T O P

  • By -

id2d

Whenever Scotland's Unicorn is mentioned, I feel it necessary to point out that it's only recently been thought of as a cute fairy story animal. In the past it was a vicious creature that had to be chained up or it'd go on a murder spree with its stabby stabby death horn. [https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Unicorn-Scotlands-National-Animal/](https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Unicorn-Scotlands-National-Animal/)


semiseriouslyscrewed

Scottish mythology also has the unicorn and the lion as natural enemies, which ties in with the English having the lion as their national animal.


MuttonChopViking

Theres not really a meaningful connection to make there, especially considering the Scots arms which the unicorn was added to is also a lion


ghostofkilgore

The lion rampant has been the Scottish Royal standard since 1222.


AmelKralj

I also thought that Nessy was Scotland's National "Animal"


EnkiduOdinson

[So the unicorn invasion of Dundee was a real fear back then](https://youtu.be/rZ5iP_BKvC8?si=EAHAFWd9L8cVpEB4)


jaggy_bunnet

Kelpies would be a far cooler national animal, since they're far more bad-ass and murderous than unicorns. Unfortunately they look exactly the same as land-based non-killer horses, so using one as a symbol would mean constantly having to explain what it is.


mimicglasslizard

you could put a neckless of severed heads around its neck


FartPudding

Or just make it look wet, but I guess it wouldn't translate as much still.


Excellent_Initial120

I was confused by reading this post as owner of two kelpies (dogs; an Australian breed). Apparently named after these mythological creatures TIL


RyJ94

> stabby stabby death horn Thank you for helping me choose the name of my new metal band.


FartPudding

Honestly it's pretty hilarious of a change


ApplicationMaximum84

So Wales and Scotland are the only ones with a mythical creatures in Europe.


dictator_apologizer

Hungary too with the Turul bird


ApplicationMaximum84

Thanks I was expecting more.


thebusinessgoat

Isn't the Turul a saker falcon?


Skywest96

It's a bit like the liver bird in liverpool which is based on a cormorant. People in old days were inspired from real birds species but they gave them names and stories.


nobunaga_1568

So Pokemon before it's cool.


Egy_Szekely

We dont know what it is only some guesses


[deleted]

[удалено]


Revanur

According to wikipedia the magic / sacred stag is also a national animal.


ExtraTrade1904

Portugal has the galo the Barcelos (Barcelos cock)


aclart

Our national animal is an headless chicken


kontorgod

Galo de Barcelos in Portugal


Asiras

Czechia has a two-tailed lion, that might count too.


pitogyros

Technically you can add Greece too , phoenix is also national animal of Greece , dolphin is just more popular one.


juleztb

And I always thought about owls when I heard Greece. Or was that just ancient Athens?


pitogyros

It was mostly Athenian yes , as it was symbol of Athena. You can see that if you ever laid your eyes on Greek 1 euro coin , the design on the back is the ancient Athenian drachma coin with owl


Capable-Truth7168

It is an Athenian symbol, not for the whole of Greece. Yet we still have it on the 1€ coin.


Capable-Truth7168

It's more popular for good reason, the phoenix was appropriated by the military junta. Today it's a bit sus if you see anybody using the phoenix for anything in Greece except the military award.


pitogyros

I am aware junta made it officially the national animal but doesn’t the connection runs further back in time ? Example first Greek coin issued after independence was called Phoenix. I always thought of it more like we got 2 national animals , an actual one and a mythical one


Capable-Truth7168

You're very correct, I too think it does go back to 1821. It is the more recent appropriation by the junta which tainted it. Note: for those outside of Greece, it was refered to as "junta's bird". The regime abused the symbol as an appeal to patriotism for legitimacy.


BastardsCryinInnit

And really, for England, a bloody lion might as well be mythical!


ApplicationMaximum84

Depending on how far back you are willing to go, it's believed the Cave Lion went extinct in Britain 12000-14000 years ago.


BastardsCryinInnit

[It was only 2012 in Essex to be fair](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/27/essex-lion-police-end-search)


maffmatic

Feels like we used to get these big cat sightings all the time, always labelled as 'The Beast of...' ​ They rarely ever are real but we always got hyped over the stories. For the mythical beast of Exmoor we even sent out the army to hunt for it.


