On the Italian side of the border, the park is continued by Gran Paradiso National Park. Together, these two parks cover over 1250km2, making the area the largest alpine national park.
Wildlife
The park is well known for its population of Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), bouquetin in French, which is its emblem. The alpine chamois, like the ibex, spend most of the year above the tree line. They descend the snow line in early spring and late fall to enjoy the grass uncovered by the ice and snow. Alpine marmot, wolf, Eurasian lynx, mountain hare, Eurasian badger, ermine and weasel are the other mammals commonly present in Vanoise.
The Gran Paradiso or Grand Paradis is a mountain in the Graian Alps in Italy, located between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions. It is located in Gran Paradiso National Park.
La Plagne is a French ski area in the alpine valley of the Tarentaise (Savoie). Since 2003, La Plagne and the neighbouring resort of Les Arcs form the Paradiski ski area. It is currently owned by Compagnie des Alpes.
The Alpine ibex, also known as the steinbock, is a European species of goat that lives in the Alps. It is one of ten species in the genus Capra and its closest living relative is the Iberian ibex. The Alpine ibex is a sexually dimorphic species; males are larger and carry longer horns than females. Its coat is brownish-grey. Alpine ibexes tend to live in steep, rough terrain and open alpine meadows. They can be found at elevations as high as 3,300 m (10,800 ft) and their sharp hooves allow them to scale the steep slopes and cliffs of their mountainous habitat.
The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy.
The Retezat Mountains are one of the highest massifs in Romania, being part of the Southern Carpathians. The highest peak is Peleaga, at an altitude of 2,509 metres (8,232 ft). Other important peaks are Păpușa and Retezat Peak. The name means "cut off" in Romanian.
Hemis National Park is a high-elevation national park in Hemis in Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is approx. 50 km from Leh, the capital of Ladakh. Globally famous for its snow leopards, it is believed to have the highest density of them in any protected area in the world. It is the only national park in India that is north of the Himalayas, the largest notified protected area in India and is the second largest contiguous protected area, after the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and surrounding protected areas. The park is home to a number of species of endangered mammals, including the snow leopard. Hemis National Park is India's protected area inside the Palearctic realm, outside the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary northeast of Hemis, and the proposed Tso Lhamo Cold Desert Conservation Area in North Sikkim.
Deosai National Park is a high-altitude alpine plain and national park located between the Skardu District and Astore District in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
Gran Paradiso National Park, is an Italian national park in the Graian Alps, between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions. The park is named after Gran Paradiso mountain, which is located in the park; it is contiguous with the French Vanoise National Park. The land the park encompasses was initially protected in order to protect the Alpine ibex from poachers, as it was a personal hunting ground for King Victor Emmanuel II, but now also protects other species.
Maurienne is one of the provinces of Savoy, corresponding to the arrondissement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France. It is also the original name of the capital of the province, now Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
Ladakh is the home to endemic Himalayan wildlife, such as the bharal, yak, Himalayan brown bear, Himalayan wolf and the iconic snow leopard. Hemis National Park, Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, and Karakorum Wildlife Sanctuary are protected wildlife areas of Ladakh. The Mountain Institute, the Ladakh Ecological Development Group and the Snow Leopard Conservancy work on ecotourism in rural Ladakh. For such an elevated, arid area, Ladakh has great diversity of birds — 318 species have been recorded. Many of these birds reside at or seasonally breed in high-altitude wetlands, such as Tso Moriri, or near rivers and water sources.
Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France. It is located at the end of the Giffre Valley.
The wildlife of Pakistan comprises a diverse flora and fauna in a wide range of habitats from sea level to high elevation areas in the mountains, including 195 mammal, 668 bird species and more than 5000 species of Invertebrates. This diverse composition of the country's fauna is associated with its location in the transitional zone between two major zoogeographical regions, the Palearctic, and the Oriental. The northern regions of Pakistan, which include Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan include portions of two biodiversity hotspot, Mountains of Central Asia and Himalayas.
Ile-Alatau National Park is a national park in Kazakhstan. It was created in 1996 and covers about 200,000 ha. It is situated in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains south of Almaty between Gorge Turgen in the east and Chemolgan River in the west. The national park borders Almaty Nature Reserve, which is located around Pik Talgar.
The Tarsar Lake or Tar Sar is an almond-shaped, oligotrophic alpine lake situated in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. On its west side lies Dachigam National Park, and on its south side lies Tral. The shortest route for reaching it, is from Surfraw Ganderbal, but it has a difficult terrain. Other trek routes to the lake are from Lidderwat and Nagaberan forest areas which fall in south Kashmir.
Zorkul Nature Reserve is a 1,610 km2 (620 sq mi) nature reserve in the south-eastern section of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region of Tajikistan, adjoining the border with the Wakhan National Park of Afghanistan in the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province. The area was made a zakaznik in 1972 for the conservation of bar-headed geese and upgraded to a full nature reserve in 2000. It has also been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA).
Néouvielle National Nature Reserve is a 2,313-hectare (5,720-acre) national nature reserve located in the Néouvielle massif. It ranges from 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) to 3,091 metres (10,141 ft). With a wide array of flora and fauna, it contains about 370 animal species and 570 breeds of algae.
The Alps conifer and mixed forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion in central Europe. It extends along the Alps mountains through portions of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Slovenia. The ecoregion extends from the lower slopes of the Alps to its peaks, which include Mont Blanc, at 4,809 m (15,778 ft) the highest peak in the Alps.
The Maritime Alps Natural Park is a nature reserve in Piedmont, Italy. Originally established in 1980 as the Argentera Natural Park, in an area previously part of a royal hunting reserve established by Victor Emmanuel II in 1857, it assumed its current name and form in 1995, when it was merged with the Palanfrè Woods and Lakes Natural Reserve. Located near the border with France, the park borders the Mercantour National Park.
The Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Natural Park is a nature reserve in Trentino, Italy. Established in 1967, it stretches over nearly 20,000 ha in the Dolomites, encompassing the Pale di San Martino massif, the Paneveggio forest, and the easternmost part of the Lagorai range, between the valleys of Fiemme, Fassa, Primiero, and Vanoi.
The Mercantour-Argentera massif is a massif in the Maritime Alps located astride the French departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the Italian region of Piedmont. The name of the massif comes respectively from the summit of Mercantour, a secondary central summit, and from Mount Argentera, the highest point of the massif, entirely in Italy.
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