Fauna of Europe

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The blue tit is a widespread and common resident breeder of Europe

The fauna of Europe is all the animals living in Europe and its surrounding seas and islands. Europe is the western part of the

temperate region, (north of the equator) the wildlife is not as rich as in the hottest regions, but is nevertheless diverse due to the variety of habitats and the faunal richness of Eurasia
as a whole.

Before the arrival of humans European fauna was more diverse and widespread than today. The European megafauna of today is much reduced from its former numbers. The Holocene extinction drastically reduced numbers and distribution of megafauna and continues to (such as with wolves and bears). Many of these species still exist in smaller numbers, while others thrive in the developed continent free from natural predators, with the former threatened by human activity (particularly megafaunal species).

Origins of European fauna

Northern Hemisphere glaciation during the last ice age

The formation of the European fauna began in the Mesozoic with the splitting of the Laurasian supercontinent and was eventually separated from both North America and Asia in the Eocene. During the early Cenozoic, the continents approached their present configuration, Europe experienced periods of land connection to North America via Greenland, resulting in colonization by North American animals. In these times, higher sea levels sometimes fragmented Europe into island subcontinents. As time passed, sea levels fell, with seas retreating from the plains of western Russia, establishing the modern connection to Asia (Priabonian). Asian animal species then colonized Europe in large numbers, and many endemic European lineages (e.g. primates) died out ("grande coupure").

The cyclic changes of the Pleistocene between cold and warm periods resulted in antagonistic responses within two different groups of organisms: one expanding during the warm periods and retracting during the cold phases and another with opposed responses (the latter group is composed of so-called arctic and alpine species).[1]

Glaciation during the most recent

predator species have been hunted to extinction. The woolly mammoth was extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. Tree species spread outward from refugia during interglacial periods, but in varied patterns, with different trees dominating in different periods.[2] Insects, on the other hand, shifted their ranges with the climate, maintaining consistency in species for the most part throughout the period (Coope 1994). Their high degree of mobility allowed them to move as the glaciers advanced or retreated, maintaining a constant habitat despite the climatic oscillations. Mammals recolonized at varying rates. Brown bears, for instance, moved quickly from refugia with the receding glaciers, becoming one of the first large mammals to recolonize the land.[3]
The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago, resulting in the present distribution of ecoregions.

See also

List of extinct animals of Europe
.

Zoogeographic regions

Biogeographic regions of Europe (including Asian part of Turkey): the Arctic, Boreal, Atlantic, Continental, Alpine, Pannonian, Mediterranean, Macaronesian, Steppic, Black Sea and Anatolian regions

Atlantic Ocean

The north-eastern Atlantic Ocean may be divided into two main biogeographic regions - the Lusitanian (west of British Isles, Bay of Biscay, Iberian coast as far as Gibraltar), and northern European seas (including North Sea and Baltic Sea).[4] A clearly distinct area is also the Macaronesian Biogeographic Region.

The North Sea is home to about 230 species of fish.

Norway lobster, and deep-water prawns and brown shrimp
are commercially fished. The coasts provide breeding
seaducks, loons, cormorants, gulls, auks, and terns, and other seabirds make these coasts popular for birdwatching.[5]

The Baltic Sea is an ecological island, isolated from other

brackish
seas by both land and fully marine seas.
Monoporeia affinis, which is originally a freshwater species. A great part of its bottom is anoxic
and without animal life.

The Baltic Sea and North Sea are also home to a variety of marine mammals (

).

Freshwater

Europe contains several important

rivers of Russia, which flow into the Arctic, Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas. There are about 15,000 known European freshwater animal species.[8]

Arctic tundra

Arctic tundra is the northernmost (and coldest) of European habitats, in extreme northern Scandinavia, Svalbard archipelago, northernmost part of Russia. Some typical animals include reindeer, Arctic fox, brown bear, ermine, lemmings, partridges, snowy owl and many insects. Most tundra animals undergo hibernation during the colder season. Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean with very scarce land fauna. The only native land mammal when humans arrived was the Arctic fox. There are no native reptiles or amphibians
on the island, but a rich marine fauna live in the ocean waters around it.

Percentage of land area of different European countries covered by forest.

Forests

Eighty to ninety per cent of Europe was once covered by forest. It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the

cork oak
forests in the western Mediterranean. In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both
coniferous
trees dominate. The cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat has caused major disruptions to the original animal ecosystems, and only few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by livestock at some point in time.

Grasslands

The

Pannonian Plain - see Pontic–Caspian steppe). Characteristic are some small mammals (golden jackal, voles, European ground squirrel, Russian desman
among others).

Alpine regions

The mountain regions have peculiar fauna relatively little influenced by human activities. The northernmost are the

Adelops). The Pyrenean ibex mysteriously became extinct in 2000; the native Pyrenean brown bear
was hunted to near-extinction in the 1990s but was re-introduced in 1996. Some common animals of the
Tengmalm's owl and ptarmigan. The Apennine Mountains provide habitat to Marsican brown bear and the Italian wolf. The Carpathian Mountains are a range of mountains forming an arc of roughly 1,500 km across Central and Eastern Europe and are inhabited by the largest populations in Europe of brown bears, wolves and lynxes, as well as chamois
and other animals.

