Animals

The environmental assessment of the PDM marks a pack in the territory, based on information from the ICNF. It is a reference to the ecological importance of Cabeceiras, not a promise of sighting. Knowing this presence does not require looking for animals or disseminating shelter sites. The national platform relates the scarcity of wild prey to livestock consumption and conflict with pastoral communities. It points to the protection of herds and the recovery of natural prey as complementary parts of conservation.

A pack is also a changing family. The platform describes a breeding couple, descendants of different years and sometimes other related adults. The group defends a territory, but its composition changes with births, growth and dispersion.

In the general cycle presented to Portugal, the cubs are born at the end of April or in May. During the summer, the meeting places become centers of family activity; in the autumn, the young begin to accompany the adults in travel and hunting. It is not an observation calendar for a concrete pack.

When growing up, some youths leave the group of origin to search for territory, partner or other pack. Others remain longer when there is enough food. Therefore, a count at one time does not describe an immutable family: social life accompanies the annual cycle and landscape opportunities.

Javali, deer, deer and mountain goat are the main natural prey of the wolf presented by the platform for Portugal. This national list does not mean that all occur in Cabeceiras. Knowing a predator implies also understanding its prey. The platform explains that the recovery of wild prey depends on both natural expansion and reintroductions. These stories have different scales and origins: recovering one species in one region does not demonstrate its presence in another.

The page includes a photograph whose legend identifies a wild boar predatored by wolves in Serra da Cabreira, in Cabeceiras de Basto, with credit to Ismael Cunha. The legend establishes a local link, but does not indicate the date or allows calculating the frequency of predation. The photograph was not reproduced here.

There is another useful distinction when looking at animals in the mountains: a domestic breed created in freedom, like Garrano, does not become a wild species. The landscape can gather animals with different stories. This comparison does not show that a concrete animal is trapped from the wolf or that all the species mentioned share the same mountain section.

The vicar of Rio Douro names rabbits, hares, partridges, wolves, foxes and badgers when describing the mountains in 1758. Adds mountain pigs of passage and places the partridges only in some parts. These language differences are part of the testimony and deserve to be preserved.

The report describes cold, windy and snowy mountains in winter. It brings animals and landscape closer, but does not present counts, observation methods or a scientific inventory. It does not allow to conclude that all the mentioned species continue in the same places today.

The Núcleo Interpretativo de Vida Selvagem was inaugurated in 31 August 2013, in Abadim. The municipal presentation explains its connection to the fauna and flora of Serra da Cabreira and to the awareness of the forest. See the site chart to prepare the visit.

The building also has a history: the municipal presentation places the core in a small annex previously used by Social Services. The change of function has added the dissemination of animals and plants to the valorization of the forest and local customs and uses.

It is a starting point to ask questions about the landscape: what relations exist between forests, trees and animals? The following readings allow you to continue this discovery at home. Knowing a species or an environment does not guarantee a sighting on a visit.

The wild boar, Sus scrofa, is omnivorous and has mainly crepuscular and nocturnal habits. During the day it can shelter in dense woods. The Lobo-Iberic Platform documents a wild boar predatored by wolves in Serra da Cabreira, in Cabeceiras, without indicating the date of that record. The elongated snout and abundant fur distinguish it from the domestic pig. Although omnivorous, the source describes a mainly vegetable feed. The food flexibility helps to understand its adaptation to different landscapes.

The platform presents it as a pig-bravo and refers to marked differences between the sexes. It also describes the expansion of the species in Portugal, including areas close to urban centers. This national framework does not allow to calculate how many boars live in Cabeceiras.

The Cabreira register and the description of habits answer different questions: one document a meeting between predator and prey; the other helps to understand the life of the species. We do not know, from this isolated reference, the frequency of predation or the size of local populations.

The vicar of Bucos mentions partridges, rabbits, wolves, foxes and wild boars, which he describes as sparsely plentiful. He points out carqueja, heather and tojo on the hills. It is the landscape that recorded at that time, not a current inventory nor a promise to spot these animals.

The memory also mentions goats as the most abundant cattle and some large cattle. Thus, the same document gathers farm animals and fauna that the vicar describes as hunting. Separating the two groups helps to read the rural life of the period.

The expression of little abundance is an appreciation of the author, without method of counting presented. It does not allow directly to compare 1758 with a census of current fauna. The interest of the report is also in what you choose to observe: animals, forests, terrain and uses of the mountains appear together.