2. It is situated in the provinces of Huelva, Cádiz and Sevilla, Autonomous Community of Andalusia
3. Whereisit? General Information Doñana National Park in Andalusia occupies the right bank of the Guadalquivir river at its estuary on the Atlantic Ocean. It is notable for the great diversity of its biotopes, especially lagoons, marshlands, fixed and mobile dunes, scrub woodland and maquis. It is home to five threatened bird species. It is one of the largest heronries in the Mediterranean region and is the wintering site for more than 500,000 water fowl each year.
4. Climate The climate is Mediterranean moderated by the ocean, with warm dry summers and cool wet winters. The mean annual temperature is 17 degrees Celsius (°C): July and August average 23.5°, December and January average 9.3°. The mean annual precipitation is 525 millimeters (mm), concentrated in the winter, peaking between 90-110 mm in December.
5. The park as a whole comprises three distinct kinds of ecosystem: the marshes, the Mediterranean scrublands and the coastal mobile dunes with their beaches.
6. Marsh The marsh is the most seasonal and changing ecosystem in Doñana. In summer, it looks like an extensive shelf, dry, clayey and cracked, whereas in winter the rainwater turns the landscape into an endless lake, a winter shelter for innumerable anatidaes and other species.Its greatest splendour takes place in spring, when a green carpet of irises and sedges covers it, a brood area in this season for countless aquatic birds. The marsh ecosystem is characterized by the lack of relief.It is made up of the accumulation of sand and slime deposited by rivers and pipes and presents small slopes that control the duration of the flood, decisive for the vegetation and fauna of this place.
7. Dunes The system of mobile dunes of Doñana, unique in Spain, is one of the most beautiful landscapes of the park. The dunes, extremely interesting both from an ecological and a cultural viewpoint, are formed by accumulations of sand whose front of progress has a steeper slope than the part of displacement called tail.The progress of the dunes from the beach buries and destroys the vegetation that finds on its way, forming between two dunes the “corrales”, copses of stone pines and bushes.
8. Beach One of the wider virgin coasts of Europe, with about 35km between the town of Matalascañas and the mouth of the Guadalquivir river. The beaches of Doñana represent an intense dynamism and change their profile constantly due to the sea regressions through the centuries. Testimonies of this are the three watchtowers of the 16th century located along this coast, which at present give shelter to peregrine falcons.
9. Southwestern winds cause the continuous transport of sands over the beaches of the National Park, moved afterwards to the inside forming the trains of mobile dunes. On the beach, shelter of thousands of coastal birds, the remains of marine species such as crustaceans and fish accumulate, and often it is possible to find cetaceans and marine turtles.
10. Forest The ecosystem of the forest and bushes of Doñana is made up of stabilised sands colonised by Mediterranean vegetation for the most part. Divided into two great associations due to the humidity and height of the land above the aquifer level, they have been defined as wet shrub in the lowest and wetter places where heathers, gorses, ferns, and lings prevail. Dry shrub, characterized by rosemary, rockrose, furze and water mint, is located in the highest parts of the terrain.
12. Flora The park supports an incredible array of vegetation in a variety of virgin habitats. Inland are large expanses of stone pines, as well as Mediterranean scrublands, with narrow leaved cistus heather, mastic tree, rosemary, cistus scrub, glasswort, red lavender, rosemary and thyme. There are also junipers and forests of cork oaks, known as "laspajareras" for the enormous quantity of birds that nest in them. Among the flowering plants are lavender, tree heaths, gladioli, irises and rock roses. In the spring the marshlands are covered with flowers.
13. Fauna This is a vast wilderness that supports an unrivalled wealth of fauna; 125 species of birds are known to be resident here, as well as 125 migratory bird species, 17 reptiles, nine amphibians and eight species of fish. There is a rich variety of mammals, 28 species in total, with some in danger of extinction, such as the lynx and the Egyptian mongoose. Also here are badgers, rabbits and otters. Game is also plentiful, with red deer, fallow deer and wild boar.
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16. Birds Doñana comprises delta waters which flood in winter and then drop in the spring leaving rich deposits of silt and raised sandbanks and islands. These conditions are perfect in winter for geese and ducks but most exciting in spring when they draw hundreds of flocks of breeding birds.
17. Rivers As part of the Guadalquivir delta, the park is riddled with creeks and streams, the main ones being the Brazo de la Torre, the Caño de Guadiamar and Caño Real. The park is dotted with ponds (lucios) that, like the marshlands themselves, can dry up almost completely in summer.
18. History Settlers of Doñana. Historical texts confirm the presence in Doñana of Tartessos, Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs. Already in the 13th century there are chronicles that mention these lands as favorite place of hunt for the royalty. Doñana's name. The term "Doñana" does allusion to one of his more illustrious owners: Dona Ana of Mendoza, daughter of the princess of Éboli, and married the duke VII of Medina Sidonia, moved back to live to these lands in the 16th century.
19. History Jose Antonio Valverde. Doñana owes his existence to this illustrious Spanish scientist, who in the 60s managed to convince the authorities of the importance to preserve these lands. Nowadays one of the Visitors' Centers of Doñana takes his name.
