The formation of the Baleares islands is estimated to have taken place around 150 million years ago. At first, Mallorca was joined to the peninsula as an underwater island before its present configuration came into being. Scrub forests comprising pine, rosemary, wild olive, lentiscus and dwarf fan palms were the island's main vegetation. Rockrose and lavender predominated in the sierra.
The sparse vegetation supported only a few animals. The smallest were field mice and wood shrews; the largest, the civet cats. Birds, on the other hand, have always been plentiful. Even though their habitat is under constant threat the number of bird species number well over 2000 when counting indigenous and migratory species. But of all the non-human species on Mallorca, it is only the pine tree which isn't in decline. As for home sapiens, the population was 846,000 in 2006 and is increasing at a frightening rate.
Rainfall on the island is slight, varying between 1,400mm (55in) in the mountains to only 300mm (11.8in) on the southern plain. The winds blow principally during the winter and spring, predominantly from the north (the Tramuntana) and the southwest (the Llebeix). The southeast Sirocco brings with it red sand from the deserts of Africa which, if nothing else, seriously irritates the island's clean-car owners.
