Flora and Fauna of Ukraine
The plant life of Ukraine numbers over 27,000 species, over 850 of which are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Natural vegetation has been preserved across a significant part of the country’s territory.
Most of the endemic, rare or declining species are located in the Crimean and Carpathian mountains. Almost half of the endemic and 30 percent of the rare and declining plants are concentrated there.
Affected by the human commercial activity, the plant life of Ukraine has undergone considerable change: during the 16th to 19 centuries forest in the forest-steppe zone has been reduced more than five times, while the area with the most valuable oak and beech shrunk by quarter in the 19th century alone. Great damage had been inflicted to forests after the WWII during the reconstruction of the national economy.
As of today, about sixteen percent of the Ukrainian territory is covered by forests, which composition of wood species is changing being influenced by the commercial activity. Plantations of fine wood are being expanded while that of the less valuable forest trees (hornbeam and aspen) reduced. Approximately half of the wood stock of Ukraine is conifers: pine, spruce and white fir (Abies alba).
The forests of Ukraine are rich in berries, mushrooms, fruits of wild growing plants and medicinal plants. Regions most abundant with medicinal plants are Polissia (marshy woodlands), the forest-steppe zone, and the Carpathians.
The portrayal of plants is an important element of Ukrainian folk symbolism. In the national tradition symbolic meaning and representation attributed to trees and plants is very similar to that of the all European. Thus, an oak personifies power and endurance, a pine incarnates vital energy and prolificacy, a willow is believed to be a “tree of life” and is associated with the alchemy of spring. The guelder rose incarnating sun, fire, perpetuity of life, maiden beauty and eternal love is the traditional symbol of Ukraine.
The wildlife of Ukraine is distinguished by a large variety of species with almost 45 thousand kinds of animals. There are many unique natural localities in Ukraine where one can encounter rare surviving animals.
Elk, roe deer, wild boar, red deer, squirrel are inhabitants of forest zone; foxes and wolves are numerous, one may meet brown bears and lynx there. Of the avifauna, there are many black grouse, hazel grouse, wood grouse, starlings, blue tits, and cranes. The steppe zone is inhabited with ground squirrel, hamster, jerboa, field mouse, and marmot; of birds, there are skylark, quail, pink starling, steppe eagle, and others.
Some fur animals (nutria, mink, silvery-black fox, muskrat) were brought in from afar, and they acclimatized themselves well to the environment.
Wildlife of the coast region of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is highly varied; birds are especially numerous: gulls, pochards, wild ducks, herons, bitterns, pelicans, cormorants, etc. In these seas there are sturgeon, mackerel, bullhead, and so on. Rivers, lakes and manmade reservoirs are inhabited with perch, bream, zander, pike, crucian carp, sazan; and trout - in the Carpathians rivers.
The South Coast of Crimea and the mountainous region of the peninsula with climatic conditions similar to the Mediterranean, harbor such creatures as Crimean and rock lizards, leopard snake, southern nightingale, black vulture, red deer, and mouflon.
Hoofed, fur and bird game are also widespread on the territory of Ukraine. In hunting grounds, hunting used to be arranged for elk, wild boar, hare, fox, wild duck and goose.
More than 50 national nature parks, biosphere preserves, numerous nature reserves and dendrological parks are organized in Ukraine; there are also monument sites of landscape architecture. Among them the most famous are Askania-Nova (late 19th century, Kherson oblast), Shatsk National Nature Park (Volyn oblast), dendrological parks Sofiyivka (Cherkasy oblast), Oleksandriia (Kyiv oblast), and Trostianets (Chernihiv oblast), as well as natural monuments: Dovbush Rocks in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv oblasts, Kamyana Mohyla in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the Grand Canyon of Crimea. Crimea is temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. For now it is not a place for tourism.