A notebook.
Your findings.

Up to six proposals of Cabeceiras, in your own order, to do it at home, in company or on a break.

4 de 6 propostas escolhidas · faça-as ao seu ritmo.

PROPOSTA 1 DE 4 · Read the landscape through the plants

Try observing

Common names used in the source

Strawberry tree, carqueja and gorse

Strawberry tree, carqueja, gorse and honeysuckle appear in the municipality’s description of mountain vegetation. The source also links upland scrub to grazing goats, cattle and sheep, distinguishing it from cultivated pasture lower down. Scrub is therefore part of a landscape of plants, animals and work. These common names are starting points for learning about vegetation, not identifications of every plant you encounter. The municipal account relates this vegetation to changing land use: it mentions the partial replacement of oaks, chestnuts and scrub by maritime pine. Reading the landscape therefore also means asking what was planted and what changed. One green patch may hold stories of grazing, cultivation and forestry. Start by choosing a detail in the next stories: a carqueja stem, gorse spines, the strawberry tree’s flowers and fruits, or honeysuckle’s place at the woodland edge. Each question brings you closer without requiring you to identify every plant already.

Vamos experimentar?

1. In a landscape design, use different symbols for trees, shrubs and fields.
2. Compare the spots: where you find continuity and where there are intervals? You can do the exercise from a photograph.
3. Choose one of the plans of this story and open the related reading to discover a detail.

An activity to try at your own pace, without collecting specimens.

Open a história e os seus recursos →

Sources of this proposal

• Municipality — landscape and vegetationConsultation/revision: 2026-11-07
• Municipality — landscape heritage: vegetation, agriculture and pastoral careConsultation/revision: 2026-11-07

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

PROPOSTA 2 DE 4 · Travel through time

Try observing

Gondiães and Vilar de Cunhas · memory and landscape

A house with three granaries

At Casa de Chouzas, three 19th-century granaries stand alongside the manor house highlighted by the municipality. The group connects two functions: living and storing the harvest. Rather than looking only at the main house, it is worth recognising the importance of buildings supporting agriculture. The introduction to Vilar de Cunhas places this heritage in a landscape of plateau and mountain, shaped by farming and pastoralism. House and granaries can be read in that working context, although the source does not detail each property’s production. The house’s dating is less firm: the municipality presents it as perhaps 19th-century, while assigning the granaries to the 19th century. That difference should remain visible. The photograph accompanying the reading shows the portal, not the three granaries. The heritage reference does not confirm access to the group.

Vamos experimentar?

1. Look at the photo of the portal and list only the elements you can see.
2. Compared to the three granaries mentioned in the text: what depends on the written description?
3. Imagine a caption that distinguishes the frame of the photograph from the remaining patrimonial set.

An activity to try at your own pace, without collecting specimens.

Open a história e os seus recursos →

Sources of this proposal

• Municipality — Gondiães e Vilar de Cunhas, landscape, heritage and craftsConsultation/revision: 2026-11-07

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

PROPOSTA 3 DE 4 · Life you do not always see

A Transforming Family

Occurrence mentioned in the environmental document

The Iberian wolf

The environmental assessment of the municipal master plan records a wolf pack in the area, based on ICNF information. This reflects Cabeceiras’s ecological importance; it is not a promise of a sighting. Learning about this presence does not require searching for the animals or revealing their shelters. The national platform links a shortage of wild prey with livestock consumption and conflict with pastoral communities. It presents protecting flocks and restoring natural prey as complementary parts of conservation. A pack is also a family that changes. The platform describes a breeding pair, offspring from different years and sometimes other related adults. The group defends a territory, but its composition changes through births, growth and dispersal. In the general cycle described for Portugal, pups are born in late April or May. During summer, rendezvous sites become centres of family activity; in autumn, the young begin accompanying adults as they travel and hunt. This is not an observation calendar for a particular pack. As they grow, some young wolves leave their original group to seek a territory, a mate or another pack. Others stay longer when enough food is available. A count at one moment therefore does not describe an unchanging family: social life follows the annual cycle and the opportunities offered by the landscape.

Vamos experimentar?

1. Draws a family group with adults and pups from the description.
2. Add arrows to represent growth and output of young people from the group.
3. Compare two moments of the drawing: what would change in a countdown?

General biology scheme; it does not represent the number of wolves in a local pack.

Open a história e os seus recursos →

Sources of this proposal

• PDM — Environmental Assessment, p. 50Consultation/revision: 2026-11-06
• Lobo-Iberico platform in Portugal — wolf prey; registration of Cabreira without date indicatedConsultation/revision: 2026-11-07
• Lobo-Iberico Platform in Portugal — Life in packConsultation/revision: 2026-11-07

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

PROPOSTA 4 DE 4 · Life you do not always see

Compare two faces

Badger · general biology

A home beneath the ground

The European badger, Meles meles, is mainly nocturnal and shelters in extensive underground setts. Two dark stripes on a white head are a striking visual clue; its short legs have strong claws. Museu Virtual da Biodiversidade describes its presence in woods, forests and farmland with vegetation. This profile explains the species in mainland Portugal; it does not document an observation in Cabeceiras de Basto. The claws are long and non-retractile: they do not draw back like a cat’s. A short, pale tail provides another contrast with a fox’s long tail. These details help compare descriptions without searching for or disturbing setts.

Vamos experimentar?

1. In the photograph, it follows the light and dark bands of the head and the contour of the body.
2. Compare the text with the image: the description of the claws and the den goes beyond what this framework shows.
3. Open the otter story and compare the snouts in the two photographs, keeping the contexts of each park separate.

The badger was photographed at the British Wildlife Centre in the UK. A daylight photograph in a park does not invalidate the description of the species' mostly nocturnal habits.

Open a história e os seus recursos →

Sources of this proposal

• University of Évora — Virtual Museum of Biodiversity: Meles melesConsultation/revision: 2026-11-07

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.