In Estonia there is quite a variety of fauna to be found. From the little shrews to the roe deer, the chaffinches to the red-breasted merganser, there are 328 species of birds, 75 species of mammals, 65 species of fish, 11 species of amphibians, and five species of reptiles in residence.
Most of the mammal population consists of smaller rodents and the roe deer. There are also quite a few European and
mountain hares,
brown bears, and wolves that compose the larger of the mammals. They all play an important role to the ecosystem of Estonia'having been a hunter-gatherer nation in the past'they depend on the mammals for food and fur. The mammals are native mostly to the forests of Estonia, since forests cover approximately 40% of Estonian territory.
Birds are plentiful in Estonia due to it lying on a major migratory path. Estonia's national bird is the swallow, which tends to reside in rural settlements, however there is a larger population of chaffinches and
willow warblers in the smaller variety of bird. The black-headed gull and buzzard are more numerous as far as larger, predatory birds go. Birds can be found all across Estonia, but they do concentrate in the forests and coastal regions. Because of the long, indented coast, it attracts many of the gulls, mallards, and eiders.
The Baltic Sea, Estonia's largest body of water, has low salinity so there lacks a variety in the species of fish despite there being copious amounts of fish living there. Sprat, Baltic, herring,
flounder, and cod reside in the depths of the Baltic.
As far as amphibians go, the most plentiful of these would be the common frog, the
common toad, and the spotted newt. The other amphibians, for example the natterjack and the crested newt, are quite rare. The five species of reptile native to Estonia are the common and sand lizards, the blindworm, the Adder, and the water snake. They all tend to reside in damp places, bogs are not unlikely homes for them, except the
grass snake and the sand lizard, they prefer dryer pastures.