The blue tit is a widespread and common resident breeder of Europe
The fauna of Europe is all the animals living in Europe and its surrounding seas and islands. Europe is the western part of the Palearctic realm (which in turn is part of the Holarctic). Lying within the temperate region, (north of the equator) the wildlife is not as rich as in the hottest regions, but is nevertheless diverse due to the variety of habitats and the faunal richness of Eurasia as a whole.
Before the arrival of humans European fauna was more diverse and widespread than today. The European megafauna of today is much reduced from its former numbers. The Holocene extinction drastically reduced numbers and distribution of megafauna and continues to (such as with wolves and bears). Many of these species still exist in smaller numbers, while others thrive in the developed continent free from natural predators, with the former threatened by human activity (particularly megafaunal species).
Origins of European fauna
Northern Hemisphere glaciation during the last ice age
The formation of the European fauna began in the Mesozoic with the splitting of the Laurasian supercontinent and was eventually separated from both North America and Asia in the Eocene. During the early Cenozoic, the continents approached their present configuration, Europe experienced periods of land connection to North America via Greenland, resulting in colonization by North American animals. In these times, higher sea levels sometimes fragmented Europe into island subcontinents. As time passed, sea levels fell, with seas retreating from the plains of western Russia, establishing the modern connection to Asia (Priabonian). Asian animal species then colonized Europe in large numbers, and many endemic European lineages (e.g. primates) died out ("grande coupure").
The cyclic changes of the Pleistocene between cold and warm periods resulted in antagonistic responses within two different groups of organisms: one expanding during the warm periods and retracting during the cold phases and another with opposed responses (the latter group is composed of so-called arctic and alpine species).[1]
Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the presence of man affected the distribution of European fauna. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have been hunted to extinction. The woolly mammoth was extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. Tree species spread outward from refugia during interglacial periods, but in varied patterns, with different trees dominating in different periods.[2] Insects, on the other hand, shifted their ranges with the climate, maintaining consistency in species for the most part throughout the period (Coope 1994). Their high degree of mobility allowed them to move as the glaciers advanced or retreated, maintaining a constant habitat despite the climatic oscillations. Mammals recolonized at varying rates. Brown bears, for instance, moved quickly from refugia with the receding glaciers, becoming one of the first large mammals to recolonize the land.[3] The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago, resulting in the present distribution of ecoregions.
The Baltic Sea is an ecological island, isolated from other brackish seas by both land and fully marine seas.[7] The low salinity of the Baltic Sea has led to the evolution of many slightly divergent species, such as the Baltic Sea herring, which is a smaller variant of the Atlantic herring. The most frequent benthic species are Saduria entomon and Monoporeia affinis, which is originally a freshwater species. A great part of its bottom is anoxic and without animal life.
The Baltic Sea and North Sea are also home to a variety of marine mammals (common seals, grey seals).
Freshwater
Europe contains several important freshwater ecoregions, including the heavily developed rivers of Europe, the rivers of Russia, which flow into the Arctic, Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas. There are about 15,000 known European freshwater animal species.[8]
Arctic tundra
Arctic tundra is the northernmost (and coldest) of European habitats, in extreme northern Scandinavia, Svalbard archipelago, northernmost part of Russia. Some typical animals include reindeer, Arctic fox, brown bear, ermine, lemmings, partridges, snowy owl and many insects. Most tundra animals undergo hibernation during the colder season. Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean with very scarce land fauna. The only native land mammal when humans arrived was the Arctic fox. There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the island, but a rich marine fauna live in the ocean waters around it.
Percentage of land area of different European countries covered by forest.
Forests
Eighty to ninety per cent of Europe was once covered by forest. It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of deforestation, Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the boreal forests of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed rainforests of the Caucasus and the cork oak forests in the western Mediterranean. In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both broadleaf and coniferous trees dominate. The cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat has caused major disruptions to the original animal ecosystems, and only few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by livestock at some point in time.
