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Vajo Galina oasis is located in the Municipality of Verona and it has been acknowledged as a Site of Community Importance (SIC IT3210012). This 67-acre area on the Lessini Mountain Range includes all the environments of the foothills. The climatic differences have allowed the development of tall, uncultivated forest, rock walls with caves and water sources.

The oasis is owned by the ICISS (civic social service institutes) but is has been loaned for free to the WWF for a long time.

There are several routes available for tourists, but above all for educational purposes and scholars. The vegetation, very rich in species, includes tree specimens of Quercus pubescens (downy oak), Acer campestre (field maple), Ulmus spp. (elm), Carpinus spp. (hornbeam), Quercus ilex (holm oak) and, mostly in the “impluviums”, Laurus nobilis (laurel).

The fauna includes mammals such as foxes, badgers, squirrels, dormice, hares; amphibians and reptiles including fire salamanders, crested newts, green whip snakes and Western green lizards.

Birds species include 103 varieties, such as great spotted woodpeckers and green woodpeckers, red-backed shrikes, Sardinian warblers, nuthatches, whitethroats, Eurasian wrynecks, hoopoes, golden orioles, kestrels, cuckoo hawks, hobbies, peregrine falcons and sparrow hawks.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)