Animals on Exmoor

The 267 square miles of carefully protected National Park offers a landscape rich in wildlife. The famous Exmoor ponies and elusive, red deer herds roam freely across heather-clad moors and secluded wooded valleys. All the while Buzzards soar overhead, rabbits dart for cover and badgers and foxes go about their daily business. You will find many different species of birds, including winchats, stonechats, buzzards and grouse.

Natural woodland covers almost one tenth of the moor, mostly in the valleys. Among the flora to be found are the heath spotted orchid, sundew andwall pennywort.

See the Geology of Exmoor

Fox

Rare habitats
Exmoor contains 5 broad types of habitats which are recognised as being of international importance; blanket bog, upland heath, western heath, western oakwoods and parkland. The UK has 10-15% of the worlds blanket bog and wet moorland and a large proportion of its upland and western heaths. Exmoor has a significant proportion of the UK and world total of western oakwoods.

Exmoor also has some particularly rare and internationally important plant communities:

• Lichens, bryophytes and fungi of coastal heaths, cliffs and shor
• Western oakwoods
• Old parkland trees
• Purple moorgrass/meadow thistle grassland
• Ash/rowan woodland
• Bristle bent /western gorse heath

Rare Species

The Exmoor Pony is considered to be a race of wild horse rather than a separate species. It is classified as an endangered breed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Exmoor is thought to have two endemic species of whitebeam tree (Sorbus subcuneata and Sorbus Taxon D). (These are native to Exmoor and found nowhere else). Lichen Opegrapha fumosa is also thought to be endemic to Exmoor.

Internationally endangered species found on Exmoor include; many species of spiders and insects, including high brown fritillary and heath fritillary butterflies; 10 species of bat; otter; water vole; brown hare; dormouse; goshawk; merlin; peregrine; red grouse; grey partridge; quail; curlew; guillemot; barn owl; redshank; Dartford warbler; razorbill; nightjar; Cetti's warbler; sedge warbler; lapwing. plants include the whitebeams, Babington's leek, fragrant evening primrose and six species of fungi.

Other nationally important species which, although not rare, are relatively abundant on Exmoor include: red deer, whinchat, stonechat, Irish spurge, ivy-leaved bellflower, alternate water milfoil, Cornish moneywort, the 'sausage' lichen Usnea articulata, lichens Rinodina fimbrata and Rinodina flavosoralifera.

Much of the high ground on Exmoor features steep, woodland covered valleys (called combes). Much of the woodland is ancient sessile oak. Birch, beech, ash, rowan, unique varieties of whitebeam and various 'thorns' also feature.woodland

Contributed by: Peter Smythe