Luxembourg

Despite its small size, Luxembourg keeps more than a third of its surface under forest, a high proportion for western Europe. The north, the Oesling, is part of the Ardennes massif: slate relief, valleys cut deep by the Our and Sûre rivers, and beech and oak woods where red deer, roe deer, wild boar and a well-established population of European wildcat live, one of the best studied on the continent thanks to genetic monitoring by hair traps. The south, the Gutland, is gentler and agricultural, with sandstone outcrops in the Mullerthal region that form damp, shady gorges, a refuge for amphibians, ferns and mosses. The wetlands of Haff Réimech, former gravel pits in the Moselle valley, have been turned into the country's main bird reserve, with more than two hundred species recorded.