Fauna

When the discoverers of Madeira made the recognition of the island in order to colonize it, despite the dense and pristine Laurel forest, they only found birds and the Madeiran Wall lizard, Teira dugesii, no venomous or fierce animals were observed. By then there were so many birds that these were the main food source of the first villagers, as written by Diogo Gomes in his travel book written in the XV century (Pereira, E., 1956).

Later, the only mammals described were 3 species of bats - Madeira Pipistrelle Pipistrellus maderensis, Lesser Noctule, Nyctalus leisleri and Grey Long-eared bat, Plecotus austriacus - and the Monk Seal Monachus monachus.