The Coto Donana National Park

The Coto Doñana National Park is located in Andalusia. It is a highly important and vast wetland place, one of the most essential wildlife reservation centers in Spain. Its size is approximately 1300 sq kilometers, making it one of the largest parks in all of Europe. It was also named a UNESCO biosphere reservation, thanks to its wonderful habitat for the wildlife that live there.

This national park is home to migratory birds, amphibians, mammals and a very good ecosystem that can sustain a large number of wildlife species with no difficulty. The fame of this wonderful national park did not form recently, in fact it goes way back to the thirteenth century! At that time, the kings of Castillia organised a hunting estate for royality around the region. In the past years the soil development threatened the integrity and balance of the ecosystem created at Doñana National Park, but it was saved by the highly important work of a conservationist called Guy Mountford.

He is responsabile for educating the people about this amazing ecosystem and its importance to Spain and the world. The Coto Doñana National Park is a highly appreciated place by ornithologists thanks to its important reserve and community of birds. The area where the park is set is actually just beneath the bird migration route between Africa and Europe. What this  means is that a variety of bird species fly over this area. Some of these migrating birds include vultures and spoonbills.

The Doñana National Park actually features more than 250 different species of birds, making it one of the most impressive colonies in the whole world, not just Spain. Birdwatchers consider that the best time to visit is in the spring and autumn, but there are plenty of species to look at during the winter as well, ducks, geese, you name it.  Many other animal species are kept in the Doñana National Park, not just birds. There can be found an impressive number of mammals, for example.

One of the most well-known mammals is the Iberian Lynx, a big cat that is sadly very close to extinction. In the Doñana National Park you will also find a large number of nocturnal species, some rare mangooses brought from Egypt, rabits, badgers and so on. Even though the Coto Doñana National Park has reached such great fame, things did not always go so well for this wildlife reservation. The larger the number of visiting tourists, the more water it needs, raising the expenses of this park.