Flora and fauna

Despite the extinct species (wolves, fallow deer, roe deer) on Mount Etna there are: the wild cat, the fox, the porcupine, the rabbit and the hare, the weasel and the dormouse. We find many birds of prey such as the kestrel, the buzzard, the sparrowhawk, the peregrine falcon and the golden eagle. While you take the barn owl night owl and owl.

The vegetable universe of Etna is characterized by a set of factors among which the volcanic nature of the mountain has a predominant role.

The flora of the Park, extremely varied and rich, conditions the landscape by offering continuous and sudden changes; this depends on the different compactness and the continuous reworking of the substrate by the lava flows that succeed one another over time, as well as by varying of temperatures and precipitation in relation to the altitude and exposure of the slopes. Starting from the lower altitudinal levels, where once were the holm oak forests, here are the vineyards, the olive groves, the orchards, the hazel groves and to the west the pistachio groves, all inserted in the context of oak and chestnut woods. Around and even above 2,000 meters we find the Beech which reaches its southern limit and the highest altitudes, and the birch, an endemic species, that is exclusive of Etna.