Bijdragen Tot De Dierkunde

Landscape changes and the vertebrate fauna in Sweden during the last 150 years by Kai Curry-Lindahl Zoological Department, Nordiska Museet and Skansen, Stockholm The Swedish the of the such that the fauna countryside at beginning nine- It was to a countryside was adapt- teenth still varied and rich that there ed. what fauna? and the century was so But By large same as to- for both human and animals almost but much richer. What was room beings day, quantitatively now re- It is mains animal life of secluded everywhere. true that for thousands of years of the certain woods, had with the forests. First the few and wooded and man struggled advancing surviving glades meadows, the deciduous forest cleared the in meadows and shallow lakes rich in primaeval was during water vegeta- the normal fauna of Sweden warm period following the last glaciation, and after tion, represents yester- the the close the Swedish and their great climatic change at of day. Human activities variations were not 700 the and in those Man Bronze Age (ca B.C.) struggle was against unexpected abrupt days. as a in the the encroaching spruce on practically all fronts. The biological being behaved almost same way as resulted culture birch other animals. Man's influence the struggle in steppes, pine heaths, large on vegeta- and wooded meadows. All these of land- tion than that of the wild ani- groves types was naturally greater scape were gradually filled with the fauna adapted mals, but nature's circles were not disturbed to any cultivation alter- considerable The of to them. Different types of have degree. doings animals, including and the has the fauna has Scandinavia to the of the nated, as nature changed, man, in up opening nine- itself. But to the nineteenth these teenth could be fitted into the adapted up century century automatically natural the changes were not so great that they altered the gen- rhythm. Everything went on calmly; eral of the animal world. that could picture changes were not so great nature not im- Sweden and half herself them. Imagine a century a ago! Spruce mediately adapt to then but less With the of forests dominated as now, they were expansion industry, the far-reaching uniform; they had kept their individuality and char- consequences of the reckless draining of marshes and acter. Wooded meadows were numerous, for the wet ground, the shortsighted, ruthless exploitation of leaf harvest that created them of the rivers for the regular was great hydro-electric power stations, grow- the former that value of the coniferous Swedish importance in agrarian economy. In ing forests, nature, fashioned in way the spruce was kept at bay and the wooded which had been by thousands of years meadows could and there the farmers and for develop freely, a harmonious, most living creatures accept- could collect leaves for winter fodder. The young able way, was transformed violently. Swedish soil was then still virgin. Thousands of lakes, Let us return to the nineteenth century. A few and the animal world of will marshes fens, the inheritage of the great ice-cap, glimpses.of that century filled the the the show the differences between then and countryside. Through country ran now. Only a silver bands of and brooks. In and half of Sweden glittering streams century a ago great parts were spring they widened and at times the water flooded still wilds, where bears, wolves and lynxes roamed in meadows. As the the where the of the birds from the the summer approached, low-lying woods, songs rose alluvial fields of horsetail and rush wooded where the still of the sedge, were trans- green meadows, water the marshes the flocks of birds formed by sun into natural meadows, which were reflected migratory flying make of that could and where there rivulet mown yearly to use everything over, was hardly a mountain fodder for the livestock the without serve as during coming flashing trout. winter. Downloaded from Brill.com10/05/2021 05:05:59PM via free access 28 KAI CUHRY-LINDAHL 1. Vegetational map of Sweden. ▬ Southwestern limit of = Picea abies (granen) ▬▬▬▬▬ = Northern limit of Fagus silvatica (boken) robur ▬ = Northern limit of Quercus (eken) ─ = Northwestern limit of coniferous trees (barrträd). (These limits are indicated on the map from south to north). The wolf which and The arctic fox (Canis lupus), had been retreating and common in Blekinge Smâland. northwards the and 1832 during eighteenth century, made a (Alopex lagopus) was a vagrant, in came sally southwards in the nineteenth, and increased in from the mountains right down to southernmost Swe- numbers. It could still be found the middle of the later the in den; nine years same thing happened again. of the arctic fox century in Scania, in southernmost Sweden, where it This rhythm in the frequency curve the which is was even seen roving over