Wildlife of the Guadarrama Mountain Range National Park
This exhibition offers visitors a unique look into the latest of the natural spaces to be added to the National Parks Network. It is particularly rich in birds and mammals, either isolated or in dioramas; most of them were mounted in the early 20th century by the great taxidermists Luis and José María Benedito and are true works of art.
Visitors are taken on a tour around the main ecosystems of the Mountain Range, exploring some of its more notable aspects - from its geological history to the importance of the nearly invisible organisms that live in the water and underground, which make life in these environments possible. They will also learn about the networks of interrelationships created in these environments and the reasons why it is so crucial to protect them.
Within the exhibit, visitors will find golden eagles, imperial eagles, vultures, the red kite, a boar, a hare, badgers, dippers, Eurasian jays and many more inhabitants of the Guadarrama’s forests and peaks. Another highlight is the wide array of insects on display, with a great number of endemic species -that is, species that can only be found in this national park – which, in some cases, have been discovered and studied by the MNCN researchers throughout the years.
We constantly upgrade the section of the exhibition dedicated to the research that the Museum scientists are currently conducting in the Park, more particularly at the facilities of the El Ventorrillo Biological Station.
More information:
Blog Notas de campo y jardín por Jesús Dorda (Blog Field and Garden notes, by Jesús Dorda)
Más de Jesús Dorda (More about Jesús Dorda)
(Left) a specimen of cinereous vulture or black vulture Aegypius monachus
(Right) a diorama of Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos made in the early 20th Century by the Benedito Brothers.