A smallish sized country (about twice the size of Wales) in North Eastern Europe, it is a country that remains high on the list of places that I would like to go. This is in large part because of the ball of fluff above. The species in question is a Siberian flying squirrel. Flying is rather a misnomer, given that it is incapable of flying. it is however quite good at gliding, and can glide between trees. These distances are not small, sometimes covering 150foot (about 45m). Furthermore, through moving legs and tail, they are capable of making turns of up to 90 degrees while in flight.

Other than the flying squirrels, there are around 200 wolves (this is considered, rightly or wrongly, as being higher than optimal) though it is likely that the country could support many more. The bear population is far more healthy, with an estimated 1000 bears in the country. There is both a bear and a wolf watching industry in Estonia (though most wolf tours call it wolf searching, which is far more honest, and wolves are incredibly hard to see, and so actually seeing one on an afternoon/evening drive/walk is really very unlikely. They do occasionally howl in Estonia, though with hunting continuing this may not happen for ever. While I have had the good fortune of having wild encounters with many species (and indeed spotting wolves on a few occasions) perhaps my favourite is a trip in Spain, where despite not seeing any of them, shortly before returning from our trip, we heard a number of groups howling to each other.

Before 2012, lynx were hunted in Estonia, but this winter was particularly harsh, and caused the population to crash. As a result hunting was banned, until at least 2020. While it is once again legal, it means that the population has been given time to recover. While hunting is, in my opinion not brave at all, I am not averse to hunting of a species, so long as the hunting is fully sustainable (i.e. does not cause the species numbers do drop year over year) and should something else depress the population, scientists should monitor it closely enough to notice and halt hunting for a time to allow recovery. Hunting should also be at a low enough level, that should the population be below carrying capacity of the land, it is capable of growing to fill the space (over time). This is after all not bad for a hunting outfit, as a growing population is likely to allow more hunting in the future. Of course, this website and many other people are eager to increase the ecotourism potential of species like this, so that hunting is not necessary any more.