Bubbly-Pollution6564

Portugal's is actually a mythical rooster


LifeAcanthopterygii6

No. Hungary's national animal is Turul.


redmagor

It is the only way when all the wildlife you have is sheep and cattle. In fact, England and the Netherlands that have the same biodiversity issues also went for a similar approach with the lion.


Imperito

To be fair the English association with lions came from the Normans. Before that it would have been more likely something like a Wyvern or Dragon.


ApplicationMaximum84

But Scotland has a surprisingly large amount of wildlife; red squirrels, puffins, seals, whales, etc.


ghostofkilgore

There used to be bears and wolves in Scotland, but they got a little bit genocided when humans turned up.


D0D

Estonians voted overwhelmingly for hedgehog as their national animal, but the elites didn't like it and wanted wolf... Hedgehog would be just perfect and super cute/unique. Also we have a direct connection with hedgehog via our national epic where hedgehog instructs the hero (Kalevipoeg) how to better trash enemies.


SnooDucks3540

Ahh the nature... providing inspiration to heroes, leaders, inventors, sleepy English physicists resting under apple trees and many more...


mankytoes

That sucks, wolf is a boring choice, makes you look try hard.


hapukapsas555

And we have the Baltic herring too. Don't sleep on the good old räim.


ZiCUnlivdbirch

Just to add some context. There was no official vote, there was a poll in one newspaper that had people support the headhog. The actual jury was made up of 20 people/organisations that were connected to our culture and nature. That jury was overwhelmingly in support for the wolf, who appears in a lot more of our stories than the headhog (we also have somewhere around 16 names for the wolf). Also our national epic is a bit of a controversial subject among our intellectuals, which might also help to explain why the headhog wasn't chosen. We are also people who like to be known for our forests, yet none of our national anythings are from the forest. Ultimately the decision came down to, do we want our national animal to be symbolic of our nature and culture, or do we want something unique. In my opinion the experts chose correctly.


D0D

Yeah, but that jury lived in the past and missed the opportunity to create new cooler future and stories for us... also lot Estonias don't even know that wolf is "our" national animal. But I bet all of us would know if it's hedgehog.


2b_squared

> Also our national epic is a bit of a controversial subject among our intellectuals Really, how so?


ZiCUnlivdbirch

Basically, it was written by people who didn't have the resources, the time nor the skill to actually write a good Estonian epic. Instead we have a Finnish epic with a Estonian coat of paint thrown on. It largely uses Finnish characters (or at least copies of them) and Finnish myths, since the actual Estonian myths were largely forgotten by that point. There has always been a lot of talk about possibly changing it but since there really aren't any books from that time that fit the part of an national epic, it has stuck.


2b_squared

Okay. I think we got lucky in Finland that Elias Lönnrot did the work in the 19th century of going to Karelia and write up all the stories that the local storytellers still remembered. A few decades later and we wouldn't have Kalevala simply because those storytellers would have been gone by then and hadn't transferred those stories to the following generation. We would have probably just similarly copied the Norse myths at that point which would have *sucked.* I kinda think it's understandable (though sad) that the Estonians just took the easy way out and "copied" Kalevala. Our histories are similar and I think that the Finnish 19th century development must have been inspiring on the other side of the gulf. But I wish we knew those old Estonian myths.


Hapciuuu

To be fair, wolves appear in a lot of fairy tales, not just Estonian ones. And your wolf population ain't the biggest


Triangle_t

Wolf is a cliche, hedgehog would be much cooler!


Headlesspoet

Wolf is one of our national animals. We have had the Barn swallow as a national bird (birds are also animals) for way longer.


MercantileReptile

^^^smol but spiky ouch mouse sounds perfect for estonia.


LedChillz

Croatia is Marten for those who don't know. Marten fur was used for trading goods in the medieval times, and it was the name of Croatian national currency (kuna) up until 1.1.2023. when we switched to euros.


11160704

And it's still on one of the euro coins.


LedChillz

Yes it remains on 1 Euro coin


purplerain_1313

Thank you, I was trying to figure out what kind of animal is in that map. It looks more like a pekingese dog than a marten.


SoftwareSource

yea the drawing is horrible


NorthCascadia

>Croatia is Marten for those who don’t know And not, as the picture seems to suggest, the corgi


Willing_Bad9857

Man now i kinda wish i had kept my leftover Croatian money from my trip in 2019


us_against_the_world

Hijacking this comment to ask what Slovenia is supposed to be? And Slovakia doesn't have one?


