Nature and animals

The call of nature. Bulgaria is home to roughly 110 species of mammals, more than 400 species of birds, 37 species of reptiles, around 30 amphibians, 214 species of butterflies and over 27,000 species of invertebrates. Across the world, wildlife is increasingly under pressure - and in this corner of the Balkans, careful conservation has kept many remarkable species visible to anyone who looks.

The brown bear roams the deep forests of the Stara Planina, Rila and the Rhodopes - usually solitary, sometimes in pairs. Adult animals can weigh 100-350 kg and stretch 1.5 to 2.5 m. From a distance they seem calm, but a brown bear can become aggressive in seconds, so trails through their habitat are best walked with respect.

Common and bottlenose dolphins still appear in the Black Sea, though in declining numbers. Wolves remain part of the fauna - an estimated 1,200 live across the country, though they sit uneasily with livestock farmers. And the Eurasian lynx, thought to have vanished after World War II, has been gradually returning to Bulgarian forests in recent years.