Mediterranean wildlife

Most of these images are from southern Spain, with others from Morocco and Croatia. Many are from in and around Zahara de los Atunes, Andalucia. The University of Reading runs a field course for biological science students each Easter vacation, on which I ran the zoological element for several years. The area is exposed and wild, and in late spring is one of the most exciting places to be in Europe for a natural historian. The flowering plants are in full bloom, insects are abundant, and Zahara is near to one of the world's major migration routes, as birds pass from Africa to Europe across the narrow Straits of Gibraltar (the Rif mountains and coast of Morocco is easy to see on clear days). However, it is not only birds that pass this way, as this narrow passage across from Morocco is a major route into Europe for smuggled drugs (Morocco is said to produce almost half of the world's cannabis resin) and people. This year I went to northern Andalucia for the first time, visiting the wettest part of Spain (Sierra de Grazalema) and driest part of Europe (Cabo de Gata).