Until five hundred years ago, wolves and deer would have roamed the Carneddau. They have long gone, and, besides the ubiquitous sheep, there are now red foxes, moles, mice, a few pine martens (probably extinct), polecats, and an increasing number of otters. Birds breeding here include common buzzard, kestrel, merlin and peregrine, raven and chough. The rare ring ouzel, the wheatear and the stonechat are all at home here, as are the skylark and the meadow pipit. Common sandpipers nest beside the lakes, the rare twite inhabits the Nant Ffrancon Valley and dotterels are found passing through the upper slopes.