Drawing Leo Lätti
Estonian  text posted by the Animal of the Year Team 05.01.2019

Artist Leo Lätti has drawn a picture of the beaver, with a twig in its  paw – this twig has a great role this year – the beaver is a Builder!
 

Are you a faithful husband? - Yes!

Faithful to the very end? - Yes!

Do you like pottering about at home? - Yes! 

When you answered “Yes” to these questions to visitors at the exhibition ”Fathers and Sons ” at the Estonian  Museum of Natural History the answer was ”You are a beaver man!” A more home-focused male than the Beaver, the Animal of the Year 2019, cannot be found in nature!

Text in photo:
The Beaver Male

The children of the Kiviõli school 2nd form made an interesting forest trip to set up a trail camera in a clump of trees near the school together with their parents and teacher Jaanika Merirand. For the children the trail camera was a novelty. What do the children hope to see in it? Ken Romet would like to see a hare, Isabella an elk, Kaspar - roe deer, bear, lynx, marten, badger. Badgers, raccoon dogs and roe deer are definitely present in the forest and the trail camera is already transmitting their activities.

The expressive photo of a lynx photographed at close quarters in a springtime branch thicket is currently also part of the Animal of the Year photo exhibition ”Secret paths of forest cat” in the RMK Tallinn office.

Photos: Remo Savisaar
Estonian text posted by Animal of the Year Team 03.11.2018

English translation Liis

One spring day a friend living at the Peipsi shore called to tell me that he had met a lynx and also noted a prey animal killed by this lynx - a roe deer. I asked him about the landscape and conditions there and advised him how he might get good photos of the lynx. I had been in such a situation myself and I knew that a lynx usually returns to a freshly slain roe deer.

The droppings of lynxes are seldom seen in nature – the lynx usually scratches soil or snow on top of them. However, if you find excrements do not touch them with bare hands.
Photo: Aive Sepp

Estonian text posted by Animal of the Year Team 13.10.2018
English translation Liis

Young bears in August on a forest sighting line. Curious!
Photo and text: Remo Savisaar

Estonian text posted by the Animal of the Year Team 01.09.2018
English translation Liis

My first encounter with a lynx took place 9 years ago, in the beginning of September. At that time I visited the Alam-Pedja nature conservation area quite often. At the time it seemed like paradise to me. I cannot remember a single empty visit, and each time excitement was sky-high. Whom will I meet today? I always saw some interesting mammal or winged creature. Roe deer, elks, foxes, raccoon dogs. I didn’t dare to dream much about larger creatures but I did think of lynxes. There were tracks and  there was hope!

In the Hour of the Lynx that took place on the 79th birthday of the Tallinn Zoo Tiit Maran, the Zoo director, explained at  the lynx enclosure how scientists found out whether the wolf is stronger than the lynx. And veterinarian Aleksandr Semjonov talked about the most dangerous creatures in the zoo – and they are not at all the polar bear or tiger, not to mention the lynx! 
The Hour of the Lynx was arranged by the Friends of the Tallinn Zoo, the Animal of the Year group and the Tallinn Zoo.

Estonian text posted by the Animal of the Year team 26.08.2018

Red-breasted flycatcher male 
Photo: Remo Savisaar

English translation Liis

Estonian text posted 19.08.2018 by the Animal of the Year Team

I would like to introduce to you a less well known but eye-catching neighbour of the lynx. A bird that I hear or see often when moving along lynx paths: the red-breasted flycatcher. Of our four flycatchers it is the most forest-loving. The fact that I hear and see it does not mean that it occurs everywhere. Old mixed spruce forests are its favourites, and always such where you find dead trees and also windfalls. It shares the preferences with the lynx!

Estonian text posted by the Animal of the Year Team 07.08.2018
English translation Liis

At the same time that the lynx kitttens are romping in the Elistvere animal park and you can go there and see them, Remo Savisaar teaches those who would like to meet a lynx in nature how to turn their wish into reality.

In May this year a nice number was fulfilled -10!  Ten lynxes that I have met during the last three years in our nature. I will tell you a little story about the latest encounter.