Osservatorio di Ecologia Appenninica "Il Lupo" di Roseto Valfortore

The discovery in the area of some specimens of an animal that was believed to have been extinct since the 80s has indeed reinforced awareness of the need to protect the local flora and fauna, encouraging the birth of the structure. Qualified as the first Environmental Experience Center of the INFEA network in Puglia, the Observatory has conducted studies and research also on butterflies night and day, attesting to the presence of over 800 different species in the Dauni Mountains, as well as a study on the behavioural changes of birds in the presence of installations of wind farms.

The OS.E.AP is also a natural history museum with dioramas that reconstruct the most representative natural habitats of the Dauni Mountains, such as the forest ecosystem, that of the high pastures, that of the stream and that of the Mediterranean maquis, with reproduction of flora and fauna of the same. In addition to a scientific vocation, the structure also has an educational purpose and conducts outdoor environmental education workshops throughout the area of the Monti Dauni.