The Sierra de la Alfaguara is part of the Sierra de Huétor National Park. This National Park covers an area of 12,127 hectares and includes the towns of Alfacar, Cogollos Vega, Beas de Granada, Diezma, Huétor Santillán, Nívar and Víznar.
The park features extraordinary recreational areas adapted for camping and sporting activities in the natural environment.
Red Wave Maiden Butterfly
Fauna
The diverse habitats are home to a variety of wildlife, including ibex and wild boar, large mammals, foxes, genets, weasels, martens and wild cats, as well as rabbits, voles, badgers, dormice and red squirrels.
Birds of prey include golden eagles, goshawks, eagle owls, sparrowhawks, booted eagles, owlets and tawny owls.
There are many reptiles to be found, such as the bastard snake, the snub-nosed viper, the ocellated lizard, smaller lizards and geckos.
Amphibians include the Betic midwife toad, frogs and native crayfish.
The insect population includes the Polyommatus Bellargus Subsp Alfacariensis butterfly, a bluish-coloured Lycaenidae that was first identified in this area. As well as the Red Wave Maiden butterfly, which is included in the catalogue of endangered species.
Adonis vernalis
Flora
The geographical location of these mountain ranges, their special layout, which allows a wide variety of habitats to coexist, as well as the presence of highly mesophytic microclimatic conditions, make them home to a rich and varied flora, with Mediterranean and Baetic influences, as well as other Central European and North African influences that are of great interest to the flora of Andalusia.
More than eight hundred species of phanerogams have been catalogued, of which approximately seventy-five are endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, fifty-four are endemic to the south of the Iberian Peninsula and forty-two are endemic to Ibero-North Africa. The following are particular highlights: Centaurea funkii, Cotoneaster granatensis, Centaurea monticola, Filago nevadensis, Adonis vernalís var. granatensis.
Crocus nevadensis has also been found, an endemic species of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which is widespread in these mountains and can be spotted in winter.
