Czechia

Czechia is a basin ringed by medium-altitude mountains that act as ecological islands. The Krkonoše, or Giant Mountains, keep patches of relict arctic-alpine tundra above the treeline, with plant and invertebrate species that have survived since the last glaciation and that elsewhere in Europe occur only in Scandinavia or the Alps. The Bohemian Forest, a continuation of the Bavarian Forest, forms with it the largest continuous woodland in central Europe and has seen the Eurasian lynx return. In the north, Bohemian Switzerland unfolds rock cities of sandstone with damp defiles and inverted microclimates, where mountain plants grow at the bottom of the gorges. The Moravian karst hides one of the country's largest cave systems, with vertical shafts and colonies of hibernating bats.