Somiedo, Cantabric Mts., Spain Photograph by Pedro Regato/ WWF MedPO   Palaearctic Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests   30,800 square miles (79,700 square kilometers) -- about the size of Maine Vulnerable

· Where Wilderness Was
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Where Wilderness Was

The wild landscape of the Cantabrian Mountains once held deep forests of oak and pine. These forests were mixed with open areas of grasslands and scrub, as well as marshes and reed beds along the coast. Today, much of the wilderness has been replaced by cultivated fields, pastures, meadows, and orchards--which often provide the only remaining habitat for many species.

Special Features

Where wild habitat remains in the mountains, it is dominated by oak groves growing alongside ash, beech, birch, hazel, pine, and holly trees. Above 5,900 feet (1,800 m), thickets containing juniper trees are interspersed with gently sloping meadows. Coastal areas have intertidal mud flats, sandbanks, salt marshes, cliffs, and beaches. This ecoregion also contains Spain’s Muniellos Forest, the best-preserved English oak forest in Spain and in this ecoregion. The climate is influenced by the ecoregion’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, which creates many diverse habitats.

	Since 1987, scientists have been studying the Spanish wolf population in the Cantabrian Mountains. They are looking at the wolves’ influence on red deer populations, which appear to be stabilized by the wolves’ presence.

Wild Side

Along the shore, water birds may be seen, including purple herons, little bitterns, little terns, and white storks. Higher in the mountains, you might see raptors such as hen harriers, peregrine falcons, eagle owls, golden eagles, and black kites flying and gliding on the air currents overhead. Mammals are found mainly in these mountain areas. The goat-like chamois, for instance, can be seen stepping sure-footedly in the steepest areas. Roe deer, wild boars, red foxes, Spanish ibex, hares, stoats, beech and pine martens, river otters, alpine marmots, edible and garden dormice, and wolves all make their homes here as well. The abundance of prey animals keep the carnivores and raptors well-supplied with food.

Cause for Concern

The most persistent threats include game hunting, open-cast coal mining, deforestation, tourism development, road building, cattle and sheep grazing, grassland burning, as well as the draining of wetland areas and their subsequent conversion to agriculture.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.