Montenegro

Montenegro has many high mountains.

The Tara River runs through a very deep canyon. Lake Skadar is the biggest lake. In the mountains it rains and snows a lot.

Much of Montenegro is karst: limestone rock that slowly dissolves in water, making sinkholes and caves. Much of the rainwater there flows through underground channels instead of on the surface. Montenegro's biggest lake, Lake Skadar, fills a karst hollow near the coast and stretches into Albania.

In the north, the mountains of Durmitor were carved by glaciers. Bobotov Kuk rises to 2,522 meters, and the Tara River has cut a gorge more than 60 kilometers long, the deepest in Europe. The mountains are very wet: Crkvice, above the Bay of Kotor, gets nearly 5,100 millimeters of rain and snow a year.

Montenegro's karst lies mostly at about 900 m, its predominantly limestone rock dissolving into sinkholes and caves; much of its drainage runs underground. The Zeta valley around Nikšić Polje is a typical flat-floored karst depression. Lake Skadar, the largest lake, occupies a karst polje whose floor lies below sea level; Britannica gives it 40 km by 16 km and 360 km², about three-fifths inside Montenegro. In the north the Lim and Tara drain toward the Danube via the Drina, while southern streams flow to the Adriatic.

The high mountains average more than 2,000 m and were the most ice-eroded part of the Balkan Peninsula in the last glacial period. MONSTAT's list of peaks, from the Cadastre and State Property Administration, is headed by Bobotov kuk in Durmitor and Maja Rozit in the Prokletije, each 2,522 m. UNESCO calls the Tara River Gorge, more than 60 km long, Europe's deepest. Lower areas have a Mediterranean climate with dry summers and mild, rainy winters; Podgorica averages 27 °C in July, Crkvice receives nearly 5,100 mm of precipitation a year, and snow lies for about 120 days in the higher mountains.

Brown bears and wolves live in the mountains.

Wildcats live there too. Golden eagles soar over the peaks. Otters swim in the rivers.

Few people live in much of Montenegro, and it is home to bears, deer, martens and wild pigs. Wolves, foxes and wildcats hunt there too. About one-third of the country, mostly in the high mountains, is still covered with broad-leaved forest.

In Durmitor National Park, brown bears, gray wolves, European wildcats and river otters live among the peaks, and about 130 kinds of birds have been recorded, including golden eagles and capercaillie. Some European black pines there are 400 years old and taller than 50 meters, and the rare Danube salmon still swims in the park's rivers.

Britannica describes sparsely populated Montenegro as habitat for bears, deer, martens and wild pigs (Sus scrofa), with predators including wolves, foxes and wildcats, and a rich variety of birds, reptiles and fish. About one-third of the country, mainly the high mountains, keeps its broad-leaved forest; the southern karst, once forested with oak and cypress, lost its trees to fuel and building, eroded, and is now largely bare rock and maquis scrub.

Durmitor National Park, founded in 1952 and inscribed by UNESCO in 1980, spans altitudes from about 450 to more than 2,500 m. UNESCO records about 700 vascular plant species, 37 endemic to the wider area and six to Durmitor alone, and an old-growth stand of European black pine in which 400-year-old trees exceed 50 m. Large mammals include the brown bear, gray wolf, European wildcat and river otter; some 130 bird species include golden and short-toed eagles, peregrine falcon, capercaillie and black grouse. The endangered Danube salmon, under heavy pressure from overuse and dam building elsewhere in its range, survives in the park's rivers.

About 624,000 people live in Montenegro.

Many live in Podgorica. Some live in villages of stone houses. In the hills, many farmers keep sheep.

The 2023 census counted about 624,000 people. More than three-fifths live in towns and cities, and Podgorica is by far the largest. In the census, about 41 percent of people said they were Montenegrins and about 33 percent Serbs, and Bosniaks, Albanians and other groups live there too.

Montenegrin is the official language, and the constitution also recognizes Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian. Villages often sit in flat karst hollows, with houses built of stone. In the uplands, the main kind of farming is raising sheep. Montenegro has used the euro since 2002.

MONSTAT's 2023 census counted 623,633 people, 50.80 percent of them women, with an average age of 39.73. Answering by free self-declaration, 41.12 percent declared themselves Montenegrins, 32.93 percent Serbs, 9.45 percent Bosniaks and 4.97 percent Albanians. Britannica notes that differences between Montenegrin and Serb identity remain a matter of controversy and that the census shares have shifted over time. Bosniaks live mainly in the northern mountains and Albanians along the coast; nearly three-fourths of Ulcinj's people are Albanian.

Montenegrin is the official language, and the constitution also recognizes Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian. In the census, 43.18 percent gave Serbian and 34.52 percent Montenegrin as their mother tongue. Religious affiliation was 71.10 percent Orthodox, 19.99 percent Islam and 3.27 percent Catholic. Less than two-fifths of people now live in rural areas, compared with about seven-eighths in the 1940s; villages lie mainly in karst poljes, houses are often built of stone without mortar, and sheepherding is the main upland farming. The euro has been the official currency since 2002.