Idalia Luczak

Wildlife in Scotland

Scotland is beautiful country full of wild animals. Every season offers you unique possibility to enjoy local wildlife. In whole Scotland there are over 120 reserves.

They cover area of more than 20,000 hectares. You can see some exciting species here. Below we present some of them.

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Badgers can be found mostly in the Lowlands. Although not big, this animal can be rather fierce. Their distinctive feature is unusual black and white pattern on their heads. Badgers make a lot of funny noises. You can see them in spring and summer.

Otters are brown mammals with impressive tail. They are dangerous aquatic predators, though they look rather harmless. Nowadays only small number of otters preserved, in particular near to northern and western coast of the country.

Active mostly during the night, pine martens are hard to observe. They are small, agile mammals from badger and otter family. Pine martens are also good climbers and fast runners. Years ago it these animals were highly valued because of their fur.

These goats are descendants of domesticated goats which went truly wild. Wild goats live in large herds, which can even count up to 500 individuals. In some cultures they are considered feral animals. Wild goats are usually born in January.

Wildcats are UK’s largest mammal predators. Today less than 400 wildcats live in the country. Their extinction became serious threat. Wildcats hunt small mammals, birds and other creatures. It may be very difficult to observe wildcats in the wild. Not only there are only few of them, but also they try not to encounter humans.

It is UK’s largest bird of pray, it can reach 69 – 95 cm in length and 1.82 – 2.44 m wingspan. White – tailed eagle looks majestic with its huge, brown body, pale head and neck and – of course – white tail. It almost became extinct in 19th century, but fortunately introduction special programme prevented this.

Incredibly sweet-looking little bird, often seen in internet memes. Its distinctive feature is brightly coloured, rather big beak. Puffins have black back and bear a little resemblance to penguins. Their short wings are perfectly adapted for swimming – they spend lots of time in water. It is easy to observe puffins in spring and summer.

This funny-looking animal lives in the see around almost whole Scotland. They are renowned for their big forehead, filled with organ called the melon, holding mass of fat and oily tissue. Melon helps them to communicate. Usually they live in groups called pods, consisting of 10 to 30 members.

Well, yes, they aren’t wildlife animals, but… they are symbol of Scotland. Just look at them!

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