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Routes & Tours
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Donana National Park Routes & Tours - 4WD Tours, on horseback and even by horse and carriage!
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Flora & Fauna (I)
In the Doñana National Park we can find a rich palette of flora and fauna coexisting in a unique area. It has three
ecosystems: the salt marsh, the forest reserves and the beaches with dunes. Each one of them possesses its own
fauna and flora, different from the other two.
Within the park, replete with a wide span of biodiversity of high
ecological value, there grow 875 species of flora, and there live 360 species of bird, of which 127 customarily
breed in Doñana; 37 of non-marine mammals; 20 of freshwater fish; 11 of amphibians; and 21 of reptiles.
And
amongst these species there are some that are endangered: 6 species of plants, 11 of birds, 1 mammal species, 4
fish species and one reptile. And if we put a name to them, two of those that are in serious danger of extinction
are the Iberian lynx (Lynx Pardina) and the Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila Adalberti).
Due to its privileged geographical situation between two continents and its proximity to the meeting-place of
Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea at the Straight of Gibraltar, in Doñana we can observe over 300 different
bird species over the course of a year, since thousands of them - European and African, water fowl and land
birds - migrate over it, breed in it and overwinter here. Water fowl from all over Western Europe rest here, and
one can find a vast number of species from Africa and Europe in the sea marshes and surrounding areas.
The presence of birds is one of Doñana's most distinctive features. Some outstanding ones are the greylag goose,
the mallard, the greater flamingo, the spatula, the grey heron, the shoveler duck, the Muscovy duck, the
red-crested pochard, the little grebe, the Eurasian coot, the red-knobbed coot, the purple swamp-hen, the bittern,
the stint, the white-headed duck, the common pochard, the common teal, the cattle egret, the avocet, the plover,
the little bustard, the great bustard, the night heron, the squacco heron, the black stork, the white stork, the
crane, the black-winged stilt, and the little tern, amongst others; not forgetting the presence of numerous birds
of prey such as the marsh harrier, the booted eagle, the barn owl, the black kite, the red kite, the griffon
vulture, the European eagle owl, and the short-toed eagle; some of these - similarly to the Spanish imperial
eagle - being endangered species.
As for the mammals, their abundance and diversity is represented, apart from by the endangered Iberian lynx, by
the red deer, the fallow deer, the wild boar, the roe deer, the ichneumon, the polecat, the fox, the European
rabbit, the genet, the garden dormouse and the hare, not forgetting the horses and the groups of mares which
spend the greater part of the year in the salt marshes.
Some of the species of amphibians most commonly found in Doñana are the sharp-ribbed newt, the western spadefoot
toad and the European tree frog. Moreover, there are numerous species of reptiles: the Montpellier snake, the
viperine snake, the grass snake, the fringe-fingered lizard, the snub-nosed viper, the stripe-necked terrapin, the
spur-thighed tortoise...
The Doñana Park has three main ecosystems: forest reserves, salt marshes and beaches with dunes. Each of them
creates an individual habitat, characterized by communities of plant species and fauna which are in constant
interaction and development, and where each passing season, year after year, offers a magnificent chapter and
example of diversity of life.
All along the way through the oldest and most mature and stable ecosystem - the forest reserves - one comes across
abundant woodland masses of trees such as the cork oak, the common juniper, the stone pine, the wild olive, the
strawberry tree and the savin juniper; shrubs and herbaceous plants such as the alkali bulrush, the tamarisk,
heather, marram grass, the common club-rush, the grey-leaved cistus, the summer asphodel, the mock privet, the
rockrose, rosemary, Irish broom and mastic, amongst others (all this is Mediterranean woodland or scrub).
During the 18th century pine woods around the mouth of the River Gualdalquivir were replanted to provide timber
for the Royal Navy's ships. For that reason lots of pines can be seen in Doñana. Eucalyptus trees have also
brought about drastic changes in the forest reserves, which were replanted with this species for industrial
purposes, decades before the National Park came into existence. However, when it became apparent that this
species was hampering the growth of the autochthonous vegetation, a systematic felling programme was adopted for
eucalyptus, thus enabling the native plant species to regenerate.
Doñana's youngest and most extensive ecosystem, the salt marsh, possesses a tremendously changing visual
panorama and, for that reason, it's a place of exceptional ornithological diversity - the scene of a powerful
and spectacular event at whose centre is migration, which converts the marsh into a meeting-place for European
and African water fowl and land birds. The chief users of the marsh are great and little grebes, teals, ducks,
wigeons and pintails, nightjars, nightingales, shovelers, geese, coots, black terns and harriers ... Also, the
greater flamingos are a spectacular sight in their favourite place, the "pikes" (called after the fish of the
same name), where they can overwinter because water remains in these deeper areas even in years of drought. And
other inhabitants which can be found close by in the stream beds, nowadays known as "caños", are frogs, carp,
freshwater turtles, purple swamp-hens and kingfishers.
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