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Fauna

The animal representing the symbol of the Park is the Apennine chamois, because 100 years after the extinction of this ungulate on the Gran Sasso, a reintroduction project enabled it to colonize the mountains again, and today about 500 specimens have been observed. The faunistic heritage of the protected area also includes the other large herbivores, such as the deer and the roe deer, as well as their predator par excellence, namely the Apennine wolf.
Among the mammals there are the marten, the wildcat, the badger, the beech marten, the European polecat, and the crested porcupine, whereas in the high altitude  lives the European snow vole, a small rodent survived since the last glaciation.
The bird species includes rare birds of prey, such as the golden eagle, the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the lanner falcon and the Eurasian eagle-owl. In the highest altitude further species can be observed: the white-winged snowfinch, the water pipit, the meadow pipit and the alpine accentor, that occupy the Gran Sasso with the most numerous apennine populations. Other species living there are also the rock partridge, the common rock thrush, the alpine chough and the the red-billed chough. The pastures, the low altitudes and the traditional cultivated areas host the ortolan, the crested lark, the tawny pipit, the rock sparrow and the red-backed shrike.
The high altitude prairies are the habitat of the meadow viper, which has its largest Italian population in the Park. Many amphibians are also present, with species that are endemic to the Apennines such as the spectacled salamander and the Italian cave salamander. On the Laga Mountains it is possible to observe the common frog and the alpine newt, namely species that - within the area of the central-southern apennine -  live only in the Park and in a small area of Calabria. A real paradise for bird species is represented by the Campotosto Lake, which in autumn gets crowded by thousands of water birds.