Tallinn, green capital of animals: 1500 mammals have found a home

Since a few weeks Tallinn has officially become the Green capital of Europe for 2023. Even after the celebrations, the results of a study arrive which show that the Estonian city is a unique case in Europe as regards the wildlife that lives in its green spaces: moose, foxes, deer, beavers and but also “passing” lynxes and bears. On behalf of the city municipality, the institute for research and experimental development in the field of natural sciences and engineering Elusloodus monitored and analyzed the presence of mammals in its 20 greenest areas for 5 years, and the results are nothing short of surprising.

The researchers recorded the presence of more than 1500 mammals of 20 species: “important numbers for a nation’s capital, and what is particularly significant is the fact that there is a permanent population of about 30 moose and more than 350 roe deer”they stressed when presenting the results of the study.

Thus Tallinn manages to be a city of nearly 450,000 inhabitants, with the life of a capital city, but also a place where nature still has the space it deserves, and where the inhabitants can coexist with a well-diversified fauna of mammals. For example, in his green areas they took home around thirty beavers, over 250 European hares and around fifty mountain hares. Presence, that of the hares, which indicates that there is still an undergrowth that offers sufficient shelter for these animals. To them are added at least 15 badgers and a dozen Eurasian otters. In the greenery of the Estonian capital they also seem to fit in well 200 foxes, but – the researchers explain – the population of these animals is certainly more numerous because foxes in urban environments have adapted to nesting in places other than their natural dens: they create dens in basements, sheds, under houses. So they don’t just stay in the parks but they enter and reproduce within the city.

What is most surprising among the results of the study is the permanent presence in the city of large animals, such as the 30 moose which in the majority seem to prefer the peripheral area of ​​Pirita, where the river of the same name flows into the Tallinn bay. It is not uncommon to see them enter the water. The 30 moose also become 50 when other passing specimens arrive from beyond the city limits, which happens frequently.

And speaking of passing animals, both thebear that the lynxbut neither mammal is a permanent resident of city green spaces.

In the five years in which the 20 green areas of Tallinn were observed the presence of brown bears was detected only once, it was a mother with her cubs present for a short time in a marshy area in the district of Õismäe. For the Eurasian lynxes that, on the other hand, the green areas of Tallinn are too small to live in, so they pass through the city only in hunting situations. However, they have never met gray wolvesbut the presence of at least is documented 5 Golden Jackalsa species which in 2023 celebrates the 10th anniversary of the first sightings in the wild in Estonia, and which can be legally hunted without restrictions in the country.

The mammals that seem to fit best in the greenery of the Estonian capital are the roe deer: their population is estimated at around 350 specimens, but there could be many more because it is probable that many roe deer live in cities in areas that were not surveyed for the study. And also i hedgehogs they are not doing badly in Tallinn: those in charge of the study have identified at least 150 specimens, but there are certainly many more because in the city there are many more suitable habitats for them than those in the green areas examined. The appeal of the species of mammals that were thought to be present in the city greenery lacks the stone marten, the ermine and the deer, as well as – as already mentioned – the gray wolf. And i boars that create problems in many European capitals in Tallinn seem to be present only in small numbers. According to the study, “only” 15 were found, but given the growth of populations in the rest of the country “it is very probable that in the next few years their number will begin to increase also in the city”.