Animals

Over the past hundred years, the area of the Sečovlje Salt Landscape Park has also become known for birds, with over 300 different species recorded to date. The salt pans are a large body of water that birds use as a feeding, roosting or wintering site during migration. Some of them also nest in the salt pans. The typical habitats of plant and animal species are also limited to the various salt pans, brackish channels and dams. 

However, birds are far from being the only inhabitants of the salt pans. The habitats of the Sečovlje salt pans are also home to many smaller animals, many of which have their only habitat in Slovenia. The shallow salt waters are home to polychaetes, crabs, mussels, the larvae of some species of flies and a whole range of other animals that are appetising food for birds. The salt pans are home to several species of bees found only in Slovenia. The salt pans are also home to several species of herbivorous millipedes. 

In the Sečovlje Salt Landscape Park, 900 species of butterflies (many new to Slovenian fauna), 40 species of locusts, two species of mantids, 36 species of dragonflies, five species of amphibians and eight species of reptiles have been recorded. Of these, 48 are protected butterfly species, one protected praying mantis species, five protected amphibian species and six protected reptile species. 57 butterfly species, four amphibian species and six reptile species are on the Red List of Threatened Species. Two butterfly species and one reptile species are on the Natura 2000 species list. These figures alone demonstrate the importance of the Sečovlje salt pans for the conservation of rare and protected species, despite being a relatively small protected area in terms of size.