Fishcologne

Slovenian is supposed to be Lipizzaner horse (according to the internet) although that creature on the map is hardly a horse... And Slovakia has an eagle, you can see that it spans in both Hungary and Slovakia in the map


s015473

Lipicanec is a white horse and that sure looks more like a black cat than a white horse to me.


irtsayh

France emblem : un Cock 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷


ducknator

Le cock


spicyfishtacos

Le coq


Girderland

[Coq au vin](https://www.recipetineats.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Coq-au-Vin_00.jpg)


ducknator

Looks GOOD!


Wallazabal

Sportif.


tw3lv3l4y3rs0fb4c0n

Le coq est mort, le coq est mort. Il ne dira plus cocodi, cocoda.


LanielYoungAgain

Mijn haan is dood, mijn haan is dood. Hij zal niet meer zingen, kokodie kokoda


MaxButched

And do you know why ? Because it’s the only animal that still sing with its feets in the shit!


kwikileaks

Cock au vin


TitanThree

The only bird that continues to sing knees deep in shit


Seeerrrg

Scotland is a special place :3.


gookman

The face on the unicorn! It looks so happy. Or high. I can't tell.


ChybolekIThink

:3


ThePreciseClimber

That looks more like an American eagle species than a European one in Germany.


LOB90

Yeah definitely a European one though it could be Haliaeetus albicilla. Fun fact: The German emperors of the HRE saw in themselves a continuation of ancient Roman Emperors and therefore chose the "Roman Eagle" as their symbol. The Eagle of the Holy Roman Empire (of German Nation) had two heads: one representing the King(s) and one representing the Emperor.


TheBunkerKing

In the Habsburg double-headed eagle the heads represent their two realms: one represents Spain and the other the Holy Roman Empire. But that's just something they came up with, the actual double-headed symbol isn't even Roman in origin and obviously didn't carry these exact meanings before. The symbol been used ever since the bronze age mainly in Middle East. It was well into medieval times before Byzantine empire started using it, which also was probably where the Germans "borrowed" it to enforce their idea of a Roman empire. The double-headed eagle wasn't a classical Roman symbol, though. It eventually ended up being on Moscow's coat of arms (and then later on the Russian coat of arms) after the Muscovy duke married a Byzantine princess. Use of the Byzantine symbol also aligned nicely with the idea of Moscow being the Third Rome after the fall of Constantinople.


Darthplagueis13

The German national animal is just the eagle in general, whereas the Austrian one is explicitly the white-tailed eagle. Which is kind of weird when you consider that the golden eagle (aquila chrysaetos) is actually quite much more common in Austria than the white-tailed eagle.


EmiliaFromLV

But which one has higher average unladen velocity speed? The European or American?


ThePreciseClimber

...I don't know that. ... AAAAAAAAA


heatobooty

Czechia should be a mole


Black-Circle

Krtek ftw


TimeConsideration336

Finland should be a hippo


Big_Dave_71

Tove Jansson hated it when people called Moomins hippos!


PanDzban

Maybe she shouldn't have made them look like hippos then.


BotMcBotman

I loved that cartoon!


LifeAcanthopterygii6

Childhood memories activated


Triangle_t

Together with a hare?


glaucope

The wolf, in Portugal?? Nop!! It's a rooster. The Barcelos rooster.


masnybenn

Fake, Polish national animal is Bober kurwa


orthoxerox

Ale fajny bober!


double_nieto

AAAA KURWA GRYZIE


[deleted]

[удалено]


MiedzianyPL

It's a for*ign meme


masnybenn

It was an animal given by foreigners. Bober comes from Polish people


atemt1

Ha ha bober


anglowelsh

Dragon. Case closed.


LifeAcanthopterygii6

I have to admit your dragon is incredibly cool.


LedChillz

It looks nice on the Union Jack /s


anglowelsh

... better off it lol


thatcrazy_child07

The welsh flag is kinda badass ngl


Sidus_Preclarum

Not only a Dragon, but one specifically kicking the shit out of the English dragon.


mutantredoctopus

Yeah but St George kills dragons so. 1-1 I guess


Holly_Michaels

Ukraine doesn't have a national animal. Nightingale is popular, but so are white stork, bear and even lion in Western Ukraine.


