The wildlife of Ukraine consists of its diverse

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and funga. The reported fauna consists of 45,000 species when including the areas of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

and the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

's protected environments consist of 33

Ramsar sites A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) ** Marshes on inorganic soils: *** Permanent (herb dominated) (Tp) *** P ...

covering an area of .

Biosphere The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also ...

nature reserves and three national parks are all part of the

GEF Gef ( ), also referred to as the Talking Mongoose or the Dalby Spook, was the name given to an allegedly talking mongoose which was claimed to inhabit a farmhouse owned by the Irving family. The Irvings' farm was located at Cashen's Gap near ...

projects portfolio of conservation of biodiversity in the Danube Delta. Their vegetation pattern is mixed forest area, forest-steppe area, steppe area, Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains and Crimean Mountains. Some of the protected areas that were reserves or parks are subsumed under the biosphere reserves. The isolated or abandoned zone caused by the Chornobyl nuclear power station disaster around the city of

Chornobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about nor ...

, while evacuated of all human habitation, has an abundance of wildlife which is reported to be increasing. However, reports indicate that bird's brains are 5% smaller, and the insect and spider population is in decline.

Geography

A synopsis of Ukraine's faunal and flora history was noted in Stephen Rudnicki's ''Ukraine, the Land and Its People: An Introduction to Its Geography'' (1912): "Ukraine has a much more varied plant and animal geography than the proper Russian territory, despite the latter's much greater extent. In Ukraine, the borders of three main divisions of plant-geography of Europe meet—the Mediterranean division, the steppe region, and the forest region, with their transition regions. Besides, we meet in Ukraine three mountain regions—the Carpathian. In respect to flora, Ukraine possesses only a few endemic species". "To be sure the great ice period covered only comparatively small areas of Ukraine with its glacier, but the polar flora undoubtedly prevailed in the entire country at that time. After the withdrawal of the glacier, steppes first appeared in its place, which then, especially in the Northwest, were forced to make room for a forest flora that had immigrated from Central Europe and Siberia. Hence, despite the considerable area of Ukraine, so few endemic species. Since those primeval days, only a very few natural changes have occurred in the vegetation of Ukraine. However, man, through his cultural activity, has wrought many changes in the plant-world of the country."

Ecoregions

Ukraine contains six terrestrial ecoregions:

Central European mixed forests The Central European mixed forests ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0412) is a temperate hardwood forest covering much of northeastern Europe, from Germany to Russia. The area is only about one-third forested, with pressure from human agriculture leaving the r ...

Crimean Submediterranean forest complex The Crimean Submediterranean forest complex is an ecoregion on the Black Sea coast of Russia and Ukraine. It is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome. Geography The ecoregion consists of two coastal enclaves on northern coast of the ...

East European forest steppe The East European forest steppe ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0419) is a patchwork of broadleaf forest stands and grasslands (steppe) that stretches 2,100 km across eastern Europe from the Ural Mountains in Ural, through Povolzhye, Central Russia to the m ...

Pannonian mixed forests The Pannonian mixed forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in Europe. It covers an area of 307,720 km2 in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Croatia. ...

, Carpathian montane conifer forests, and

Pontic steppe Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to: The Black Sea Places * The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores * Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores * The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from no ...

Flora

Ukraine's climate influences the country's distinctive forest stands. Deciduous trees make up 52% with the balance being coniferous. The most densely forested area of Ukraine is in the northwest in Polisia where pine, oak, and birch are the main tree species. In the north-central area, where the forest-steppe belt is located, the main species are oak, pine, and hornbeam. In the southeast area, the steppe-belt is situated, oak and pine are the main species. Mountainous areas are characterized by three zones: lower slopes contain mixed forests, higher elevations contain pine forests, and the highest altitudes contain alpine meadows. In the Carpathian Mountains, beech, oak, and spruce are the main trees, while in the Crimean Mountains, beech and oak form the largest numbers. Along the southern

Crimean peninsula Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

r coast, the vegetation is characterized by maquis shrubland and deciduous and evergreen Mediterranean plants such as olive trees, cypress trees, oleander shrubs, pine trees, junipers and palm trees.

