Along the Etna woods or around rural buildings abandoned, it is possible to meet the barn owl, or the turtle dove that comes from Africa in April and it stays in the wood to nest, leaving it in September. Or even the buzzard, very shy in spite of its appearance, predator of small snakes, birds and young rabbits.
In open areas of poor vegetation at the edge of the woods it is possible to meet the southern viper "vipera aspis hugyi", which is an endemic species, that lives in the vineyards and in the dry-stones of the Etna; it is about seventy centimetres long, and it has a heart shape head. In the insidious black lava, on its own or with an occasional hunter, it is possible to meet the great predatory of wild rabbits, the "Cirneco of Etna", classified as "primitive race" because of its standard .
In the woods, in the gardens and in the orchards lives a rodent that in autumn after putting up lot of weight goes into hibernation; it is the "dormouse". The relationship between man and dormouse is very old. Before the Greeks, then the Romans were very fond of the meat of this animal, that they use to breed and to fatten inside special containers made of clay (glicari); during feast the amphitryon use to predispose proper scales where the notaries recorded the weight of the bigger ones, that after were roasted on the spit. Even during recent days we could find the dormouse on the tables, it was during the Second World War when it was the main course of the Etna peasants.
The dread of the insects, that hide themselves under the trees' bark, is the "Green Woodpecker", a real natural insecticide. In the park, the fauna consists of nocturnal animals.
We can find the "Wild cat" whose classic prey is the rabbit. Very similar to a domestic cat, it is more rough and with shorter legs. It has a grey thick fur with black stripes.
It is a solitary type, and it lives in the oak' woods and in the bush; active during the night, it feeds on mice, hares, birds and reptiles.