Babia Góra National Park ( pl, Babiogórski Park Narodowy) is one of the 23

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, located in the southern part of the country, in

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). It was created on 1 ...

, on the border with

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. The park has its headquarters in the village of

Zawoja Zawoja is a village in southern Poland located close to Maków Podhalański. It is situated in Sucha County ( Lesser Poland Voivodeship). With neighbouring village of Skawica it constitutes a rural Zawoja Commune. It has 6,200 inhabitants (200 ...

. The park covers an area of , of which

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s occupy . The park includes the northern and part of the southern side of the

Babia Góra Babia Góra (in Polish), or Babia hora (in Slovak), literally Old Wives' or Witches' Mountain, is a massif situated on the border between Poland and Slovakia in the Western Beskid Mountains. The name is also applied to the culmination of th ...

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

, of which the main peak (also known as ''Diablak'') is the highest point of the Orava Beskids mountain range at . There is a protected area Horná Orava Protected Landscape Area on the Slovak side of the massif. The area of Babia Góra was first brought under legal protection in 1933, when the Babia Góra Reserve was created. On October 30, 1954, it was designated a National Park. Since 1976 it has been listed by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

as a

biosphere reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

under the Man and the Biosphere (MaB) programme. The area of the biosphere reserve was extended in 2001.

Fauna

*105 species of birds (including

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...

s and

eagle owl The American (North and South America) horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus ''Bubo'', at least as traditionally described. The genus name ''Bubo'' is Latin for the Eurasian eagle-owl. This genus contains 19 species that ar ...

s) *Animals such as

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

and

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

s *Insects, especially

beetles Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

, including some that are unique to the area

Gallery

File:Babia Gora.jpg, Babia Gora (1725 m), the highest peak of the national park File:Babia Góra a7.jpg, Summit of Babia Góra File:Babia Góra from Mosorny Groń.jpg, Babia Góra seen from Mosorny Groń File:Babiogórski Park Narodowy 20150910 0694.jpg, A forest in the Babia Góra National Park File:Babia Góra National Park 4.jpg, A mountain trail File:The Babia Gora Biosphere Reserve, Poland (2).jpg,

Beskid Żywiecki Beskid may refer to one of the following: * Beskids, mountain ranges in Carpathian Mountains * Beskid (car), a Polish economy car model * Beskid Andrychów, a Polish football club * Beskid (ski), tourist skis for mountain skiing, manufactured in ...

landscape File:Sptn-rmnk-zbnc 19oct 015.jpg, Babia Góra and Pilsko seen from Rysianka File:Babia Góra – Dzwonek wąskolistny (Campanula polymorpha).jpg, Campanula polymorpha File:Babia Góra – głazowisko pod Diablakiem z roślinnością alpejską.jpg, Ostoja Babiogórska Nature Reserve with Alpine flora File:Szlak w Babiogórskim Parku Narodowym.jpg, A forest trail File:Babia Góra.JPG, Sunset over Ostoja Babiogorska

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Babia Gora National Park Parks in Lesser Poland Voivodeship National parks of Poland Biosphere reserves of Poland Protected areas established in 1954 Protected areas of the Western Carpathians 1954 establishments in Poland