Wildlife and Habitats The National Park contains a rich variety of habitats that support a wide range of wildlife species. Climb the summit of one of Dartmoor's tors and you're standing on rock that has been 280 million years in the making, since it was first squeezed up as molten granite through the Earth's crust and the sea-bed of a prehistoric ocean. |  |
Sub-tropical and Ice Age Dartmoor
Around 60 million years ago you would have been looking out over a dense sub-tropical forest, the granite beneath your feet penetrated by acidic water from the rotting vegetation seeping into crevices. Standing on the same spot - just half a million years ago! - you would be in a landscape frozen solid in the first of four Ice Ages; deep inside the granite crevices, ice crystals are swelling, shattering the surrounding stone to produce boulders and debris which will slide downhill when the climate improves, leaving the tors crowned with their distinctive rocky outcrops.
Upland and Lowland Habitats
Dartmoor provides a wealth of wildlife habitats, some of international importance. High on the moor you will find mossy blanket bogs where dunlin and golden plover nest amongst the cotton grass and purple moor grass. The surrounding heathland, ablaze with ling, bell and cross-leaved heather, is home to the endangered red grouse and ring ouzel, and meadow pipits, stonechats and skylarks.
As you descend from the tors through grassland grazed by cattle, sheep and ponies, you'll be walking amongst turf dotted with milkwort, tormentil and heath bedstraw. Keep an eye out for pearl-bordered, small heath and high brown fritillary butterflies, wheatears and whinchats. On the sheltered sides of valleys you will come across ancient oak woodland, rich in ferns, mosses and lichens, and in spring carpeted with bluebells and ramsons. Squirrels, badgers and dormice forage amongst these ancient trees, and you might catch a glimpse of a pied flycatcher, a wood warbler or a redstart.
On the fringes of the moor are the pastures and crop fields of traditional farmland, girded with drystone walls and hedgerows rich with wild flowers. Throughout the summer the country lanes are busy with gatekeeper butterflies, song thrushes and yellowhammers, patrolled at night by owls and bats. Look out for rare orchids in meadows and valley mires, and for herons, mink and otters along the riverbanks.
Further Information
If you are looking for further information about the wildlife and habitats of Dartmoor National Park then try the Looking After section.
Alternatively there are a number of factsheets which contain a range of relevant information. Read the Wildlife and Habitats Factsheets.
