Fauna of Scotland
The fauna of Scotland is generally typical of the northwest European part of the Palearctic realm, although several of the country's larger mammals were hunted to extinction in historic times and human activity has also led to various species of wildlife being introduced. Scotland's diverse temperate environments support 62 species of wild mammals, including a population of wildcats, important numbers of grey and harbour seals and the most northerly colony of bottlenose dolphins in the world.
Many populations of moorland birds, including the black and red grouse, live here, and the country has internationally significant nesting grounds for seabirds such as the northern gannet. The golden eagle has become a national icon, and white-tailed eagles and ospreys have recently re-colonised the land. The Scottish crossbill is the only endemic vertebrate species in the UK.
Scotland's seas are among the most biologically productive in the world; it is estimated that the total number of Scottish marine species exceeds 40,000. The Darwin Mounds are an important area of deep sea cold water coral reefs discovered in 1998. Inland, nearly 400 genetically distinct populations of Atlantic salmon live in Scottish rivers. Of the 42 species of fish found in the country's fresh waters, half have arrived by natural colonisation and half by human introduction.
Only six amphibians and four land reptiles are native to Scotland, but many species of invertebrates live there that are otherwise rare in the United Kingdom. An estimated 14,000 species of insect, including rare bees and butterflies protected by conservation action plans, inhabit Scotland. Conservation agencies in the UK are concerned that climate change, especially its potential effects on mountain plateaus and marine life, threaten much of the fauna of Scotland.
Habitats
enjoys diverse temperate environments, incorporating deciduous and coniferous woodlands, and moorland, montane, estuarine, freshwater, oceanic, and tundra landscapes. About 14% of Scotland is wooded, much of it in forestry plantations, but before humans cleared the land it supported much larger boreal Caledonian and broad-leaved forests. Although much reduced, significant remnants of the native Scots pine woodlands can be found. Heather moorland and peatland cover 17% of Scotland. Caithness and Sutherland have one of the world's largest and most intact areas of blanket bog, which supports a distinctive wildlife community. About 75% of Scotland's land is classed as agricultural while urban areas account for around 3%. The coastline is long, and the number of islands with terrestrial vegetation is nearly 800, about 600 of them lying off the west coast. Scotland has more than 90% of the volume and 70% of the total surface area of fresh water in the United Kingdom. There are more than 30,000 freshwater lochs and 6,600 river systems.Under the auspices of the European Union's Habitats Directive, 244 sites in Scotland covering more than had been accepted by European Commission as Special Areas of Conservation. Scotland's seas are among the most biologically productive in the world and contain 40,000 or more species. Twenty-four of the SACs are marine sites, and a further nine are coastal with marine and non-marine elements. These marine elements extend to an area of around. The Darwin Mounds, covering about, are being considered as the first offshore SAC.
Mammals
Scotland was entirely covered in ice during the Pleistocene glaciations. As the post-glacial weather warmed and the ice retreated, mammals migrated through the landscape. However, the opening of the English Channel prevented further migrations, so mainland Britain has only two-thirds of the species that reached Scandinavia. The Hebridean islands off Scotland's west coast have only half those of Britain. Sixty-two species of mammal live wild in and around Scotland including 13 species found in coastal waters. The populations of a third of the land mammal species are thought to be in decline due to factors including environmental pollution, habitat fragmentation, changes in agricultural practices, particularly overgrazing, and competition from introduced species. No mammal species are unique to Scotland, although the St. Kilda field mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensi, is an endemic subspecies of the wood mouse that reaches twice the size of its mainland cousins, and the Orkney vole or cuttick, Microtus arvalis orcadensis found only in the Orkney archipelago, is a sub-species of the common vole. It may have been introduced by early settlers about 4,000 years ago. There are various notable domesticated Scottish mammal breeds including Highland Cattle, the Shetland Pony, Eriskay Pony, Soay Sheep and Scottish Terrier.Carnivores
The representation of the weasel family in Scotland is typical of Britain as a whole save that the polecat is absent and that Scotland is the UK's stronghold of the pine marten, although the purity of the latter breed is threatened by a release of American martens in northern England. Scotland hosts the only populations of the Scottish wildcat in the British Isles with numbers estimated at between 400 and 2,000 animals, and of the red fox subspecies Vulpes vulpes vulpes, a larger race than the more common V. v. crucigera and which has two distinct forms. The wildcat is at risk due to the inadequacy of protective legislation and is now considered at serious risk of extinction. In 2013 it was announced that the island of Càrna is to provide a sanctuary and breeding station in order to protect the species. Exterminations of the population of feral American mink, which were brought to Britain for fur farms in the 1950s, have been undertaken under the auspices of the Hebridean Mink Project and the Scottish Mink Initiative, which hopes to create a mink-free zone in a large area stretching from Wester Ross to Tayside.Other than occasional vagrants, among the seals only the Phocidae, or earless seals, are represented. Two species, the grey seal and harbour or common seal, are present around the coast of Scotland in internationally important numbers. In 2002 the Scottish grey seal population was estimated at 120,600 adult animals, which is around 36% of the world population and more than 90% of the UK's. The Scottish population of the common seal is 29,700, about 90% of the UK and 36% of the European total.
