Saturday, September 4, 2010

Wildlife from Scotland

Scotland is my home country, it has one of the lowest concentrations of human population in Eurpope, most Scots inhabilt the lowlands, this allows some of the most fascinating and unique wild animals free to flourish and thrive throughout the highlands.

 This arctic hare has changed it's summer brown colour for winter camouflage.


With over 6000 miles of coastline, thats almost 10000 km and more than twice the length of Englands coastline, wildlife abounds. The sea otter, which looks playful and cute is actually an efficient fish hunter.

The Osprey also like fish but catches them in a quite spectacular way.


The Golden Eagle, our most majestic bird of prey, is at the top of the food chain in the highlands. Lambing season can be a problem, also never leave a baby out in a pram in the highlands!

Red deer roam freely in the highlands in large herds. Rutting takes place annually to determine who takes charge.

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This Arctic Charr thrives in Loch Ness.



The Ptarmigan seems to like eating heather alnonside sheep in the highlands, here it is in winter mode.


My favourite has to be the Stoat, it's tucking into something here, not sure what. I've included it because I once saw one attacking a rabbit in the highlands. It was the rabbit screaming that drew my attention.


This Wildcat is unique to the Scottish Highlands and looks like a domestic cat but much bigger. They are in decline and actually one of the reasons is that they interbreeding with domestic feral cats. I had the pleasure of observing one once, actually it was spying on me!

They're a bit more agressive than your domestic, well they do have to hunt to survive.