Flora and Fauna

Physical and geographic location of Ukraine, peculiarities of its geological development, relief, climate, thick net of rivers make for extreme variety of its flora and fauna. Flora of Ukraine accounts about 30 thousand types of plants, over 400 of which were entered the Red Book. Most of endemic, rare and extincting types grow in Crimea Mountains and Carpathians, where most half of all endemic and about 30% of all rare and extincting types are concentrated.

At the present days forests cover 14% of the territory of Ukraine. Composition of arboreal species in the forests is changed under the influence of human economic activity. Plantations of valuable species (oak, beech) have been enlarging and less valuable (horn beam, aspen) have been decreasing. Coniferous species of trees – pine, fur-tree (abies), silver fur make about half of the total stock of wood in Ukraine.

Forests of Ukraine are rich in berries, mushrooms, wild fruit and officinal plants. Among valuable plants used in medicine, 250 species recognized as officinal in Ukraine, including 150 recognized by scientific medicine. The richest in officinal plants are districts of Polesje, forest-steppe region and also Carpathians.

Images of plants are the important part of the Ukrainian folklore symbolic. In national traditional symbolic meaning of many trees and plants is close to the general European. So, the oak personifies power and longevity, pine – life power, fecundity; willow is the ancient tree of life and is associated with the awakening of nature and spring. Snow-ball tree is the national symbol of Ukraine. It combines symbolic of sun, fire, beauty of girls and eternal love.

Fauna of Ukraine distinguished by various species content and accounts about 45 thousand of animals’ species. There are many natural places in Ukraine where the rarest relic animals to be found.

Elk, roe, wild boar, deer, squirrel are characteristic for the forest zone. There are also many foxes and wolves there. One can find a bear and lynx. Birds are mostly heath-cocks, hazel-grouses, wood-grouses, starlings, tomtits, thrushes, storks. Gophers, hamsters, jerboas, field-mouse, steppe marmots live in the steppe zone. The birds of the zone are skylarks, quails, pink starlings, steppe eagle. Some of fur animals (coypu, mink, silver and black fox and mask-rat) were brought from other regions and acclimatized well.

Black and Azov seas are rich in sturgeon, scomber, horse-mackerel, grey mullet, herring, bullhead. Perch, bream, pike-perch, pike, crucian, sazan can be found in rivers, lakes and artificial reservoirs. There are trout in the rivers of Carpathians.

At the Southern Coast of Crimea and mountainous part of peninsula where the climate conditions resemble Mediterranean, such animals as Crimean and rock lizards, leopard poloz, Southern nightingale, black griffon, deer, moufflon are to be found. Hunting animals like hoofed, fur and also wild birds are also spread on the territory of Ukraine. In nature reserves and hunting economies, which are situated practically in all oblasts of Ukraine, the hunting on elk, deer, wild boar, hare, fox, wild goose and duck is organized.

11 national natural parks, 4 biosphere reserves, 16 national reserves, many arboretums, which are the monuments of horticulture and park arts were created in Ukraine. The most famous of them are Askania-Nova (Kherson oblast, the end of XIX century), Shatsky National Natural Park (Volyn oblast), dendrologic parks “Sophiyevka” (Cherkassy oblast), “Alexandria” (Kyiv oblast), Trostianetsky Dendropark (Chernigiv oblast) and also the monuments of nature – Rocks of Dovbush at Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions, Stone Graves at Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Great Canyon in Crimea.