Sweden, the land of the midnight sun

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“Laponia” – a name like a fairy tale for a UNESCO World Heritage Site of 4.000 km2 along the Polar Circle. Vast stretches of wilderness, moose and arctic foxes, ptarmigans and geese, bogs and rivers – a shining example of more than 4.000 nature reserves and protected areas in Europe’s 5th largest country, Sweden. While Sweden’s domestic and international policies serve as models of neutrality and consensus-building in Europe, the country is also a major holiday destination for millions of tourists every year from all over the continent. Boreal forests are dense and attract a rising number of bears, wolves and lynx. Not to everybody’s liking, but yet another example of how wildlife returns to the European wilderness in great numbers.

Published: 2012-03-23 23:18:57 UTC

2/11

Sarek National Park, Laponia World Heritage Site

Sarek National Park is a national park in Jokkmokk Municipality, in the province Lapland in northern Sweden. Sarek borders the national parks Stora Sjöfallet and Padjelanta. The national park is popular with hikers and mountaineers, but not suitable for beginners.

3/11

Eurasian Crane, Lake Hornborga

The Common Crane (Grus grus), also known as the Eurasian Crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. It breeds in wetlands in northern parts of Europe and Asia. The global population is in the region of 210,000-250,000, with the vast majority nesting in Russia and Scandinavia. It is a long distance migrant wintering in Africa (south to Morocco and Ethiopia), southern Europe, and southern Asia (south to northern Pakistan and eastern China). Migrating flocks fly in a V formation.

4/11

Whooper Swan, Lake Tysslingen

The Whooper Swan (pronounced hooper), Cygnus cygnus, is a large Northern Hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American Trumpeter Swan. Whooper swans require large areas of water to live in, especially when they are still growing, because their body weight cannot be supported by their legs for extended periods of time. The whooper swan spends much of its time swimming, straining the water for food, or eating plants that grow on the bottom.

5/11

European Elk crossing Sand Spit, Sarek National Park

The moose (North America) or Eurasian elk (Europe) (Alces alces) is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates.

6/11

Black Grouse, Bergslagen

Black grouse have a very distinctive and well recorded courtship ritual or game. At dawn in the spring, the males strut around in a traditional area and display whilst making a highly distinctive mating call. This process is called a lek - the grouse are said to be lekking. In western Europe these gatherings seldom involve more than 40 birds; in Russia 150 is not uncommon and 200 have been recorded.

7/11

Ural Owl, Bergslagen

The Ural Owl has an extended distribution area in Europe and Asia, from Sakhalin, Japan and Korea in the east to Scandinavia in the west. The northern border is at approximately 65 degrees north latitude, and the southern border follows the southern delimitation of the taiga.

8/11

Chives, Stockholm Archipelago

Chives - Allium schoenoprasum - are the smallest species of the edible onions. A perennial plant, they are native to Europe, Asia and North America. Allium schoenoprasum is the only species of Allium native to both the New and the Old World.

9/11

Atlantic Salmon, Spawning Migration Upstreams, Umeälven

Most Atlantic salmon follow an anadromous fish migration pattern, in that they undergo their greatest feeding and growth in salt water; however, adults return to spawn in native freshwater streams where the eggs hatch and juveniles grow through several distinct stages. Atlantic salmon do not require salt water, however, and numerous examples of fully freshwater ("landlocked") populations of the species exist throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

10/11

European White Waterlily, Bohuslän

Nymphaea alba, also known as the European White Waterlily, White Lotus, or Nenuphar, is an aquatic flowering plant of the family Nymphaeaceae. It grows in water from 30-150 centimeters deep and likes large ponds and lakes. The leaves can be up to thirty centimeters in diameter and they take up a spread of 150 centimeters per plant. The flowers are white and they have many small stamens inside.

11/11

Eurasian Crane, Lake Hornborga