Fauna

There are 45,000 faunal species reported. Mammal species number about 108, birds number about 400 species (350 is also mentioned), there are 21 species of reptiles, fish (including subspecies) number about 170 (200 is also mentioned), and amphibians number 17 species. There are about 35,000 species of

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

which include insects (of which 12 species are reported endemic). The Carpathian and the Crimea region are the dominant habitats of endemic species. Some of the faunal

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

reported by

Animal Diversity Web Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database that collects the natural history, classification, species characteristics, conservation biology, and distribution information on thousands of species of animals. The website includes thousands ...

are the

European ground squirrel The European ground squirrel (''Spermophilus citellus''), also known as the European souslik, is a species from the squirrel family, Sciuridae. It is among the few European species in the genus '' Spermophilus''. Like all squirrels, it is a memb ...

(''Spermophilus citellus''),

European bison The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

(''Bison bonasus''),

European shag The European shag or common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Gulosus''. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mai ...

(''Phalacrocorax aristotelis''), steppe polecat (''Mustela eversmanii'') and

Eurasian elk The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

(''Alces alces''). A wide variety of birds are found in Ukraine, those reported including game birds, nighthawks, raptors, song birds, swifts, waders, and waterfowl. Some of the bird species noted are

black grouse The black grouse (''Lyrurus tetrix''), also known as northern black grouse, Eurasian black grouse, blackgame or blackcock, is a large game bird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, spanning across the Palearctic in moorland and step ...

hazel grouse The hazel grouse (''Tetrastes bonasia''), sometimes called the hazel hen, is one of the smaller members of the grouse family of birds. It is a sedentary species, breeding across the Palearctic as far east as Hokkaido, and as far west as eastern a ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, and

partridges A partridge is a medium-sized galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They are sometimes grouped in the Perdic ...

. There are also migratory

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

s, storks, and wild geese. The number of migratory birds is reported as 100 species. Mammals include

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, marten,

mouflon The mouflon (''Ovis gmelini'') is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, the Caspian region from eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds. Taxonomy ''Ovis gmelini'' was the sc ...

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while th ...

, wild pig,

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

, mice, and

jerboas Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts. When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on b ...

. Some of the fish species recorded include

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

sterlet The sterlet (''Acipenser ruthenus'') is a relatively small species of sturgeon from Eurasia native to large rivers that flow into the Black Sea, Azov Sea, and Caspian Sea, as well as rivers in Siberia as far east as Yenisei. Populations migratin ...

, and sturgeon. Aqua fauna of the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and estuary have 32 animal species which belong to the

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian steppe, formed by the Caspian steppe and the Pontic steppe, is the steppeland stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity) to the northern area around the Caspian Sea. It extend ...

region. There are approximately 385 endangered species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. These are made up of 41 mammals, 67 birds, 8 amphibians and reptiles, 32 fish, 173 insects, 12 mollusks, 26 cancroid, 7 annelida, 3 centipedes, 2 nematodes, 2 hydro polyps and 2 chubby-faced. Ukraine falls into two main zoological areas. One of these, in the west of the country, is made up of the borderlands of Europe, where there are species typical of mixed forests, the other is located in eastern Ukraine, where steppe-dwelling species thrive. In the forested areas of the country, it is not uncommon to find lynxes, wolves, wild boars and martens. This is especially true of the Carpathian Mountains, where many predatory mammals, such as brown bears, make their home. Around Ukraine's lakes and rivers beavers, otters and mink make their home, whilst in the waters carp, bream and catfish are the most commonly found species of fish. In the central and eastern parts of the country, rodents such as hamsters and gophers are found in large numbers.

