Ireland

Ireland was cut off from the continent shortly after the last glaciation, before many land species managed to colonise it, which explains its reduced fauna and the complete absence of snakes. In return, its oceanic climate has produced singular ecosystems: blanket bogs that carpet the western mountains, raised bogs on the central lowlands and a coastline of cliffs where puffins, razorbills and shearwaters breed. The Burren, a limestone desert in Clare, is a botanical phenomenon hard to match, with Arctic and Mediterranean plants flowering together in the same crevices. Irish waters, declared a cetacean sanctuary, hold more than twenty species of whales and dolphins. The red deer of Killarney is the only continuous lineage of the species in the country, and the white-tailed eagle and the eagle owl have returned thanks to reintroduction projects begun in 2007.