Sea cliffs, garigue, valleys and spring-fed streams shelter plants and animals that live nowhere else on Earth.
A tiny seabird, no bigger than a swallow, which nests on Filfla and on sea cliffs.
Malta's national bird: a blue-grey thrush singing from cliffs, bastions and rooftops.
A bright, noisy bird that passes over Malta on migration in spring and autumn.
The small dark-capped warbler whose rattling song is the sound of Maltese gardens and garigue.
A seabird that nests in holes on Maltese cliffs and spends the rest of its life at sea.
A rare Maltese olive with white ripe fruit, rediscovered in 2010 in a former Knights' garden.
A native tree of coastal salt marshes and clay shores that copes with salty water, flowering white to pale pink in late winter.
A strange red parasitic plant that is not a fungus, once so valued that the Knights guarded it.
A sea-lavender found only in Malta, growing on salty coastal rock.
A small, pale-pink orchid found only in the Maltese Islands, flowering in the garigue around mid-March.
Malta's national tree, a slow-growing conifer surviving in a few wild stands.
Malta's national plant, clinging to a few west-facing sea cliffs.
A small fish of brackish coastal pools, once widespread and now found at only a few sites.
Malta's only native frog, living in streams and pools in the valleys.
A freshwater crab surviving in a handful of spring-fed valley streams.
The dolphin most often seen from boats and headlands around Malta.
The loggerhead turtle is the sea turtle most often seen in Maltese waters, and in recent years it has begun nesting on a small number of Maltese beaches.
A big, long-lived fish of rocky reefs, curious about divers and easy to catch, so now much rarer.
A small purple jellyfish that glows at night and can sting. Spot the Jellyfish asks bathers to report it.
The largest shell in the Mediterranean, now threatened by a disease that has killed most of its population.
The seagrass meadows that feed, shelter and clean the shallow Maltese sea.
The common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) is an intelligent and adaptable animal found around Malta’s rocky reefs, sandy seabeds and seagrass beds. It hunts mainly at night and can change its colour, skin texture and body shape to hide from predators and surprise its prey. Although it is still found in Maltese waters and is locally important as food, sustainable fishing and protection of marine habitats are essential because the species has a short life cycle and is sensitive to fishing pressure.
A small, slow, well-camouflaged fish that holds on to seagrass with its tail.
The Kelb tal-Fenek—literally “rabbit dog”—is Malta’s traditional rabbit-hunting dog and is internationally known as the Pharaoh Hound. Its scientific name is not a Latin species name because it is a domestic dog breed; it belongs to the species Canis lupus familiaris.[wikipedia +1] It is a slender, short-haired, reddish-tan hound with large upright ears, an excellent sense of smell and strong hearing. Traditionally, it worked across Malta’s rocky countryside by locating rabbits and indicating their position to hunters. The breed is recognised internationally as the Pharaoh Hound, but “Kelb tal-Fenek” is the traditional Maltese name. It was designated Malta’s national hound in 1979.
A domesticated relative of the European polecat, kept as a pet and sometimes found feral in the Maltese countryside.
The small spiny mammal of Maltese gardens and fields, often seen after dark.
A small, slim hunter that is rarely seen but present in Maltese fields and valleys.
Some of Malta's olive trees have stood for centuries. The Bidni trees at Bidnija may date from the Middle Ages, and the rare Bajda carries white olives. Scientists are now reading their genes so the best local varieties can be grown again.
A search across Malta and Gozo found ancient olive trees, many abandoned, that are genetically unlike any known variety. Their fruit was tested over two years to find the best local trees for table olives and oil.
How a white olive tree turned up in a garden once owned by the Knights, and how Malta set about reviving its native olives.
DNA tests on 57 ancient and wild olive trees found that Malta's olives are genetically very diverse.
Olives collected across the islands, many from ancient monumental trees, were DNA-tested and sorted into 46 different genotypes.
A comparison of 128 olive trees from Italy, Algeria, Syria and Malta found that Maltese olives group with Italian ones, with genes that point back to Syria.
Honey bees carry pollen from plant to plant and so help crops and wild flowers make fruit and seed. Malta has its own honey bee, and local people are working to look after it.
A public pollinator garden on the edge of San Ġwann. It was announced in May 2021 as a €300,000 project to turn a run-down plot of about 1,000 square metres on Triq tal-Prepostu into a garden of carob, almond and Judas trees and aromatic herbs, all chosen to attract pollinators.
Enclosures in the garden hold honey bee hives, so visitors can learn about pollination and Malta's honey bee. Parks Malta helps San Ġwann local council to plant and look after it. GuideMe Malta reports that the abandoned area has since been turned into the garden.
We have not found published opening hours. Check the exact entrance and any access rules before you go.
Announcement (Times of Malta) ↗The finished garden (GuideMe Malta) ↗Meet the local honey bee (Apis mellifera ruttneri): what makes it special and how to help it.
Read more →A Maltese foundation working to protect the islands' honey bee. Its recent projects include bee hotels made from wood cleared of invasive alien trees, and a children's book, Il-Fjuri Qarrieqa.
Read: Il-Fjuri Qarrieqa →maltesehoneybee.org ↗Foundation for the Conservation of the Maltese Honey Bee
An 11-minute documentary on the Maltese honey bee (Apis mellifera ruttneri): its unique biodiversity, its long history on the islands, the challenges it faces and the national insect initiative. It includes interviews with Prof. David Mifsud and the tenor Joseph Calleja. This is the English version of the Maltese film.
Watch on YouTube ↗These videos are on YouTube. Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. Videos are in English.
People who have helped make Malta better through care for nature, animals, public awareness, science and community action.
Read more →Call 112 if people are in danger. For injured or stranded wildlife and nature crime:
Numbers as listed by Nature Malta. All report options →
An independent Maltese guide to wildlife, habitats, protected areas and environmental news, which also welcomes observations and photos from the public.
Wildlife knowledge base ↗Habitats and environments ↗Protected areas ↗Environmental timeline ↗Send in an observation or photo ↗Maltese and scientific names, protection status and conservation notes, from the Environment and Resources Authority and the University of Malta.
ERA: native and endemic species ↗ERA: marine fauna ↗ERA: Malta's national species ↗ERA: terrestrial habitats ↗University of Malta: Malta's Natural Heritage (1994, older reference) ↗EU Article 17 national summary for Malta (technical, English) ↗The European Union's network of protected areas for rare and threatened wildlife. It joins Special Areas of Conservation, chosen under the Habitats Directive, with Special Protection Areas for birds, chosen under the Birds Directive.
These are not fenced-off reserves: people can live, farm and walk in them, as long as the habitats and species stay in good condition. Traditional farmland and the green corridors that link sites count too, because wildlife needs to move between them.
Malta's Natura 2000 sites are now being restored under the €9 million E-CORE programme.
Map of all Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency) ↗A documentary series on Maltese wildlife by teacher and filmmaker Saviour Bonnici, including rare footage of the Maltese weasel, Malta's rarest mammal. Malta has about 11,000 species of plants and animals, around 130 of them endemic, yet only about 100 have ever been filmed.
A Malta Environment Foundation grant made the series free to watch online, with English translations, on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
About the project (Malta Environment Foundation) ↗Natura Maltija, Wildlife Malta
Filmed in Malta: starlings, the Blue Rock Thrush (il-Merill) feeding its young, and a do-it-yourself live camera for watching robins and Sardinian warblers in town.
Watch on YouTube ↗These videos are on YouTube. Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. Videos are in English.
