When you think about Holland, one of the last things that comes to mind are exotic animals. Sure, we have our cows and sheep, but they (usually) don’t make our hearts pomp with excitement and create “oooh”’s and “aah”’s. Still, once upon a time there were those kind of creatures. Hereby a list of some of the (some extinct) animals from the Netherlands:
– Tarpan: also known as the Eurasian wild horse. The last one of this type of horse died in 1909 in Russia.
– Gray Whale: this whale could grow to 16 meters long and weigh 15 ton. There are only about 2000 gray whales left, that can now still be seen along the coast of Oregon is the summer.
– Eurasian Lynx: a forest cat of about 100 centimeters in length and 70 centimeters to the shoulder. He can be found in Asia and Europe. The Lynx is being reintroduced to the Western forest after disappearance.
– Black-Crowned Night Heron: this bird can still be found on a lot of places around the world, although I haven’t seen him in the Netherlands lately. He is about 64 centimeters long and weighs around 800 grams. They got their name from the black feathers on the head.
– Gray Wolf: also known as just ‘wolf’ is not extinct and not a worry on the minds of the people behind the Conversation of Nature, although its population decreased over the years. They can be found worldwide and are in some area’s protected and in others still hunting bait.
– Great Auk: a bird that is related to the penguin. They still exist, but there are not many more left. The couple of Auks that do still stand strong left Holland and moved to the North Atlantic.
– Brown Bear: this bear is one of the biggest of his kind and weighs between 300 to 780 kilograms. They can still be found in northern Eurasian and North America.
– The Greater Horseshoe Bat: this type of bat has it all in his name with its horseshoe shaped nose leaf and its big size. He has a wingspan of about 350 to 400 millimeters and has soft and fluffy hair. He can still be found in Europe.
Comments:
Justine:
Why not tell us about the new nature reserves (Tiengemeten, for example) and the huge numbers of migrating birds that come here, rather than what has been lost from the past? I don’t think NL is the only country to have lost those animals, but NL is the only country to have such a rich environment for migratiory and wading birds – something very special and something to be proud of!