A small cascade of highland ponds with peat meadows, a Natura 2000 site in the Czech Moravian Highlands.
Ratajské rybníky
Ratajské rybníky is a small protected natural area in the Czech Republic, located on the Kameničská vrchovina, a highland ridge forming the southeastern edge of the Železné hory mountains, within the Pardubický kraj and the okres Chrudim. The site centres on a cascade of three man-made fishponds, known locally as Horní Rataják, Prostřední Rataják and Dolní Rataják, surrounded by peat and sedge meadows, mires and shoreline woodland.
The status of the site is layered. It was originally designated as a protected natural creation in late 1990 and later reclassified as a přírodní památka, a Czech natural monument classification, with a core protected area of roughly 11 hectares. A larger, overlapping European Site of Community Importance under the Natura 2000 network was later declared on 15 April 2005, covering about 20 hectares. Both designations lie within the broader Chráněná krajinná oblast Žďárské vrchy, a protected landscape area managed by the Czech Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection.
Ecologically, Ratajské rybníky is recognised for its Molinia-rich wet meadows, transitional mires and quaking bog communities, and for populations of protected and endangered species, including rare butterflies of the Maculinea genus, the moss Hamatocaulis vernicosus, the minute land snail Vertigo geyeri, several orchid species, and rich amphibian communities. The combination of cool highland climate, persistent groundwater, traditional fishpond management and relatively undisturbed peatland margins gives the site a distinctive wetland character unusual for the otherwise dry and elevated Železné hory terrain.
