Doñana is a territory of more than 100.000 hectares of protected space, it is considered one of the most valuable natural areas on the European Continent.

Whitin this territorial area the National Park occupies an extension of 50.720 hectares to which must be added 2.040 hectares of protected zones. Tightly linked to the National Park, with which it shares ecosystems, the Natural Park of Doñana covers an extensive natural region of just over 50.000 hectares.

Almonte

Although it is difficult to define the limits of Doñana it is not so complicated to establish its center, Almonte, capital of Doñana. It is the municipality which gives most township to the protected space, nearly 60 as well as the terrestrial entrances and the most important and oldest Reception and Information Centres for the visitors.

Natural Park of Doñana

As well as the Administrative Centre and the Office of the Natural Park, Doñana is an ecological network where very diverse environmental units live, where pines, live dunes and fossils, beaches, marshes, lagoon complexes, game preserves, transition zones... which maintain the life of a multitude of fauna and vegetation can be found.

As the most outstanding natural values of Doñana we highlight that it is an extremely important hibernating area, for the passing through and breeding for numerous species of birds. For some of these, such as the case of the common goose, it is the main hibernating area in Europe.

More than 300 different species of birds can be spotted in Doñana in the different seasons.

Among the birds that come here to breed are: the spoonbill, the purple heron, the crested coot, the collared pratincole, the avocet, etc. because of the large number of examples that concentrate there. We can highlight other species of great interest because of the delicate situation in which these species find themselves like the white headed duck, the marbled duck, the purple gallinule, or the slender-billed gull.

The Guadalquivir marshes - the river that flows onto the unspoilt coasts of almonte in one of its banks - owing to their privileged location between two continents are chosen by migratory birds as a place of hibernation.

33 species of mammals populate Doñana. The fallow deer, the red deer, the mongoose, the otter, the genet cat, the rabbit... to name some of them. There are also 12 species of fish and 18 of reptiles in Doñana.

Doñana stands out as being one of the last redoubts of important faunistic species in danger of distinction: the Iberian lynx and the Imperial Eagle, natural treasures which have found safe refuge for their survival in Doñana. These two species also find in the extensive area of the Natural Park a potential alternative to the lands situated within the National Park.