The mountain regions have peculiar fauna relatively little influenced by human activities. The northernmost are the Scandinavian Mountains. Pyrenees present many instances of endemism. The Pyrenean desman is found only in some of the streams of the northern slopes of these mountains, Pyrenean brook salamander also lives in streams and lakes located at high altitudes. Among the other peculiarities of the Pyrenean fauna are blind insects in the caverns of Ariège (Anophthalmus, Adelops). The Pyrenean ibex mysteriously became extinct in 2000; the native Pyrenean brown bear was hunted to near-extinction in the 1990s but was re-introduced in 1996. Some common animals of the Alps are Alpine ibex, Alpine marmot, Tengmalm's owl and ptarmigan. The Apennine Mountains provide habitat to Marsican brown bear and the Italian wolf. The Carpathian Mountains are a range of mountains forming an arc of roughly 1,500km across Central and Eastern Europe and are inhabited by the largest populations in Europe of brown bears, wolves and lynxes, as well as chamois and other animals.
Mediterranean
Formerly the region was mostly covered with forests and woodlands, but heavy human use has reduced much of the region to the sclerophyll shrublands known as chaparral, matorral, maquis, or garrigue. The loss of native forests had significant impact on biodiversity, with some 90% of the endemic mammalian genera of the Mediterranean becoming extinct after the development of agriculture.[9]Conservation International has designated the Mediterranean basin as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
As to the marine fauna, there are strong affinities and relationships between Mediterranean and Atlantic faunas. The deep-water fauna of the Mediterranean has no distinctive characteristics and is relatively poor. Both are a result of events after the Messinian salinity crisis.[10] An invasion of Indian Ocean species has begun via the Suez Canal (see Lessepsian migration). Many species, (such as the Mediterranean monk seal) are critically endangered.
About 100,000 invertebrate species (including insects) are known from Europe.[11] The marine species richness is greatest in the Mediterranean with 600 sponge species (45% of them endemic), 143 known species of Echinoderms and about 500 species of Cnidarians.[12] Almost 1000 species of oligochaetes live in Europe.
There are about 1500 species of non-marine molluscs in Europe. The marine fauna is again richest in the Mediterranean region (2000 marine mollusc species).[13] 22 species and 3 subspecies of gastropods are extinct in Europe since the year 1500.[14] No species of bivalves are known to be extinct in Europe since 1500.[14]
About 600 species of butterflies and about 8000 species of moths live in Europe. An estimated 18% of all European butterfly species are considered to be vulnerable to or imminently faced with extinction.[18]
Of the 589 species of birds (excluding seabirds) that breed in the Palearctic, 40% spend the winter elsewhere. Of those species that leave for the winter, 98% travel south to Africa.[25]
European mammal fauna consists of 270 species, 78 of them endemic to Europe[19] (15% of them are threatened with extinction and 27% have been identified as declining).[26] There are no endemic mammal orders in the region.
Having lived side by side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. The main causes of biodiversity loss are changes in natural habitats due to intensive agricultural production, construction and extractive industries, over exploitation of habitats and invasions and introductions of alien species.
With the exception of Fennoscandia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various national parks. There are over 26,000 protected areas in the European Union covering a total area of around 850.000km2 (more than 20% of total EU territory; see also Natura 2000).[30] 15% of the Alps are protected in parks and reserves, as well as many areas in the Carpathians (Retezat National Park). The coasts of the North Sea are home to nature reserves including the Ythan Estuary, Fowlsheugh Nature Preserve, and Farne Islands in the UK and The Wadden Sea National Parks in Germany. Białowieża Forest is the only remaining part of the immense forest which once spread across the European Plain. The Danube Delta is the second largest delta in Europe, (after the Volga Delta) and the best preserved on the continent. The Camargue Nature Reserve is another important delta nature reserve. Doñana National Park is a national park and wildlife refuge in southwestern Spain.
Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Bern Convention, which has been signed by the European Community as well as non-European states. The European Union has adopted the ambitious target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010.[31]
Ladakh is the home to endemic Himalayan wildlife, such as the bharal, yak, Himalayan brown bear, Himalayan wolf and the iconic snow leopard. Hemis National Park, Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, and Karakorum Wildlife Sanctuary are protected wildlife areas of Ladakh. The Mountain Institute, the Ladakh Ecological Development Group and the Snow Leopard Conservancy work on ecotourism in rural Ladakh. For such an elevated, arid area, Ladakh has great diversity of birds — 318 species have been recorded. Many of these birds reside at or seasonally breed in high-altitude wetlands, such as Tso Moriri, or near rivers and water sources.
