Critically EndangeredEuropean Eel
Anguilla anguilla
Europe
Hungary is the heart of the Pannonian plain, a continental basin closed off by the Carpathians that keeps the largest fragment of steppe left in central Europe. The puszta of Hortobágy, the country's first national park and a World Heritage Site, is a sea of saline grassland and shallow lagoons maintained for centuries by the extensive grazing of spiral-horned Racka sheep and Hungarian grey cattle. That open landscape supports great bustards, Montagu's harriers and a notable density of steppe raptors, including the eastern imperial eagle. Lake Balaton and its adjoining Kis-Balaton wetland act as a natural filter and as a refuge for herons, spoonbills and ospreys. To the north, the Bükk and Aggtelek mountains add beech woods and a karst system of more than two hundred caves shared with Slovakia, with important bat colonies.
National animal: The saker falcon is the national bird, tied to the mythical turul of Hungarian tradition
Every autumn, the grasslands and lagoons of Hortobágy gather one of the largest concentrations of common crane in the world: more than a hundred thousand birds stop over there on their journey south, feeding on maize stubble by day and pouring in to roost on the lagoons at dusk. The din of their calls at dawn can be heard several kilometres away.
Hungary keeps one of the largest great bustard populations in the European Union thanks to agreements with farmers and the burying of power lines. The Hungarian meadow viper is one of the most endangered reptiles in Europe and has a breeding centre of its own.
Hortobágy in October and November for the mass arrival of cranes at the roost. Kiskunság in spring for great bustards displaying. Kis-Balaton in summer for herons and spoonbills.
420 species found
Based on what we already know about Hungary.
