Fauna
Some examples of protected animal species in the Balearic Islands:
• The “Ferreret” or the Mallorcan midwife toad
This very special toad, measuring from head to toe in just four centimeters. Their color varies, usually light brown, ocher and green, but always with irregularly distributed spots with different sizes. The limbs are long and adapted on climbing through the rocky habitat. Because he mainly active at night and during dawn, he has relatively large eyes. Is also particularly suitable for a toad which he has no poison glands in their skin because it has evolved into an environment without natural predators.
The tadpoles are compared to other amphibians, relatively large and breathe through a hole in the abdominal wall. To feed themselves, they churn up the soil and feed on small pieces of algae and other organic material.
The mini-toad was only discovered in 1977 and because we found only fossils at that time it was thought that it was an extinct species. The fossils were found in a soil layer of the Pliocene-Holocene in caves in Establiments and Soller (Moleta).
Apart from this discovery, the farmers knew from the neighborhood of the Tramuntana mountains for some time that there needed to be near a small amphibian, because they sing it more often “heard. The singing sounds like a blacksmith who strikes with his hammer on an anvil, it was only much quieter. Smith called on Mallorquin Ferrer, and the little amphibian is therefore called Ferreret, or “little smith.” Only at the end of the 80 years a group of biologists wanted to investigate the relationship between the fossil found in 1977 and this “Ferreret. They discovered the fossil of Ferreret and the same animal are. The Ferreret is thus a living fossil that has survived in the most inaccessible areas of the Tramontana, where it would not be threatened by humans or other predators.
• The Black Vulture
The black vulture is on Mallorquin Toto Negre, nowadays the symbol of nature conservation in the Tramuntana mountains. This large black bird was nearly extinct in the Balearic Islands but thanks to the protection program, he survives even today in the north of the island of Majorca, where it feeds on carrion, mostly dead Schäfe and goats.
The male and female specimens are identical, there is no sexual dimorphism. The vultures used in the air currents to fly and consumes not have its own energy. The Black Vulture in Mallorca since there are five million years before it even had people on the island. The vultures form lifelong pairs and use the same nest each year, a large platform in a tree or between the rocks, often near the coast. New forms of couples at the beginning of winter in February against the egg sodas come in the nest. In the spring dan is born the vulture chicks, after which it is fed by the parents and until the end of September will take the flight itself. The young vulture, seen in the darker colors of their feathers, getting started with five or six years himself with the Vortpflanzung.
To date, the black vulture is an endangered animal species on Majorca. This will, among other things caused by the change of habitat, poaching, the excess of human traffic through the mountains and poisons are distributed for the control of certain pests. The Balearic Ministry of Environment has therefore established a preservation plan for this animal species.
• The sea turtles
In the Balearic Sea, you can often see sea turtles, from the deck of a ship, when they emerge to the surface to breathe. Sometimes they can also be observed on the beach.
The design of these animals is fully adapted to life in the Mer The front limbs act as powerful shovel or rowing while the others will be used as a control. All varieties of sea turtles are carnivores, but they bevorzügen jellyfish and molluscs.
The varieties that are found in the Balearic Islands on Holiday centers: the loggerhead turtle (photo), Caretta caretta, which occurs most frequently, the green turtle, Chelonia mydas, and the much odder leatherback turtle, Dermochelis coriacea. None of these varieties is propagated in the Balearics.
Each year, will be injured or rescued from accidentally caught turtles. Often the animals have hurt himself on the hook, line, or propeller.
The Balearic Ministry of the Environment registered all turtles wash ashore on the beaches of the Balearic and the living animals will be passed on to the Foundation dan Marineland – Palmitos which they supplied. From 1993 to 2002 a total of 359 turtles washed, of which 355 Caretta caretta, on the Balearic beaches. Of these, 107 are recovered. Once they are healthy again, the rescued turtles are exposed in the vicinity of national parks Cabrera.
When you visit the beach a living or dead turtles, then please call the emergency number 112th