Fauna in Armenia is diverse given the country's relatively small geographic size, owing to the varied habitats created by the area's mountainous terrain. Armenia is an important area for migratory animals; about 350 different bird species were recorded in the country. Many of the world's domesticated animals originated in the area Armenia is located in, and the mouflon, the ancestor of domesticated sheep, is present there. Research suggests that about a quarter of the animal species in Armenia are internationally endangered. The mouflons are suffering a great population decline due to poaching and habitat loss, and the Sevan trout, which made up thirty percent of the fish in Lake Sevan, have virtually disappeared.
The fauna of the United States of America is all the animals living in the Continental United States and its surrounding seas and islands, the Hawaiian Archipelago, Alaska in the Arctic, and several island-territories in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. The U.S. has many endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. With most of the North American continent, the U.S. lies in the Nearctic, Neotropic, and Oceanic faunistic realms, and shares a great deal of its flora and fauna with the rest of the American supercontinent.
The wildlife of Armenia includes the wild boar, crested porcupine, various lizards, snakes and numerous species of birds and plants. Endangered species in Armenia are the bear, wild goat, Armenian mouflon and the leopard.
The wildlife of Azerbaijan consists of its flora and fauna and their natural habitats.
The wildlife of Jordan includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Although much of the country is desert, it has several geographic regions, each with a diversity of plants and animals adapted to their own particular habitats. Fossil finds show that in Palaeolithic times, the region had Syrian brown bears, Asiatic lions and Syrian elephants, but these species are all now extinct in this region.
This is a list of the fauna of Finland. Finland borders Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland, allowing an ecological mix. Finland contains many species of mammals, birds, and fish, but only a few reptiles and amphibians. This article discusses all the vertebrate animals which can be found on Finland itself, not the oceans.
The fauna of Toronto include a variety of different species situated within the city limits. Toronto contains a mosaic of ecosystems that includes forests, rivers, streams, and wetlands, which allows it to support a large variety of fauna. Approximately 87 to 90 per cent of the city's indigenous flora and fauna inhabit the city reside within the Toronto ravine system. The city's ravine system, creeks and rivers are wildlife corridors that allow animals to travel from one area of the city to another. Although most animals in Toronto reside within the ravine system, several animals also live in the city's urban environment and parks.
Pakistan's native fauna reflect its varied climatic zones. The northern Pakistan, which includes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan, has portions of two biodiversity hotspots, Mountains of Central Asia and Himalayas.
The fauna of Italy comprises all the animal species inhabiting the territory of the Italian Republic and its surrounding waters. Italy has the highest level of faunal biodiversity in Europe, with over 57,000 species recorded, representing more than a third of all European fauna. This is due to various factors. The Italian peninsula is in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, forming a corridor between central Europe and North Africa, and it has 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of coastline. Italy also receives species from the Balkans, Eurasia, and the Middle East. Italy's varied geological structure, including the Alps and the Apennines, Central Italian woodlands, and Southern Italian Garigue and Maquis shrubland, also contribute to high climate and habitat diversity.
The fauna of Illinois include a wide variety of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects.
The Nera Gorge-Beușnița National Park is a protected area situated in Romania, in Caraș-Severin County.
The fauna of the U.S. state of California may be the most diverse in the United States. Of the lower 48 contiguous states, California has the greatest diversity in climate, terrain, and geology. The state's six life zones are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran ; transition ; and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic zones, comprising California's highest elevations. California's diverse geography gives rise to dozens of ecosystems, each of which has its own native plants and animals. California is a huge state, the third largest in the U.S., and ranges broadly in habitats.
The fauna of the United States Virgin Islands consists of 144 species of birds, 22 species of mammals, 302 species of fish and 7 species of amphibians. The animals include numerous native species of tropical birds, fish, and land reptiles as well as sea mammals. The only native land mammals are six species of native bats: the greater bulldog bat, Antillean fruit-eating bat, red fruit bat, Brazilian free-tailed bat, velvety free-tailed bat and the Jamaican fruit bat. Some of the nonnative land mammals roaming the islands are the white-tailed deer, small Asian mongoose, goats, feral donkeys, rats, mice, sheep, hogs, dogs and cats.
