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The other presences

The gypsum plateaus, the sunny borders of the dolines and, often, even the shrubby meadows around the badlands provide microclimatic conditions that support numerous reptile species. In addition to the western green lizard, Italian wall lizard, common wall lizard, whip snake and Aesculapian snake, which are rather common across all hilly areas, you'll also find reptiles that have a narrower Mediterranean range, such as the Italian three-toed skink, a lizard with a rather snakelike appearance and very small and rudimentary limbs that inhabits uncultivated, shrubby fields and the borders of the pubescent oak forests.

Wildlife is abundant in the badland areas due to the greater availability of surface water. In addition to the very common green frog, the European toad and the agile frog, you can also easily find the Italian tree frog, the northern crested newt and the smooth newt.

The drier and sunnier areas of the chalk outcrops and the badlands' gullies also support various insect species that are particularly adapted to this type of environment. Some of the more peculiar species are the conehead mantis, a bizarre-looking species of praying mantis that is extremely cryptically colored, and the red-winged grasshopper (Oedipoda germanica), a grasshopper that is almost invisible when resting on chalk or clay but that exposes its bright red wings when taking flight.