WILDLIFE

Wolf, jackal, deer, wild pig, fox, badger, grey squirrel, pine marten, a single brown bear was seen near a local village in recent years, and 2 families of brown bears are said to live in the higher Balkans very close by.
Should a sleepy bear ever come near any of our buildings, we shall offer our guest comfortable winter quarters and put a "Do NOT Disturb Until March" sign on the door...

A delightful dormouse, currently snoring the winter away, lives in the stables - see photos.

Land tortoise, gila (salamander), and several kinds of snakes, one or two of them venomous.

Stork (more than 50 seen on one occasion in a local field), green woodpecker (see them every day), jay, raven, buzzard, owl.

The insect life is amazing: during June to mid-July stag beetles can be seen flying every night just after sunset, they can be gently forced to land and can then be photographed - see photos. Also longhorns are fairly common here and they are enormous, some with a body length greater than that of even a large stag beetle.

Swallowtail butterflies are common (in the north-west of Bulgaria Ibraheem has photographed swarms of around 50 at a time).

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