There is a relatively small amount of data on the Park's fauna, especially for the ivertebrates.
There are four species of large carnivores living in the Park - brown bear (Ursus arctos), lynx (Lynx lynx), wolf (Canis lupus) and wild cat (Felis sylvestris).
One of the Park's endemic species is the Velebit lizard (Lacerta horvathi), a petrophile species whose habitat are stones, cliffs and various rocks. Its areal is quite small - it was only found in the East Alps and in the northern part of the Dinarid chain. It is an alpine species and appears in the areas which are identical to the upper edge of forestal vegetation - up to some 1600 meters of altitude.
Some thirty years ago, an alpine chamoix (Rupicapra rupicapra) was reintroduced on Velebit. Now it had spreaded throughout the park and it can often be spotted on the coastal mountain summits. As for other herbivores, the most common is rain deer (Capreolus capreolus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), hare (Lepus europaeus) and many others.
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There are many birds who live inside the park, and vaste forests form them an ideal habitat. There are more than 180 bird species registered so far on Velebit, and more than a hundred inhabit the mountain permanently. The symbol of northern Velebit is the capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), the largest Croatian hen, in these parts called "the singer" - "pivac" in the local dialect. Some peaks were named after this bird (Pivčevac).
One of the animal groups with the greatest number of species is that of the daily butterflies - (Rhophalocera ordo). They can be spotted everywhere - in forests, on mountain trails, meadows, between rocks... so far there are some 115 species registered, which is most probably not the final figure.
A very important faunal group are the troglobionts - the cave fauna. Many of those species are endemic, and the most widely known is a sort of leech discovered in the Velebit's deepest pit - Croatobranchus mestrovii .
Exploration of the Velebit fauna is at hand, and many more relevant and up-to-date information are yet expected.
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