Missouri is home to a diversity of flora, fauna and funga. There is a large amount of fresh water present due to the Mississippi River, Missouri River, and Lake of the Ozarks, with numerous smaller rivers, streams, and lakes. North of the Missouri River, the state is primarily rolling hills of the Great Plains, whereas south of the Missouri River, the state is dominated by the oak-hickory Central U.S. hardwood forest.
The wildlife of Turkmenistan is the flora and fauna of Turkmenistan, and the natural habitats in which they live. Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea. Two thirds of the country is hot dry plains and desert, and the rest is more mountainous. Very little rain falls in summer and the chief precipitation occurs in the southern part of the country in the winter and spring. The Caspian coast has milder winters.
The wildlife of Spain includes the diverse flora and fauna of Spain. The country located at the south of France has two long coastlines, one on the north on the Cantabrian Sea, another on the East and South East on the Mediterranean Sea, and a smaller one on the west and south west on the Atlantic Ocean, its territory includes a big part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and two enclaves in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. and the different climate zones, Spain is one of the countries in Europe with the greatest biodiversity.
The wildlife of Greece includes the diverse flora, fauna, and funga of Greece, a country in southern Europe. The country is mostly mountainous with a very long, convoluted coastline, consisting of peninsulas and many islands. The climate ranges from Mediterranean through temperate to alpine, and the habitats include mountains, hills, forests, rivers, lakes, coasts and cultivated land.
Ādaži was established in 2004 as a protected landscape in Ādaži and Saulkrasti municipalities of Latvia. Pierīga, Gauja is on the right bank of the lower reaches Ādaži military poligone and its adjacent territories. The area was created to preserve Latvia's rare habitats created during military training - dry heaths and open inland dunes with sand dune meadows, bluish meadow meadows and mesotrophic lakes, as well as a significant number of specially protected plant and animal species. The area also includes the Lieluika and Mazuika lakes nature reserve. Lake Mazuika is recognized as a benchmark for a clear water lake in the Baltic region. Natura 2000 territory.
↑ Taberlet, P.; R. Cheddadi 2002. "Quaternary Refugia and Persistence of Biodiversity" (In Science's Compass; Perspectives). Science, New Series 297:5589:2009-2010
↑ Sommer, R. S.; N. Benecke. 2005. "The recolonization of Europe by brown bears Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758 after the Last Glacial Maximum". Mammal Review 35:2:156-164
↑ M.D. Spalding et al., "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas", BioScience Vol.57 No.7, 2007
↑ E.Leppäloski, "Living in a sea of exotics – the Baltic case". (in: Aquatic Invasions in the Black, Caspian, and Mediterranean Seas, ed. H.Dumont et al.) Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004
↑ ETI CD-ROM European Limnofauna (Visser and Veldhuijzen van Zanten, 2000)
↑ Sondaar, P.Y. Insularity and its effect on mammal evolution. In Major Patterns in Vertebrate Evolution (M.K. Hecht, R.C. Goody and B.M.Hecht, eds) New York, Plenum (1977)
↑ Emig C.C. & Geistdoerfer P. (2004). The Mediterranean deep-sea fauna: historical evolution, bathymetric variations and geographical changes. Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology.
↑ Wieringa, K. (ed.) 1995. Environment in the European Union 1995: Report for the Review of the Fifth Environmental Action Programme. European Environment Agency / EUROSTAT
↑ Giannuzzi-Savelli R. et al. (1997). Atlas of the Mediterranean Sea Shells. Edizioni di "La Conchiglia", Roma.
1 2 Fontaine B., Bouchet P., Van Achterberg K., Alonso-Zarazaga M. A., Araujo R. et al. (2007). "The European union's 2010 target: Putting rare species in focus." Biological Conservation139: 167-185. Table 2 on the page 173. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.06.012. PDF.
↑ Platnick, N. I. (2007). The World Spider Catalogue- Version 8.0
↑ G.A.Polis, The Biology of Scorpions, Stanford University Press (1990)
↑ Temple H.J. & Terry A. (Compilers). (2007). The Status and Distribution of European Mammals. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
↑ A. J. Mitchell-Jones (Ed.), G. Amori (Ed.), W. Bogdanowicz (Ed.), B. Krystufek (Ed.), P. Reijnders (Ed.), The Atlas of European Mammals. T. & A. D. Poyser Ltd. (1999)
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