#wildlife: europe

[snototter]

A common greenshank (Tringa nebularia) fishing for food in Shropshire, UK

by Dale Harding

[useless-catalanfacts]

Landscape around Estany de la Fontviva, a glacial lake in the Pyrenee mountains, Northern Catalonia.

Photos by nicolas.bicorne.photos on Instagram.

[satakentiaphoto]

Sept 18. Chevaux, Crête de Grum. Pyrénées.

[cmorga]

Poranek w Parku Kampinoskim Morning in Kampinos National Park

[mybeautifulpoland]

Baltic Sea, Gdynia, Poland by Grzegorz Januszewicz

[considernature]

No one:

Not even God:

Consider Nature: YOOO COME CHECK OUT THIS WEIRD FUCKING SHARK

[life-does-not-forgive-weakness]

Bucovina @rotar_constantin

[malioli]

Duck afternoon

[sitting-on-me-bum]

European wildcats are found throughout most of Europe, though each population is distinguishable for its fur thickness and coloration. They are elusive and largely nocturnal.

Photographed at Parco Natura Viva, Italy.

JOEL SARTORE/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK

[wolfsheart-blog]

🐺🍁 by N. Pekonen

[snototter]

A snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) in the United Kingdom

by Graham Thurlow

[alejaolch]

Polish forest in autumn moodboard Poland, The Low Beskid Mountains October 2022

[satakentiaphoto]

Sept 18. Crête de Grum, Pyrénées.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Photos: European wildcats in the forests of Catalonia. From Fundació Zoo de Barcelona and Olot Cultura.

The European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris).

The wildcat is one of the only two autochthonous felines in Europe, the other one being the lynx.

Distribution of wildcat species in the world. The European wildcat lives in the dark green areas.

Map of Felis silvestris subspecies, according to a DNA analysis published in Science (29 june 2007) : «The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication». Wikimedia Commons.

In Catalonia, they live in the forests of the Pyrenee and Pre-Pyrenee mountain ranges, the Parc Natural dels Ports, and Montseny. They're also relatively common in the Valencian Country's rural inland mountains. Despite their presence, it's very rare for hikers to see them, because they're mostly nocturnal and they don't come near humans.

It can be differentiated from domestic cats because the wildcat has black lines behind its head that can go down to the top of its back, has a black dorsal line through all its back until the beginning of the tail (in domestic cats, this line tends to go all the way to the tail), the wildcat has a thicker tail with 2 to 5 black rings near the tip, which also tends to be black.

Graphic by Grup Felis (Institut d'Estudis Catalans).

[calochortus]

Love is...An Alien Fungus that smells of Corpses... by Will Atkins Via Flickr: This Devil's Fingers Fungus (Clathrus archeri) seems to be trying to communicate a message of peace and love...

[travelbinge]

By CurieuxVoyageurs

Spitzberg, Svalbard, Norway