Mediterranean

Formerly the region was mostly covered with forests and woodlands, but heavy human use has reduced much of the region to the sclerophyll shrublands known as chaparral, matorral, maquis, or garrigue. The loss of native forests had significant impact on biodiversity, with some 90% of the endemic mammalian genera of the Mediterranean becoming extinct after the development of agriculture.[9] Conservation International has designated the Mediterranean basin as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

As to the marine fauna, there are strong affinities and relationships between Mediterranean and Atlantic faunas. The deep-water fauna of the Mediterranean has no distinctive characteristics and is relatively poor. Both are a result of events after the Messinian salinity crisis.[10] An invasion of Indian Ocean species has begun via the Suez Canal (see Lessepsian migration). Many species, (such as the Mediterranean monk seal) are critically endangered.

Invertebrates

Arianta arbustorum, a widespread land snail

About 100,000 invertebrate species (including insects) are known from Europe.

oligochaetes
live in Europe.

There are about 1500 species of non-marine molluscs in Europe. The marine fauna is again richest in the Mediterranean region (2000 marine mollusc species).[13] 22 species and 3 subspecies of gastropods are extinct in Europe since the year 1500.[14] No species of bivalves are known to be extinct in Europe since 1500.[14]

The

European crayfish
) and many others are present. The number of spider species in Europe counts to 4113.[15] Scorpions are mainly found in southern parts of Europe (Euscorpius, Belisarius, Iurus).[16]

Small tortoiseshell

Insects

There are about 300

ladybird beetles, 5000 rove beetles and 5000 weevils
).

About 600 species of

moths live in Europe. An estimated 18% of all European butterfly species are considered to be vulnerable to or imminently faced with extinction.[18]

Fish

Europe has 344 fresh-water fish species, about 200 of them endemic. Some 277 fish species have been introduced to Europe, and over one-third of Europe's current fish fauna is composed of introduced species,

carp bream and others - more than 50% of the freshwater fish species belong to this order).[20] Another diverse group are the Perciformes (European perch, zander, ruffe, sand goby). Other common freshwater fish include catfishes (Wels catfish and less common Aristotle's catfish), the northern pike, burbot, and others.[21]

Amphibians

There live 75 species of

List of European amphibians
.

Reptiles

European green lizard

The European

)

Among the seven species of native

.

Birds

Mute swan

The list of European

Palaearctic region. The Holarctic has four other endemic bird families: the divers or loons (Gaviidae), grouse (Tetraoninae), auks (Alcidae), and waxwings
(Bombycillidae). Besides these, European fauna contains nine species of geese, (.

common chaffinch

About half of the European birds are

Of the 589 species of birds (excluding seabirds) that breed in the Palearctic, 40% spend the winter elsewhere. Of those species that leave for the winter, 98% travel south to Africa.[25]

Mammals

A brown bear photographed near the Russian border in the forests of Kainuu, Finland.

European mammal fauna consists of 270 species, 78 of them endemic to Europe[19] (15% of them are threatened with extinction and 27% have been identified as declining).[26] There are no endemic mammal orders in the region.

West European hedgehog

There live about 25 species

Nathusius' pipistrelle, lesser noctule and common noctule
. The rodents include several
European beaver was hunted almost to extinction, but is now being re-introduced throughout the continent. The three European lagomorphs are the European rabbit, mountain hare and European hare
.

Roe deer, a common European ungulate

Widespread and locally common

wisent, chamois and argali
. Today the larger
Eurasian badger and different species of martens. The only primate species (besides humans) is the re-introduced Barbary macaque;[28] moreover, in prehistory this primate was more widely distributed in southern Europe.[29]

Human impact and conservation

Having lived side by side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. The main causes of

and introductions of alien species.

European mink is now extinct in the major part of its range due to the introduction of American mink.

With the exception of Fennoscandia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various national parks. There are over 26,000 protected areas in the European Union covering a total area of around 850.000 km2 (more than 20% of total EU territory; see also Natura 2000).[30] 15% of the Alps are protected in

). The coasts of the North Sea are home to nature reserves including the Ythan Estuary, Fowlsheugh Nature Preserve, and Farne Islands in the UK and The Wadden Sea National Parks in Germany. Białowieża Forest is the only remaining part of the immense forest which once spread across the European Plain. The Danube Delta is the second largest delta in Europe, (after the Volga Delta) and the best preserved on the continent. The Camargue Nature Reserve is another important delta nature reserve. Doñana National Park is a national park and wildlife refuge in southwestern Spain.

Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the

loss of biodiversity by 2010.[31]

See also

References

  1. .
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  4. ^ M.D. Spalding et al., "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas", BioScience Vol.57 No.7, 2007
  5. ^ a b "OSPAR Quality Status Report for the Greater North Sea" (PDF), OSPAR, 2000, archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-16, retrieved 2007-12-21
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  17. ^ a b Fauna Europaea : Name Search
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  31. ^ European Union. (2001) Presidency Conclusions, Göteborg European Summit 15–16 June 2001.

External links