Originally established in 1980 as the Argentera Natural Park, in an area previously part of a royal hunting reserve established by Victor Emmanuel II in 1857, it assumed its current name and form in 1995, when it was merged with the Palanfrè Woods and Lakes Natural Reserve.

[1][2][3][4] The park lies entirely within the Province of Cuneo, in the territory of five municipalities, and encompasses the upper Valle Gesso, the Valle Vermenagna and part of the Valle Stura di Demonte, covering the two most prominent massifs of the Maritime Alps, the Argentera and the Gélas.

Nearly half of its territory (47 %) is composed of rocky terrain, whereas 22 % is covered by woods, 11 % by shrubs, 17 % by grasslands, and 1 % by glaciers.

[1][2][3][4] The park's fauna also includes chamoises (4,500 specimens), roe deer, red deer, alpine ibexes (500 specimens), European mouflons, Italian wolves, wild boars, red foxes, European pine martens, European badgers, beech martens, marmots, least weasels, stoats, red squirrels, European fat dormouses, voles, garden dormouses, European hedgehogs, European moles, shrews, and 75 species of birds, including the golden eagle (seven pairs of which nest in the park), the short-toed snake-eagle, the Eurasian goshawk, the Eurasian sparrowhawk, the European honey buzzard, the common buzzard, the peregrine falcon, the rock ptarmigan, the black grouse, the rock partridge, the Eurasian eagle-owl, the black woodpecker, the tree pipit, the water pipit, the alpine chough, the red-billed chough, the white-winged snowfinch, and the recently reintroduced bearded vulture.

[1][2][3][4] Media related to Parco naturale delle Alpi Marittime at Wikimedia Commons