plains. The lynx (Lynx suggests a peak every ninth or tenth year, no this animal, lynx), however, had left Scania, but was still resident longer observable in now so uncommon Downloaded from Brill.com10/05/2021 05:05:59PM via free access THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA IN SWEDEN 29 The most southerly haunts of the bear during the first had practically exterminated the elk (Alces alces) and half of the nineteenth in Bohuslän and in Sweden. Wolves had century were roe (Capreolus capreolus) and still Värmland and but their destruction of Dalsland, it was common in done their share, of course, Dalarna and farther north. In Närke, Vastmanland these two deer could not possibly have led to such and possibly also northern Uppland, the bear (Ursus disastrous results. It is usual nowadays to explain the in arctos) was still resident, while Värmland the wol- rapid expansion of elks and roes as a consequence of verine (Gulo gulo) still scampered about. In the the extermination of the wolf. Human hunters still the had the last of the and if than mountains Lapps liquidated remain, even they are more enlightened wild Scandinavian reindeer which it be their conti- (Rangifer tarandus), they were a century ago, can hardly is be found in the absence of wolves that has nowadays to only the Norwegian moun- nence with the gun or With that the wolf lost its most elks increased in Sweden. There tains. important given and roes scope source of winter food. must be other contributory factors. This is the background of the present situation of the carnivores in Sweden. In completely changed The golden oriole(Oriolus oriolus), the hoopoe (Upupa driven habitat less suitable and the black stork built their surroundings, or into a epops) (Ciconia nigra) the island of Öland for them, they are compelled to satisfy their biological nests in the groves at Ottenby on roller flew requirements, of which food and shelter are the most in the Baltic. The (Coracias garrulus) on essential. iridescent wings through the leafy woods of Scania. At of the nineteenth On the Scanian sand-fields round and Ahus the beginning century man Ljungby could be heard the bustard mighty great (Otis tarda). The hollow of the owl cry eagle (Bubo bubo) was heard all over Sweden, from Scania to Lapland. The the white-tailed kite (Milvus milvus) and sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) built their nests at Lake Horn- borgasjön and other places, where the great snipe (Gallinago media) was common on all wet ground round the lake. Not only at the rich bird-paradise of which later be Hornborgasjön, was to destroyed by a series of outrages and a period of culpable neglect, was this now almost extinct snipe to be found; it also in and was numerous Uppland very common in Norrland. The voice of the bittern (Botaurus stellaris) had been silenced in the reeds, however. For some un- known reason it disappeared from Sweden as a resident bird during the nineteenthcentury. Perhaps ex- contributed ceptionally severe winters in Europe to- wards its disappearance. Displaying capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) were a the common sight in Swedish woods in spring, and the black-cock out on ice and in the bogs leking (Lyrurus tetrix) bubbled their mating call. At that time the leking places attracted gallinacious birds in numbers than and still greater we can imagine, they had already begun decreasing in number. Except for small fluctuations this trend has continued. Llewellyn Lloyd (1831) wrote at the beginning of the nineteenth century: 2. Map showing the distribution of the eagle "In many woods and districts where, fifty years owl (Bubo bubo) in Sweden 1943-1948. Each abundance of both and black dot represents a breeding pair. After K. Curry- ago, capercali game be bird the Lindahl 1950. were to found, not a now exists. In spring, Downloaded from Brill.com10/05/2021 05:05:59PM via free access 30 KAI CURRY-LINDAHL assemble for the of when the birds purpose pairing, people place themselves in ambush, and shoot without distinction cock and hens, by which means the and birds are frightened and dispersed; afterwards, and the when the spring is more advanced, young are after hatched, it is certain the old hen will be sought before able shot whole they are to fly; by one a brood of birds thus seven or eight are destroyed.. This refers to the situation in Värmland in the Thus the decrease in birds years 1827-1828. game have the Värmland forests seems to begun in during the latter half of the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century it was not only the of and forest former incredibly rich population game birds that began to fail. The passing-bell tolled for of Sweden's fauna many large representatives during that far the southern of the century, as as part country was concerned.

Load more