10 Fun Facts About Scottish Animals 

Awright? With St. Andrew’s Day approaching, it seems only right that our next country for 10 Fun Facts takes you to ZooLab’s homeland, Scotland.

Today, we aren’t hunting the mythical unicorn or Highland haggis. We’re exploring pine forests, islands, cities and seas to bring you 10 Fun Facts About Scottish Animals that you might not know.  

10 Fun Facts About Scottish Animals 

Highland cows are one of the oldest registered cattle breeds.

Recorded in 1884, highland cows were bred to survive the harsh climate of the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles. 

Scotland’s vampires - the midge.

Midges are the bane of Scottish summertime. These small flies feed on blood and come in cloud swarms, leaving angry, itchy bites. 

Atlantic salmon can be found in around 400 Scottish rivers. 

Atlantic salmon spawn and grow up in Scotland’s rivers. As adults, they will go to the sea and eventually make their way back to the river where they were born. 

Mull is known as Eagle Island. 

It is home to 23 breeding pairs of the white-tailed eagle, the largest UK bird of prey, and 20-30 breeding pairs of golden eagles. 

Home to the most northerly pod of bottlenose dolphins.

The Moray Firth dolphins can often be spotted hunting around Channery Point, on the Black Isle, where the narrow channels funnel fish after low tide.

Adders give birth to live young!

Adders are ovoviviparous, and baby adders are already venomous from birth. 

Edinburgh is home to populations of invasive alpine newts.

It is believed that they were released by a university between the 1950s and 1970s. There are also wild populations in Helenburgh, Glenboig and Dollar whose introduction is unknown.

The Scottish crossbill is the UK’s only endemic bird.

Found throughout Caledonia pine forests in northeast Scotland, this species feeds on the seeds within pine cones. 

There are now twice as many pine hoverflies in the Cairngorms as humans. 

The pine hoverfly is one of the UK’s most endangered flies and is only found in the Cairngorms.  Conservation work from The Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms and RZSS took part in a successful breeding programme, releasing 30000 hoverflies into the wild.

Wallabies rule Inchconnachan Island. 

50–60 red-necked wallabies call Inchconnachan Island, Loch Lomond, home. The Countess of Arran released the colony in the 1940s.

How many of these creatures have you spotted? If you enjoyed this blog, please have a look at some of our other UK animal lists.