Ecotourism
Estonia

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Estonian fauna is relatively young as it evolved only after the last glacial period. As in the case of flora, among the animals inhabiting Estonia there are many rare and endangered species, some of them relics of colder climatic periods of the past.  

As in any other temporal climate, the largest number of species — 11 600 — is that of the invertebrates. Among them, it is insects which in their turn are the most abundant group with approximately 10 000 documented (and another 10 000 probable) species. In comparison 488 vertebrate animals have been found in Estonia, including eight introduced species.  

It is difficult to divide the 65 species of fish living in Estonia into fresh-water and sea species, as most of them inhabit both the inland waters and the brackish coastal sea. In addition, there are a couple of species of sea-inhabiting salmonids which migrate to the rivers during the spawning-time. The number of Atlantic salt water species which have adapted to the low salinity of the Baltic Sea — i.e. the Baltic herring, the sprat, the flounder — is rather small. There are no endemic fish in Estonia and the sole arctic relic from the former phases of the Baltic Sea is the fourhorned sculpin.  

Again, similarly to plants, many animals in Estonia are on the northern, southern, western, or eastern border of their area of propagation. This is the case with the majority of 11 species of amphibians recorded in Estonia. Some of them, like the common frog, the moor frog, the common toad, or the common newt are quite widespread, while others — the crested newt, the green toad, the natterjack, or the pool frog — are more rare and consequently under protection. The best habitats for amphibians in Estonia are, interestingly enough, a couple of small islands, like Ruhnu and Manilaid off the southwest coast and Piirissaar in Lake Peipsi, the latter having an estimated 40 kg of amphibians per one hectare.  

Reptiles are represented by three species of lizards and two species of snakes in Estonia. Both of the most widely distributed species, the common lizard and the common viper, prefer moist environs — bogs, wet meadows and forests, and the proximity of water. The other species of snake, the grass snake, is most abundant in the more open and human-influenced landscape of the western mainland and the islands as well as the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The aforementioned reptiles, together with the snake-like blindworm and the still rarer sand lizard, have all been included in the list of protected species.

Source: Estonian Institute