DOLOMITES - Annexes 2-8 - Provincia di Udine

NOMINATION OF THE DOLOMITES FOR INSCRIPTION ON THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE LIST UNESCO
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The Dolomites are the only Alpine region where bears have
maintained a sufficient, albeit minimum, population. The
European project to reintroduce the species has restored
vitality and a new demographic impetus to the local
population.
The Dolomites, with their specific biodiversity and internal equilibrium, differ from other natural
Alpine and Central Europe natural sites for a few fundamental reasons.
I.e. the area presented for nomination is inhabited by many endemic species, and this helps in characterizing
this territory in an unequivocal way if compared with other districts. This is correct only
in part: it is true that there are some endemic species, also and above all among the invertebrates,
however their number is lower than that of other districts.
As compared with other areas in the Alpine chain, and more in general in the respective bio-geografical
provinces and Europe, and with reference to the vertebrate fauna, a very important factor is represented
by the coexistence, in most part of the area presented for nomination, of the four Tetraonidae:
the mountain francolin Bonasa bonasia (LINNÉ, 1758), the white partridge Lagopus mutus (MON-
TIN, 1776) – existing only in the Alps, the Pyrenees and Northern Europe, the black grouse Tetrao tetrix
LINNÉ, 1758, the cock of the wood Tetrao urogallus LINNÉ, 1758 – inexistent in the Western Alps,
contrary to the western area of Alps and Central Europe. These are quite rare species, whose number
is increasingly reducing in many areas in the areale, included in the protected red lists and protected
under national and international rules and regulations;
Also, the presence of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) is an absolutely unique fact, which in the Dolomites’
area, contrary to that which happened in the remaining Alpine area, has always preserved a
specific population.
Significant and emblematic in comparison with other Palaearctic mountains is also the presence of
the rock goat Capra ibex, limited, as well known, in the Alps and progressively and significantly increasing
in the Dolomites’ Alps.
Also, the Dolomites’ area seems to be very important for the Alpine chiropterans, and the Eliomys
quercinus shows no comparable densities in other locations of its areale of distribution;
A special mention should be given to the corncrake, Crex crex, which, although living in a very small
area of the territory presented for nomination, can certainly still find in these mountains conditions
suitable for its survival. This is a very vulnerable species, which cannot be found in the western Alpine
chain nor in central Europe.
The core areas contain the habitats of animal species of considerable naturalistic interest, but which
are relatively frequent and abundant. The chamois, has always been an ubiquitous species in all the
Dolomite systems, and of the whole of the alpine chain; the recent scabies outbreak is decimating the
population, with a violence proportionate to the density of the populations. However, this is a recurrent
phenomenon that in recent years has taken on exceptional dimensions due to the reduction in
the hunting and in the total ban on this activity inside the natural parks.