Tag: Europe

Lynx (eurasian)

Eurasian Lynx

Eurasian Lynx: found across Russia, down into central Asia, Eastern and Northern Europe: After reaching its minimum around the middle of the 20th century, it has recovered in different directions. While no where near its natural numbers in much of its range, it has expanded numbers in the north in Scandinavia, and the north-west Scandinavia. Reintroduction schemes have also reintroduced them to the Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland (and France) and Poland. There are currently thought to be around 50,000 left in the wild, however their distribution is highly varied from country to country, and there are many areas where they are locally extinct.

 

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As wildfires burn across much of Southern Europe, the political party running the UK backtracks on its commitments

Last Thursday, while wildfires raged in Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Portugal, Croatia and Algeria and British tourists found themselves being rescued by locals in boats (good boats, not those bringing people fleeing for their lives).

European fires from space

Continue reading “As wildfires burn across much of Southern Europe, the political party running the UK backtracks on its commitments”

Albania

Albania

Albania is  relatively small country in Southern Europe – bordering Greece. Despite lying behind the iron curtain, like other countries in this area although predators survived, they are greatly depleted. There are 250 wolves within the borders, 1800-200 bears. Unfortunately, the Lynx in Albania is a subspecies called the Balkan Lynx, and there are only30-45 spread between Albania and North Macedonia.

Unfortunately, when you look at the size of the country, and the fact that 70% of it is covered by the Albanian Alps, you realize that here to the wildlife numbers are greatly depleted. The Dinirac Alps continue on from the Julian Alps which continue from the main alps range. Only the most northern part of Albania contains these mountains.

Albania does pay compensation for livestock killed, which should make this a country which is more open to ecotourism. Should an ecotourism industry grow bigger in this country, it would hopefully reduce both legal and illegal killing of these animals, and therefore allow the populations to rebound.

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What is clear, is that interest in the wolves and bears amongst tourists is likely to encourage ecotourism to become an industry in Albania. This country has suffered greatly over the last half a century or more, however, as a result many animals have survived alongside them – tourism will show them what this is worth.

Bison have not yet got any presence in the country.

Links to areas to visit will appear on this page

aaa Pirin mountains and national park

Pirin mountains and national park

Lying in the South West of Bulgaria, the Pirin mountains are stunning

With populations of bears wolves and Jackals, it is a wonderful place to go looking for wild adventures. Boar deer and Chamois can be seen at different times of the day (though in places where predators lurk, expect to see prey less often in Europe), and 159 recorded bird species here, including eagles, hawks, owls, grouse, and woodpeckers (this is around 1/3 of all the birds in Bulgaria

aaa Swedish lapland

Swedish Lapland, far north of sweden

Sweden’s Lapland is a beautiful area. Lying in the far north of Sweden, like much of Sweden the land is heavily forested. Wolves are rare in Sweden, though this is as a result of over hunting – Europe has said that Sweden needs 170-270 wolves for a healthy population. Sweden is a huge country, which could support far more if they were allowed to naturally control their numbers. Being a country about the size of France, but with far fewer people, stating the country can only support 170 wolves is ridiculous. Bear numbers are higher, and there are thought to be around 2000 wolverines within its border (this was a population I was quoted if we visited).

It should be noted, that, the only difference between here and further south, is the number of wolverines – we did not get this far north, and where we were wolverines are just occasional visitors. The one difference is the reindeer presence. There are around 260,000 reindeer in Sweden, though it should be noted that these are only semi wild.

Sweden’s bear population is going up at the moment, and is currently thought to be around 2800. Generally, it takes some local knowledge to see wild bears, and your best chance is in a bear hide. We have one listed in the hides section of of this website. One of the big advantages of doing this in the northern parts of Sweden is the sunlight lasts more of the night. As bears are largely nocturnal, this allows more time to watch. When I visited the bear hide, it got to dark to see at about 2am but got light enough again at 5am.

Below is a video of the area. As you can see, while there is some wildlife, there is not a great deal. Generally you need a guide to take you out as finding the wildlife is a difficult job. We hope to be adding plenty of links below.

aaa Svalbard archipeligo, Norway, far north of mainland Europe

Svalbard archipeliago, north of Norway

This refuge was established in 1980 to protest the wildlife, both on and off shore. In terms of wildlife, brown bears, reindeer (around 7000 in this herd) wolves, wolverines, foxes, beavers. Moose are locally extinct due to overhunting. Off the coast, there are sea otters, seals, sea lions, and migratory grey whales. There are also over 200 species of bird. There are local native people who have lived within the reserve for 10,500 years and use the lands resources sustainably.

The video below, is all filmed from a cruise ship visiting the islands – just to give you an idea of what there is to see.

This is an island that I am eager to visit one of these days.

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Does the wolf belong in Germany? Not according to the CSU

The Christian Social Democrats believe that there is no place for wolves in Germany, and members of the party have called for their intentional extinction. Taking around 10% of the vote they are a small but relatively influential party – and given the way that elections work in Germany, coalitions are common. Unfortunately, coalitions will often give small parties an outsized voice, so this foolish position has the potential to become government policy faster than one would expect.

Having returned to Germany in 2000, there are now as much as 1500 wolves living within its borders

Continue reading “Does the wolf belong in Germany? Not according to the CSU”

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Linking bear and wolf populations across Europe is the best way to preserve them longterm – is this possible?

The Pyrennes in the south west of France, and the corresponding area across the border, are a wonderful area of wilderness. There are currently about 64 bears living in this area. So where are we on the road to recovery?

Were the the entire Pyrennes mountains wild, it is thought that these mountains could support 600 bears. However, this area is not an area that is set aside for wilderness – there is a whole population of humans living in these mountains (almost 700,000 people live here).

It is thought that the bear population of the Pyrennes could potentially get to 250 in its current form.

Continue reading “Linking bear and wolf populations across Europe is the best way to preserve them longterm – is this possible?”
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Talking of the Cantabrian bear population of Spain, its growth is incredible – can its success be replicated?

In the 1990s the bear population of this mountain range consisted of about 50-65 in the western population, and 14-20 in the east. No more than 30 years later, that population numbers 300-400 (as much as a 6 fold increase).

How did they do this, and can the success be replicated. It is thought that just two stems were responsible for their recovery.

  1. Firstly, efforts to protect the environment have been successful. With a healthier ecosystem, the country is more capable of sustaining a bear population.
  2. Secondly, education of both locals and visiting tourists has lead to a greater acceptance of the bears. Furthermore, with the success of tourism, locals increasingly seeing the bears as an asset rather than a threat.

These bears are almost entirely vegetarian, and while efficient hunters whatever meat the consume, here it is usually carrion – animals that have naturally died, or been killed by other animals.

As a result, the bears are far less of a threat than wolves (though even wolves can cause little threat if farming is set up correctly). Bee keepers are threatened to a greater degree by the bears, however by returning to ancient bee keeping habits, this can be reduced to a minimum.

With a Bee keeping structure like this, if built properly then bears are incapable of breaking in

Back in the 1950s there is thought to have been as many as 1000 bears in the wilds of Spain, so the population still has some recovery to go through.

Never-the-less this is a good news story that is extremely encouraging that large carnivores and omnivores are still capable of surviving in the modern landscape of a western European country.

This is well worth a visit. A link will hopefully be added to this page in the next week or so

See Animals Wild