant as well as other birds that are less aquatic and prefer to live in the cliffs such as crowns and the pilgrim falcon. The forests of oaks and beech trees give refuge to large mammals such as roe deer, wolves, wild boar, deer, foxes, badgers and civet cats. In the low-lying forests live fallow deer. The birds that are very important to these habitats are the capercaillie, sparrow hawk, goshawk, wood pigeon and duck. The rivers have a wide variety of freshwater fish and are abundant with salmon and trout.
You can find wildlife in the mountain like the bear, the Asturcon (native horses) and the chamois. You can also find such bird life as the Royal owl, the vulture, hawk, partridge, Royal Eagle or Alpine sparrow.
Every autumn from mid September until mid October in the mountainous regions the performance of La Berrea takes place. It is the time for the rut of the stag. You can see the fights between males and the shocking howl of the stags when trying to attract the females and mark their territory.
Currently, Asturias has two wildlife species in danger of extinction so the local government has allocated protected areas to facilitate their reproduction and conservation. They are the brown bear and the Capercaille. The bear is the main representative of the Asturias fauna. Their natural habitat is the oak and beech forests in the area of Somiedo, Muniellos and in the counties of Caso and Ponga. On the other side, the Asturias capercaille is smaller in size to the ones living in Europe and it is an authentic relic of the glaciations period.
More info: Fauna Parque Nacional Picos de Europa
If you want more information contact Where is Asturias at info@whereisasturias.com
Images supplied by Tomás Fano and Turismo Asturias: José Suárez, Ana Muller, Osmel, Antonio Vázquez and Fernando Jiménez.