Flora & Fauna of the Hohe Tauern
Animals and plants of the Austrian National Park
The plant and animal world of the Hohe Tauern National Park is unique in all of Austria. Located in the heart of the Austrian Alps, the Hohe Tauern National Park provides a protected habitat for many threatened animal and plant species. Spanning 1800 square kilometres, the Hohe Tauern National Park is the second-largest of its kind in Europe. A place where you can experience nature at its most beautiful: Austria’s highest mountain peak and its biggest glacier, meadows bedecked in colourful alpine flowers, imposing rock faces and refreshing waterfalls. Awaiting you here is a centuries-old natural and cultural landscape, formed by the Ice Ages and by a gentle approach to agriculture.
Austria’s highest mountain, the 3,798 metres-tall Grossglockner, towers above the country’s longest glacial tongue, the Pasterze. The Grossglockner High-Alpine Road gives you an impressive and easy way to reach those imposing high-alpine landscapes. Once at the top, you can peek through the telescope in order to observe the ibex and marmots which mill about in this craggy world of rock.
Winter is long in the Alps - but this also means that during the short summer months, the vibrancy of the plants and animals reveals itself even more intensely. Ibex, bearded vultures, marmots and other rare animals soak up the sunshine on the rocky plateaux. The time is brief to raise a litter and put on the pounds necessary to see them through the harsh winter months ahead.
During this beautiful time of year, come and experience for yourself what life on the colourful high pastures of the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria is all about. Farming on these alpine meadows and the harvesting of mountain hay have resulted in a species-rich community of animals and plants, along with the residents of the Gastein Valley themselves, who have an abiding closeness to all things natural. Here you will have your finger on nature’s pulse and be able to feel first-hand the power of the wind and weather.
If you like to explore the Flora and Fauna of the Hohe Tauern National Park, send a non-binding inquiry to the Gastein Valley in Austria.
