OUR FORESTS AND WILDLIFE

The massif of Javornik – Snežnik encompasses the South-western part of Slovenia, comprising the northern part of the large Dinaric mountain range. It is a huge, 500 km2 stretch of uninterrupted area of forests and unspoiled nature. It is also one of the biggest serried and uninhabited woodland in the Central Europe, which extends into the Kočevje area and Gorski Kotar in Croatia. The massif of Javornik – Snežnik is a high karst plateau, featuring several karst phenomena such as caves, sinkholes, vertical shafts, inverted funnels, disappearing streams, reappearing springs and karst fields. Karst landscape is also one of the distinctive characteristics of Slovenia and all the phenomena of this type are called by exactly the same name worldwide; as in-depth studies were also done on the subject by the Slovenian experts. The karst area features a wide variety of forest types and animal species.

 

In this part of Europe, Slovenia is the only country where healthy populations of the three species of beasts such as: lynx (Lynx lynx), bear (Ursus arctos) and wolf (Canis lupus) can still be found. The area of Javornik and Snežnik is inhabited by all of the three species as well as many others: different species of deer, a wild boar, a wild cat, a fox and so on.