BELARUS
Plants and Animals

Cities in BELARUS

Minsk

Plants and Animals

Plants

Cornflower is the national flower of Belarus_{Photo: Rudolphous CC 4.0 International no changes made}

Belrus has a very diverse plant and animal life, which has developed since the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. Conifer species such as pine and spruce are mainly found in the south, but also birch and alder.

Deciduous trees such as oaks and hornbeams are mainly found in the north of the country. There is also an enormous diversity of peat and swamp plants and willow trees mainly grow along the rivers.

The (unofficial) national flower is cornflower, the national plant is flax.

Animals

Voles, otters, beavers and birds such as partridges, geese and ducks are common near rivers. Wild boars, wolves, minks, deer, moose and pine martens are forest dwellers. The stork is the national bird of Belarus.

Storks Belarus_{Photo: Ina Brinks-Mijdenga CC 4.0 International no changes made}

Located in the border area of Poland and Belarus, Puszca Bialowieza is the largest lowland forest in Europe with an area of 1200 km2, of which 74,000 ha in Belarus. There are about 120 species of breeding birds and many large mammals such as lynxes, wolves, moose, red deer and beavers. In 1920, the Polish government decided to protect the area and the Bialowieza National Park was founded, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park is jointly managed by Poland and Belarus.

Belarus bison national animal_{Photo: Michael Gäbler CC 3.0 Unported no changes made}

The European bison or wisent, Europe's largest mammal and the national animal of Belarus, is also quite abundant here. This animal was almost extinct in the 20th century, but thanks to a successful breeding program, several thousand specimens now live in the park. Many trees in the park are 350 to 600 years old and sometimes more than 45 meters high. A herd of wisents also lives in the Belarusian nature reserve Berezina (Bjarezinski), which was founded in 1925 between Minsk and Polatsk.

The Pripet River is very important for migratory birds. More than 250 species occur here every year.

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Sources

Belarus
Lerner Publications Company

Belarus and Moldova : country studies
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress

Holtbrügge, D. / Weissrussland
Verlag C.H. Beck

Levy, P. / Belarus
Marshall Cavendish

Oost-Europa
The Reader’s Digest

Russia & Belarus
Lonely Planet

CIA - World Factbook

BBC - Country Profiles

Last updated October 2024
Copyright: Team The World of Info