Pyrenees

:For other meanings see: Pyrenees, Victoria and Montes Pyrenaeus.

Flora and fauna

A still more marked effect of the preponderance of rainfall in the western half of the chain is seen in the aspect of the vegetation. The lower mountains in the extreme west are very well wooded, but the extent of forest declines eastwards, and the eastern Pyrenees are peculiarly wild and barren, all the more since it is in this part of the chain that granitic masses prevail. There is a change, moreover, in the composition of the flora in passing from west to east. In the west the flora, at least in the north, resembles that of central Europe, while in the east it is distinctly Mediterranean in character, though the difference of latitude is only about 1°, on both sides of the chain from the centre whence the Corbières stretch north-eastwards towards the central plateau of France. The Pyrenees are relatively as rich in endemic species as the Alps, and among the most remarkable instances of that endemism is the occurrence of the sole European species of Dioscorea (yam), Dioscorea pyrenaica, at a single high site in the central Pyrenees, and that of the monotypic genus Xatardia, only on a high alpine pass between the Val d'Eynes and Catalonia. The genus most abundantly represented in the range is that of the saxifrages, several species of which are endemic here.

Related Topics:
Corbières - Dioscorea - Yam - Xatardia - Val d'Eynes - Catalonia - Saxifrage

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In their fauna also the Pyrenees present some striking instances of endemism. The Pyrenean desman or water-mole (Galemys pyrenaicus) is found only in some of the streams of the northern slopes of these mountains, the only other member of this genus being confined to the rivers of the Caucasus in southern Russia. Among the other peculiarities of the Pyrenean fauna are blind insects in the caverns of Ariège, the principal genera of which are Anophthalmus and Adelops. The Pyrenean Ibex mysteriously became extinct in January of 2000, and the last female Pyrenaic bear was shot dead on November 2004.

Related Topics:
Mole - Galemys pyrenaicus - Caucasus - Russia - Cavern - Anophthalmus - Adelops - Pyrenean Ibex

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