Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 31, 2007

The fauna of Scotland is generally typical of that of the north west European part of the Palearctic ecozone, although several of the larger mammals were hunted to extinction in historic times. There are a diversity of temperate ecologies and today there are 62 species of mammal living wild in and around Scotland, including a population of Wild Cats and important numbers of Grey and Harbour Seals.

There are diverse populations of moorland birds including Blackcock and the famous Red Grouse, and internationally significant nesting grounds for a variety of seabirds such as Northern Gannets. The Golden Eagle is something of a national icon, and White-tailed Eagles and Ospreys are recent re-colonisations. The Scottish Crossbill is the only endemic vertebrate species in the British Isles.

Of the 42 species of fish found in Scottish fresh waters, only half have arrived by natural colonisation, although there are nearly 400 genetically distinct populations of Atlantic Salmon in Scottish rivers. It is estimated that the total number of Scottish marine species exceeds 40,000, and the Darwin Mounds are an important area of cold water coral reefs discovered in 1988.