The Monasterio de San Salvador in Cornellana, Asturias was founded in 1024 by Princess Cristina, daughter of King Bermudo II of Leon, also known as Bermudo el Gotoso (Gout-stricken). The gate into the vegetable garden is decorated with the relief of what is perhaps a female bear breast-feeding a human child. The legend goes that when Cristina was a young girl she got lost in the forest and was saved by a bear which fed and protected her.
I compiled these legends about foxes in Spain from the excellent Seres míticos y personajes fantásticos españoles by MANUEL MARTÍN SÁNCHEZ.
Zorro de tres cabezas The three-headed fox. Resides in a megalithic monument near Tortosa, Catalonia and comes out on the night of San Juan to terrorise peasants.
Loberono (Vulpus canis) Ferocious Galician mammal produced by the cross between a fox and a wolf. Sometimes appears as a fox and sometimes as a wolf with red fur and black spots. Often found in cemeteries digging up the dead on which it feeds. It is capable of paralysing a human (Homo sapiens) with its look and can see through walls. Shouting at a loberono is useless as it is deaf as a post. Fox mythology, Spanish cryptofauna
See also Foxes in Spain
“They write from Galicia in Spain that some fishermen lately took on that coast a sort of monster, or merman, five feet and half long from it’s foot to its head, which was like that of a goat. It has a long beard and moustaches, and black skin somewhat hairy, a very long neck, short arms, and hand longer than they ought to be in proportion to the rest of the body: long fingers like those of a man, with nails like claws, very long toes, joined like the feet of a duck, and the heels furnished with fins resembling the winged feet with which painters represent Mercury. ”
From Scots Magazine 1739.
In Spanish a mermaid is a sirena. More Iberian knicknackery here
“In the north of the Peninsula, it was believed that lizards were friends of men, while snakes were related to women. They told that lizards would leap at women during their period (Translator’s note: My mother-in-law has told me about this). Similarly in Seville , geckos were said to chase after women. There also stories of lizards climbing into women’s vaginas while they slept. In the southeast there is the belief that if you come across a lizard with two tails and you put it in a plate scattered with flour, it will draw the winning numbers in the lottery (two-tailed lizards occasionally occur when a new one is regrown without the old having been totally severed). Another belief related to lizards tails is that they are a cure warts. This belief should be combated as the loss of its tail can cause great harm.
There is also lots information on the folklore around individual species in the field guide part. On the Turkish gecko we have for example:
“In Murcia they are known as “pelás”. This comes from the “powers†they are said to have. It is thought that if you misfortunate enough for a gecko to fall on your head you will go bald as a coot. In some villages just the mere spit from a gecko is enough to leave you hairless”.
All no doubt true, although biologists claim that geckos can’t spit. Thoroughly recommended. Good drawings and photos too.
See Foroum on this Book on Spanish reptiles and amphibians
Come falcon watching at the Sagrada Família, Barcelona this Sunday 18th May. Plaça Sagrada Família with Thalassia, Galanthus and Iberianature. 10:00-13:00.
This article from the latest Environment and History makes fascinating reading.
Spanish Wood Pasture: Origin and Durability of an Historical Wooded Landscape in Mediterranean Europe
Spanish dehesas, the most extensive wood pastures in Mediterranean Europe, are a vivid example for demonstrating that the impact of rural communities on forests has not always been a bad thing. Environmental history is vital for understanding this cultural landscape. This article first analyses the origin of the dehesa. The border logic and the medieval Reconquest are elements that undoubtedly played a decisive part in its genesis; but, for the significance of Roman influence in Spain, it is necessary to consider the question of the possible existence of dehesas in Antiquity. The second aspect concerns the spreading of this landscape from the Middle Ages onwards. Dehesas are usually linked to the large properties owned by military orders, but most of all the spreading of the dehesa was favoured by the rise of transhumance from the thirteenth century onwards. Finally, the article emphasises that the durability of the Spanish wood pasture can be explained by a combination of several factors: insecurity along the border, the fact that transhumance was the most important industry in Spain for many centuries, and the protective laws adopted by the rural communities in order to protect their dehesas. Vincent Clément See also dehesa
I've put together this collection of videos from Google Video and YouTube of documentaries and news items on wolves in Spain. there also a link to a radio programme on wolves from Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. Enjoy.
I enjoyed doing these Spanish geography quizzes. The rivers of Spain is fiendishly difficult. You may also enjoy these Spanish natural history quizzes I did last year.
Scientists from Barcelona University have discovered that bears produce an inhibitor that prevents loss of muscle tissue during hibernation. While their body temperature stays constant and they neither eat, drink nor defecate, proteins in the body produce a potent inhibitor that allows their muscle mass to remain as it was prior to hibernation leaving them able to move normally when they exit their dens in spring. The discovery could lead to a breakthrough in human medical care.
From terra.es
One of the lammergeyers released in the Sierra de Cazorla as part of the reintroduction programme has been found shot dead in the nearby Sierra de Castril (Granada). Its body was found thanks to the satellite tagging system fitted to all the released birds. The female was born at the lammergeyer breeding centre in Guadalentín (Jaén) where another 14 birds have been born. This is the first bearded vulture to be shot since the reintroduction programme began. The programme is to go ahead and three more birds are to be released in May. El País
