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.

[1][2][3] 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.

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.

[12] Scotland enjoys diverse temperate environments, incorporating deciduous and coniferous woodlands, and moorland, montane, estuarine, freshwater, oceanic, and tundra landscapes.

[48] The species, a member of the biological order artiodactyla or "even-toed ungulates", is still 400,000 strong, although its existence in the pure form is threatened by hybridisation with introduced sika deer.

Very much a hill-dwelling species in Scotland (and so typically smaller in stature than its European forest-loving cousins), it is generally replaced by roe deer in lower-lying land.

[58] 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.

[47][62] Other mammals that used to inhabit Scotland but became extinct in the wild during historic times include the Eurasian lynx, which lived in Britain until 1,500 years ago,[53] the European brown bear, subspecies Ursus arctos caledoniensis, which was taken to entertain the Roman circuses[63] but died out in the 9th or 10th century, and the elk, which lasted until about 1300.

[68] St Kilda also possessed an endemic subspecies of the house mouse, Mus musculus muralis, which was longer, hairier, coloured differently and had a skull shape at variance to the norm.

[74] Following receipt of the results of the studies, in November 2016 the Scottish Government announced that beavers could remain permanently, and would be given protected status as a native species within Scotland.

[75] By means of escapes or deliberate releases, wild boar (Sus scrofa) have been re-introduced to several places in Scotland including a wide area of Lochaber and West Inverness-shire.

[53] The history of mammals suggests three broad overlapping phases: natural colonisation after the ice age, human-caused extinctions, and introduction by humans of non-native species.

[78][79] The Scottish crossbill, Loxia scotica, which inhabits the coniferous forests of the Highlands, is Britain's only endemic bird and, with only 300 breeding pairs, one of Europe's most threatened species.

Despite fears expressed by local farmers, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) are in process of releasing up to 100 young eagles on the east coast in the Forth and Tay estuaries.

[85] In 2009 it was reported that the Scottish Government have decided to proceed with a controversial plan to relocate sparrowhawks found near pigeon lofts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dumfries at a cost of £25,000.

[99] In excess of 130,000 birds inhabit Fowlsheugh nature reserve in Aberdeenshire at the peak of the breeding season, making it one of the largest seabird colonies in Britain.

[108][109] In summer the shallow lochs of the machair lands in the Uists and Benbecula provide for a remarkable variety of waders and ducks including shoveler and eider.

[122] Elsewhere, other rarities reported in 2006 include a white-billed diver at Gairloch, a black-browed albatross in the Western Isles, a laughing gull in Shetland and a buff-breasted sandpiper at Lossiemouth.

Rarer native species include the endemic Salvelinus killinensis[127] and the powan, the latter found in only two locations and under threat from introduced ruffe and the Arctic charr.

[61][128] The freshwater pearl mussel was once abundant enough to support commercial activities,[129] and Scotland is the remaining European stronghold with about half the global number present.

[9][20] This includes 250 species of fish, the most numerous inshore variety being saithe,[47] and deeper water creatures such as the dogfish, porbeagle and blue shark, European eel, sea bass, Atlantic halibut and various rays.

[133] The Darwin Mounds, an important area of cold water coral reefs discovered in 1988, are about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) deep in the Atlantic Ocean, about 185 kilometres (115 mi) north-west of Cape Wrath in the north-east corner of the Rockall Trough.

Damage from trawler fishing was visible over about a half of the eastern Darwin Mounds surveyed during summer 2000, and the UK government is taking steps to protect the area.

Fears were expressed by a consortium of environmental organisations that commercial fish stocks, including Atlantic cod are suffering from over-fishing, that fish farming, especially for salmon is damaging the aquatic environment, a reduction in coastal marsh habitats is affecting marine bird life, litter in densely populated estuaries such as the Firth of Clyde is affecting all forms of marine life and that the growth in off-shore tourism was deleterious to populations of, for example, basking shark.

[149] These include Pardosa lugubris, a species of wolf spider first found in the UK in 2000 at Abernethy Forest nature reserve, and the Scottish wood ant.

[167][168] The fabulous Loch Ness Monster, possibly a form of "water horse", has a long history; the first recorded sighting allegedly took place in 565 AD.

Richard Perry records that on a single estate in the Cairngorms between 1837 and 1840 the following "vermin" were exterminated by keepers purely in the interests of preserving the grouse population: 246 Martens, 198 Wild Cats, 106 Polecats, 67 Badgers, 58 Otters, 475 Ravens, 462 Kestrels, 371 Rough-legged Buzzards, 285 Common Buzzards, 275 Kites, 98 Peregrine Falcons, 92 Hen Harriers, 78 Merlins, 71 Short-eared Owls, 63 Goshawks, 35 Long-eared Owls, 27 Sea Eagles, 18 Ospreys, 15 Golden Eagles, 11 Hobbys, 6 Gyrfalcons, 5 Marsh Harriers, 3 Honey Buzzards, and for reasons apparently unconnected to grouse shooting, a further 11 Foxes, 301 Stoats and Weasels, 78 House Cats, 1,431 Hooded or Carrion Crow, 3 Barn Owls, 8 Magpies and 7 "Orange-legged Falcons".

Among the birds, ptarmigan, dotterel and snow bunting in particular may be affected as they depend on high-altitude habitats, and populations are likely to decline if warmer weather brings competitors into their restricted ranges.

An analysis suggests that common seal populations in Orkney and Shetland fell by 40% from 2001 to 2006, prompting the then Scottish Executive to announce the likelihood of a new protective conservation order.

[174] The complexities involved in conserving Scottish wildlife are highlighted in an RSPB report, noting that pine martens have been found to be a significant predator of capercaillie nests.