Fungi

More than 6,600

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

(including lichen-forming species) have been recorded from Ukraine, but this number is far from complete. The true total of fungal species occurring in Ukraine, including species not yet recorded, is likely to be far higher, given the generally accepted estimate that only about 7% of all fungi worldwide have so far been discovered. Although the amount of available information is still very small, a first effort has been made to estimate the number of fungal species endemic to Ukraine, and 2,217 such species have been tentatively identified.

Conservation

Conservation effort is through 33 Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance which cover 7,446.51 square kilometres, three biosphere reserves and three national parks.

Ramsar wetlands

The 33 wetlands inscribed under the Ramsar Convention from 1994 till 2013 are the: Aquatic cliff complex of Cape Kazantyp (2004, 251 ha), Aquatic cliff complex of Karadag (2004, 224 ha), Aquatic coastal complex of Cape Opuk (2004, 775 ha), Bakota Bay (2004, 1,590 ha), Berda River mouth, Berdiansk Spit, and Berdiansk Bay (1995, 1,800 ha), Great Chapli Depression (2004, 2,359 ha), Bilosaraisk Bay and Bilosaraisk Spit (1995, 2,000 ha), Central Syvash (1995, 80,000 ha), Desna River floodplains (2004, 4,270 ha),

Dniester The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

- Turunchuk cross-rivers (1995, 76,000 ha), Dniper-

Oril The Oril () is a river in Ukraine, a left tributary of the river Dnieper. It is long and its basin area is .� ...

floodplains (2004, 2,560 ha), Dnieper delta (1995, 26,000 ha), Eastern Syvash (1995, 165,000 ha), Karkanit and Dzharylhach bays (1995, 87,000 ha), Kartal Lake (1995, 500 ha), Kryva Bay and Kryva Spit (1995, 1,400 ha), Kugurlui Lake (1995, 6,500 ha), Kyliiske Mouth (1995, 32,800 ha), Lake Synevyr (2004, 29 ha), Lower Smotrych River (2004, 1,480 ha), Molochnyi Lyman (1995, 22,400 ha), northern

Dniester Estuary Dniester Estuary, or Dniester Liman ( uk, Дністровський лиман; ro, Limanul Nistrului) is a liman, formed at the point where the river Dniester flows into the Black Sea. It is located in Ukraine, in Odessa Oblast, and connects B ...

(1995, 20,000 ha), Obytochna Spit and Obytochna Bay (1995, 2,000 ha), Perebrody Peatlands (2004, 12,718 ha), Polesian Marshes (2004, 2,145 ha), Pripyat River floodplains (1995, 12,000 ha), Sasyk Lagoon (1995, 21,000 ha), Tuzly Lagoons (1995, 19,000 ha), Shatsky Lakes (1995, 32,850 ha), Stokhid River floodplains (1995, 10,000 ha),

Gulf of Tendra __NOTOC__ Gulf of Tendra or Tendra Bay ( uk, Тендрівська затока) is a shallow water bay off the coast of Ukraine (south of the Yahorlyk Kut peninsula), northern Black Sea. The gulf is separated from the sea by the Tendra Spit. T ...

(1995, 38,000 ha),

Tylihul Estuary __NOTOC__ Tylihul (or Tyligul) Estuary also called Tiligulskiy liman (or Tylihul'skyi liman as transliterated from uk, Тилігульський лиман, russian: Тилигульский лиман) or simply Tiligul is a Ramsar listed gover ...

(1995, 26,000 ha), and Yahorlyk Bay (1995, 34,000 ha).

Biosphere reserves

Among the nature reserves established under the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Network of Biosphere Reserves The UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) covers internationally designated protected areas, known as biosphere reserves, which are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature (e.g. encourage sustainable de ...

, the three reserves are the Danubian Biosphere Reserve covering the Danube Delta, the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve covering a portion of the Black Sea - the

and Yahorlyk Bay, and the Crimean Nature Reserve in a portion of the Karkinit and Dzharylhach bays.

National parks

There are 54 national parks in Ukraine.

References

Sources

* * *

External links

{{Europe in topic, Wildlife of, state=collapsed Biota of Ukraine

Fauna of Ukraine Flora of Ukraine