Flora and fauna

On the steep slopes and the overhangs of the two gorges hardly anything grows; only extremely resistant grasses and the decorative alpine mezereon can hold their own in the inhospitable surroundings. On the more moderate slopes, by contrast, a broad diversity of Croatian vegetation presents itself: towards the sea the Mediterranean plants thrive; towards the landward side one can discover the continental-alpine growth. Towards the foot of the mountains huge forests full of beeches, oaks, ashes, firs and spruces extend; near the summits the woodland thins out and more and more flowering and herbaceous plants appear.

Because of the gorges cutting deep into the land, typical coastal animals mix with the characteristic inland fauna in the area of the Paklenica National Park. Particularly many rare bird species feel at home on the rock faces of the cuts; here one can spy, among others, the cirl and the black-headed bunting, the coastal tree pipit and the nuthatch. Anyone who sees all too large wings circling above them has the luck to experience one of the endangered short-toed snake eagles, golden eagles or the huge griffon vulture in the wild. These carrion eaters are not only tolerated in the park or kept as an attraction, they also fulfil a practical purpose: if one of the sheep on the pastures of the mountains perishes, carting it away would be too laborious, while the slow rotting of the carcass would lead to diseases among the animals still living - and so the vulture, with this "feeding", takes on the function of a "biological refuse collection". Besides the birds, the airspace is populated by brightly coloured butterfly species; the ground in the lower reaches belongs to the lizards, snakes and the tortoise. In the wooded areas one may well come upon one of the shy bears, wolves or one of the wildcats that still live here freely and unmolested. Discovering their tracks in the thicket is not hard for knowledgeable trackers, but setting eyes on the animals themselves is a rarity - though perhaps some prefer it that way... Tamer and more numerous are the chamois, which can be seen on dizzying rock ledges. They were once native to the mountains, but were then domesticated or wiped out and released again in the 1970s. Since then they have largely opened up their "new old habitat" for themselves and seem to be just as pleased about the varied sight of sport climbers as the other way round!