Rodents, insectivores and lagomorphs
Of the UK's red squirrels, 75% are found in Scotland. This species faces threats that include competition from the introduced grey squirrel, and the 'Scottish Strategy for Red Squirrel Conservation' provides a framework for supporting its long-term conservation. Research in 2007 credited the growing population of pine martens with assisting this programme by preying selectively on the grey squirrels. Scotland has no population of the edible or hazel dormouse, or of the yellow-necked mouse, and the harvest mouse's range is limited to the southern part of the country. The St Kilda mouse and Orkney vole are endemic, but otherwise population distributions are similar to the rest of mainland Britain. Colonies of black rats are thought to now remain only on the island of Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth, after a successful eradication programme on the Shiant Isles.Mainland insectivore populations are generally similar to the rest of Britain. Recent steps by NatureScot, the Scottish Executive and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to remove European hedgehogs from the Outer Hebrides, where their introduction has caused declines in internationally important breeding populations of wading seabird such as dunlin, ringed plover and redshank, has caused considerable controversy, and hedgehog culls were halted in 2007. The trapped animals are now relocated to the mainland. The programme has reduced this population; only two individuals were caught in 2007.
Of the lagomorphs only hares and rabbits are represented in Scotland. The mountain hare is the only native member of the hare family and is the dominant species throughout most of upland Scotland. The European hare and European rabbit are both present, the latter having been brought to Britain by the Romans but not becoming widespread in Scotland until the 19th century.
Artiodactyls
painting of a red deer stag, Monarch of the Glen, is one of the most notable images of Victorian Scotland. The species, a member of the biological order artiodactyla or "even-toed ungulates", is thought to be approximately 505,000 strong, although its existence in the pure form is threatened by hybridisation with introduced sika deer. Very much a hill-dwelling species in Scotland, it is generally replaced by roe deer in lower-lying land. Although found elsewhere in the UK, no wild populations of Chinese water deer and no or very few Chinese muntjac exist in Scotland. It has isolated populations of feral goats Capra hircus and feral sheep, such as the herd of 1,000 Soay sheep on St Kilda. Since 1952 a herd of reindeer have lived in the Cairngorm National Park, the species having become extinct in Scotland after it was recorded as having been hunted in Orkney in the 12th century.Other mammals
Only nine of the sixteen or seventeen bat species found elsewhere in Britain are present in Scotland. Widespread species are common and soprano pipistrelles, the brown long-eared bat, Daubenton's bat and Natterer's bat. Those with a more restricted distribution are the whiskered bat, noctule, Leisler's bat and Nathusius's pipistrelle. Absences include the greater and lesser horseshoe bat, the greater mouse-eared bat and Bechstein's bat. No bats reside in the Shetland Islands; the only records there are of migrants or vagrants.Twenty-one species of cetacean have been recorded in Scottish waters within the last 100 years including Cuvier's beaked whale, killer whales, sperm whales, minke whales and common, white-beaked and Risso's dolphins. The Moray Firth colony of about 100 bottlenose dolphins is the most northerly in the world. As recent dramatic television coverage indicated, this species preys on harbour porpoises; a third of the porpoise carcasses examined by pathologists from 1992 to 2002 indicated that death resulted from dolphin attacks. However, conservationists expressed dismay that the UK government decided to allow oil and gas prospecting in the Moray Firth, putting these populations of cetaceans at risk. In response, the government have placed seismic surveys "on hold" during 2009 pending further research. The introduced marsupial, the red-necked wallaby, is confined to a colony on an island in Loch Lomond.