Sierra de Baza

Fauna and flora

On the lower slopes, when the plateau gives rise to the mountains and the crops decrease, appear patches of holm oaks that have resisted human action. On higher slopes, when the humidity is evident, oaks alternate with oak maple and gall oak, deciduous trees accompanied by whitebeams, yews and honeysuckle. On the lower levels are jays and birds of the steppe -larks and wheatears- which in the mid-mountain gives way to the largest concentration of fauna: great tits and other insectivorous birds, larks, goshawks and a wide range of mammals: deer, fox, wild cat and genet. On the peaks, limestone and clayey soil house the most unusual and endemic flora, a native wild pine that shares the territory with black pine, creeping plants and broom, which better withstand the rigours of these heights: creeping and forest junipers, tracts of broom, dolomite thyme, Phoenicean juniper, oil juniper, prickly juniper, carrasquilla, black thorn and white-leaved cistus. This is the area under the domain of the great birds of prey, like the real and short-toed eagles. Another group is the invertebrates, especially butterflies - Baza butterfly, which was believed extinct since 1993, priora and malacosoma-, damselflies and dragonflies; as well as amphibians: common toad and the endemic Betica midwife toad.