The mammals of the hilly belt

The park is inhabited by many mammals that typically live in forests and in hillside fringe areas and one can easily observe the signs they leave behind (footprints, the remains of meals, droppings).

A small mammal that lives almost everywhere in the park is the hedgehog, whereas you'll find squirrels, dormice, hazel dormice and bank voles in the undergrowth and amid the treetops.

The open fields are home to the hare and the common vole, whereas along watercourses you are more likely to find the European water vole, an excellent swimmer that tends to dig burrows along the banks of rivers and streams.

Larger mammals include carnivores such as the fox, badger, weasel and beech marten that by now have learned to exploit the coexistence with man.

In recent years the park has seen the return of the roe deer, a cervid that is readily recognizable by its small, three-pointed horns, no tail and conspicuous white rump patch that appears in winter. The roe deer has been absent from the uplands for some time but it is progressively resettling in copses, scrubland and abandoned farmland, which represent its preferred habitats and which are well distributed throughout the protected area.  The wild boar has also recently returned and its unmistakable footprints can be seen in the clayey soils of the badlands.