Flora and Fauna

флора и фауна - дивокозе - нп сутјеска

Flora and Fauna

The diversity of flora and fauna is one of the basic motives for establishing National Park. Research has shown the abundance of the area of Sutjeska valley surrounded by high mountain ranges of the Dinarides, with over 2600 species of vascular plants with a high percentage of endemism. This relatively small area hides over 330 endemic, rare, and endangered plant species. The fruits of nature, wild and medicinal plants, mushrooms, aquatic plants, and woody plants in this part of the Dinarides show all their splendor and value. In the canyons of mountain rivers, there are so-called habitat refugia, and in one of them Serbian spruce (Picea omorika-Pančić, purk.) can be found, a relict of the Tertiary period on Mount Zelengora, which scientists consider to be a living fossil.

флора и фауна
флора и фауна нп сутјеска

Some plants have habitats only in mountain crags and these are Sutjeska’s Rockbell (Edranianthus sutjeskae), Malijev likovac (Daphne malyana), Мaglićeva režuha – Мaglić’s cardamine (Cardamine maglicensis) and Maglićeva runjika – Maglić’s hawkweed (Hieracium naegelianum).

The fauna of the Park is extremely diverse and conditioned by the topography of the habitat, which is a characteristic of each species. Species inhabiting the habitats of NP Sutjeska are Chamois (Rupicarpa rupicarpa), Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), Wild boar (Sus scrofa), Bear (Ursus arctos), Wolf (Canis lupus), Fox (Vulpes vulpes), Badger (Meles meles).

Over 114 species of birds, both autochthonous and migratory, have been recorded in the Park: Western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), Hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonaria), Rock partridge (Alectoris graeca). The occurrence of ornithofauna is conditioned by seasons or related to a certain period of the year.

Belt ecosystems from the Sutjeska valley (550m)
to the highest mountain in the country - Maglić (2386m)

The belt ecosystems of National Park Sutjeska are conditioned by climate, terrain, and water factors, with a focus on specific habitats and species of plants and game animals. For instance, an ecosystem of gallery forests (hydrophytes) on the Sutjeska, then a 600-800 meters long belt of oak forests (thermophytes) with game animals in them, from 800 to 1200 meters of mixed deciduous forests (ash, elm, beech, birch, spruce, low shrubs), then 1200-1700 meters of beech-fir and spruce with maple, vital habitats of conifers up to 65 m high with a large diameter, lookouts, described game animals, endemic plants rarities and stenoendemics of the Balkans are present in this zone.

Above 1700m on the surface of Prijevor plateau is a habitat of mountain pine, a smaller community of mountain maple, and beech-fir, with dominating meadow vegetation. This zone is dominated by nomadic herding in the summer season. Vegetation of screes, rocks, moraines, and other geomorphological forms can be interesting because of its endemicity and is related to canyons in lower zones with a warmer climate and those described here with harsher conditions of cold climate and snowfall every month in this sector of the Dinarides.

More than 330 endemic, rare and endangered plant species