Wildlife of Garda Lake

59 illustrations, created by me for a Project about local fauna in a protected area between Bardolino and Garda towns (Lake Garda, Italy): the “On the tracks of biodiversity” project (“Sulle tracce della biodiversità“).

Tecnique: pencil sketch brought to Adobe Photoshop, vectors hand-drawn with lazo tool, digitalization with Adobe Illustrator.

Project “On the tracks of biodiversity”

“Sulle tracce della Biodiversità”

A path to discover the biodiversity of the Garda Lake hills, from the lakefront of Bardolino to the Rocca of Garda, passing through woods and olive groves. Every point stop is dedicated to the discovery of the local wildlife and to the easy actions that everyone can do to protect and respect the biodiversity.

The park of the Rocca of Garda is almost completely extended within the Site of Community Importance (SIC) IT3210007 called “Monte Baldo: Val dei Mulini, Senge di Marciaga, Rocca of Garda” which includes the municipalities of Bardolino, Costermano, Garda and Torri del Benaco.

The SIC (Sito di interesse comunitario – Site of Community Importance) and the ZPS (Zone di Protezione speciale – Special Protection Areas) constitute the beating heart of the Natura 2000 Network for the conservation of biodiversity with actions aimed at ensuring the long-term maintenance of natural habitats and of threatened or rare flora and fauna species at community level.

The thermophilic woods, the crags with olive groves and vineyards, the Hermitage of San Giorgio, the rural buildings together with the peculiar geomorphological aspects contribute to designing the landscape of the Rocca Park.

Different species occupy different environments:
1) Lake Garda – Coastal habitat with wintering or nesting species.
2) Cultivated areas, including olive groves
3) Wooded areas – oyster groves or oyster-oak groves that almost completely cover the northern side of the Rocca del Garda park, facing the town of Garda, and to a lesser extent the opposite side facing Bardolino.
4) Rocky walls overlooking the Lake – At the edges of these rocky walls overlooking Lake Garda we find xerothermic vegetation typical of the Mediterranean scrub formed by holm oak, privet, terebinth and downy oak
5) In the summit part of the Rocca del Garda promontory we have a prairie area that constitutes an important habitat, albeit of limited size, for species linked to open spaces.

Partners of this project:

1. Comune di Bardolino
2. Comune di Garda
3. Parco Natura Viva

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Created on: 25/05/2023
Copyright illustrations 2023 Parco Natura Viva Garda Zoological Park
Illustrations by Elena Greenedera Zambelli #noai

Page last edit 13/06/2025