There are many animals, birds, and insects that live in each of these regions. Do not feel limited by what we have posted here. YouTube is a great source for videos on animals. Search for a specific animal or country on this site. You can also subscribe to the National Geographic Wild Channel to watch existing videos and to get alerts for new ones. Click on the link or on the image to find this site and watch animal videos all day, just be sure to check with your parents first!
CC BY 4.0 - Illustrations from the book European Butterflies and Moths… | Flickr
Explore animals and legends of animals for each of our 4 language groups.
"Unicorn" by Tim Green aka atoach is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
While most of the animals in Europe that we talk about today will be real, it is nice to know that the national animal of Scotland is the unicorn! Unicorns are mythological creatures. It is a symbol of purity, innocence, and power. Legend says that their horns can purify poisoned water. Click on the image above to take the Magical Unicorn Tour. You may also want to read a little more about unicorns in Scotland. This article, The unicorn - Scotland's National animal, from National Trust for Scotland, has some great information and lots of pictures of unicorns on art and items in Scotland.
Norway is one of the countries in the Germanic Language region. From the web page Life in Norway, we find many animals listed in a country that is known for being able to see animals in their natural habitat. One that is unique to Norway is the Svalbard reindeer. It is smaller than a normal reindeer and lives in the Svalbard region in Norway.
Watch the video from OceanX called The Miniature Reindeer of Svalbard. You can click on this link or click on the picture to watch the film on this animal. How often do we get to see a reindeer up close and personal?!
Photo: Billy Lindblom, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Remember that the Romanic language region includes the countries of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, and France. Did you know that the national animal of Italy is the Italian Wolf? This is because of the story in Roman mythology of how Rome was founded. It is said that a wolf fed the twin babies, Romulus and Remus, when they were abandoned by their mother. Romulus later founded Rome and Became its first king. (Authentic Vacations). Italian wolves live in the Western Alps of Italy, Switzerland, and France. They are the main predator of Italy since there are very few bears in Italy. Watch this video that contains facts about Italian Wolves from fantastic creatures by clicking on the photo!
Photo: Paolo, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
You know that some of the countries that make up the Slavic language part of Europe are Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of land size. It occupies 6.6 million square miles of the Northern Hemisphere. As a result it has many animals and plants that occupy the area. (https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/animals-native-to-russia.html).
Some of the animals that are native to Russia are:
To read about each of these animals, explore this article from World Atlas.
Siberian Tigers are one of Russia's most iconic species. To learn more about them, watch this video from National Geographic Wild! Click on the link or on the photo below to go to the video!
