!!!Fauna

Fauna: Among the Central European fauna found in Austria are 398 
vertebrates (82 species of mammals, 219 species of birds, 16 species 
of reptiles, 21 species of amphibians and 60 species of fish), some 
30,000 species of insects (7,379 species of beetles, 1,570 species of 
large butterflies, 136 species orthopterans, 117 species of 
neuropterans and many others) as well as several 1,000 miscellaneous 
species of invertebrates (including 2 species of scorpions, 5 species 
of crabs and 435 species of molluscs).

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The mountainous region is inhabited by  Alpine Fauna. A special 
feature of Austrian fauna is the  Brown Bear. Some animal species 
common to southern Europe found in Austria are the  Rode Swallow, wall 
lizard and the green lizard, the Aesculapian snake which can grow to 
more than two m in length, and the checkered water snake, carpenter 
bees, mountain cicadas and red admiral butterflies. Austria´s 
climate is also characterised by the Pannonian climate region.  
Amphibia,  Reptiles,  Fishes.

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As many natural areas are increasingly cultivated and developed by man 
(building of roads through mountainous regions, draining of swamps, 
increased industrialisation, etc.) the number of  Animals, Endangered 
Species of is rising. In recent years six species of brooding birds 
have disappeared: the sea eagle (some attempts to hatch young have 
recently been made), the gull-billed tern, the least tern, the black 
tern, the medrick tern, the sandpiper and the  Spoonbill, after five 
species of birds had already stopped hatching their young in Austria 
in the 19%%sup th/%  century (the glossy ibis, osprey (fish hawk, 
fishing eagle), little bustard, redshank and scimitar-babbler; 
isolated hatching attempts have been made recently by the 
scimitar-babbler and the glossy ibis). However, several non-native 
species have also made their home in Austria, such as  Phylloxera 
(brought in from the United States in 1872), the Bisam rat (came from 
the north in 1911), the Turkish collared dove (since 1938 from 
Hungary) and the raccoon.

!Literature
Catalogus Faunae Austriae, 1947ff.


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