Etna Volcano, Sicily, Italy Photograph by Pedro Regato/WWF   Southern Europe: Southern Italy Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub   5,100 square miles (13,100 square kilometers) -- about the size of Connecticut Vulnerable

· Oaks in the Italian Boot
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Oaks in the Italian Boot

If you've ever looked at a map of Italy, you may have noticed that the country is shaped like a long boot with a narrow toe and high heel. The Appenine Mountains run the length of the entire country, in the middle of the boot. The ecoregion includes the southern half of the Appenine Mountain Range. The mountains extend to the southernmost Calabria region, located in the toe of the boot, and pop up again offshore in the northern part of the island of Sicily. Visit these sections of the Italian boot, and you'll find oak forests full of insects, birds, and small- to medium-sized mammals.

Special Features

In the Sicilian portions of this ecoregion and you'll find large stands of sessile and bitter oak trees, with blue anemone and Persian violet primrose growing on the forest floor. On the mainland, the outer portions of the forest are dominated by bitter oaks and the interior sections are mostly beech forests with a small section of black pines. Throughout the ecoregion, the climate consists of hot summers and cool winters. Snowfall is common at the highest altitudes, and earthquakes are frequent in the southern Appenines.

	You can find the Corsican hare on both Sicily and the mainland of Italy, but you won't find it on the French island of Corsica, which it’s named after! It was introduced to Corsica in the 16th century, but was probably extinct there by the mid-1990s.

Wild Side

Wander through these oak forests and you may hear the rat-a-tat-tat of black woodpeckers hammering the trees or see a kingfisher flying across your path. Tawny owls and hen harriers swoop to the ground to grab mice or other small creatures for their next meal. Among the many mammals you might see here are crested porcupines, Savi's pine voles, Corsican hares, western hedgehogs, Sicilian shrews (found only on Sicily), and even wildcats.

Cause for Concern

Air and freshwater pollution produced by the area's cities is a major concern in this ecoregion. Tourist-related development and activities have encroached on some parts of the forests. Local people have grown crops here for thousands of years, even at high elevations. And hunting has most likely eliminated brown bears and lynx from this part of the Appenines.

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