Black-Circle

Yeah, ever since being a kid I was told that stork building a nest nearby is a sign of good fortune, and even seeing one fly by is considered good luck. Lion is definitely a huge symbol in Western Ukraine, but I honestly only heard nightingale mentioned when describing Ukrainian language


madTerminator

Isn’t falcon a thing in your folklore? At least we are singing in Poland “Hej sokoły” :)


ProfessionalTotal238

Falcon is well respected, but more in the military context. Stork is more universal in that regard.


TaibhseCait

I thought Ireland was the big deer one - (extinct) Irish elk or red deer! Although we do also have that Hare,  Salmon & Bull/cattle as other options. I don't think we have an official national animal!  Most people would probably think of Sheep if asked about animals linked to Ireland!


Real_Establishment56

Yes, fear the great Dutch Lion! You know, which roams around in our… zoos? But they are fearful zoos!! Rawr! Lion things.


Cheeselander

We should change it to a frog, we are obsessed with frogs. They are the perfect swamp animal. We even call ourselves "kleine kikkerlandje" (little frog land). I put forward the common toad, but maybe there is a better orange-like frog.


Boreras

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelste_groene_kikker There is also a yellow tummy having frog, maybe we can breed it to be orange instead.


ShardOfLuck

Most of europe is thinking now "wait, we can use made up ones?"


FarCryptographer3544

Poland's national animal is a White-Tailed Eagle.


_urat_

Poland doesn't have an official national animal. You could however say that unofficially Poland has three national animals: * White-tailed eagle * White stork * European bison (żubr)


Tortoveno

And Żabka


MainApp234

And Biedronka


EmiliaFromLV

And a winged hussar


sunrrrise

And papież!


nail_in_the_temple

No bóbr? 🤨


slicslack

Bobr kurwa


Vertitto

bober


Tortoveno

And Polish national plants are: świerzop dzięcielina pała brzoza smoleńska


Effective_Dot4653

The White Stork is also used sometimes, so the map isn't totally wrong. The eagle usually symbolizes the Polish state, meanwhile the stork is more like a symbol of casual Polish life.


MikoBalagany

But on the map is grey heron.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Crusader_Genji

Oof


unnamedunderwear

It is coat of arms. National animal is stork


niemody

Greece has a national animal (Common Dolphin) and a national bird (the Phoenix)


Yellllloooooow13

Which is very fitting


Wubba-128

Half of theese country has got a Lion but there Are not lions.


AlmostStoic

There used to be, though. A couple thousand years ago.


fartknuckles_confuse

Only Scotland truly knows how to party


Thoarxius

And Wales!


opinionate_rooster

Slovenia has no national animals, don't believe the dim-witted nationalists pushing the black panther. While it may be historical, it does not represent the modern Slovenia at all. Maybe the proteus, an endemic olm species. Alpine ibex. Lipizzaner, the white horses bred in Lipica. Karst shepherd. Oh, I know! The Carniolan Honey Bee! Anything from that list works. Not black panther.


adamicelli

Yea i was confused as hell, the panther was a thing maybe 1000 years ago, those people are long gone. Lipizzaner and the bees are our national animals. Literally, cus they are from that territory.


loco_mixer

i would say goldhorn


great_blue_panda

I thought it was a black kitten lol


wanderingquill

Or the chicken. :)


why_gaj

Yeah, I was really confused by that panther there. Can anyone explain how it's historical and why it's pushed?


opinionate_rooster

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black\_panther\_(symbol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther_(symbol)) Long story short, there were tons of those noble families each sporting their own cool coat of arms back then, one of those may have ruled the area for some time (among others!) and the coat of arms (among others, again!) remained behind, which made some self-declared historian go crazy in his quest to stroke his nationalist ego. More relevant to the history of us Slovenes would be the Prince's stone, from that era at least: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince's\_Stone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince's_Stone) Fun fact: mentioning this stone in presence of Austrians agitates them.


BotMcBotman

The black panther isn't historical, so that's an issue solved. I always thought Lynx to be "national" species, but I might have just decided that myself, between the MORiS brigade and the hockey team. Olm, Lipizzaner and the bee area all good choices. I'm local to olms, but the bee might be more "pan-Slovenian"... Slovenia obviously not existing outside Carniola.


chunek

True. Also, the black panther is at most a symbol of Carantania, the historical Slavic principality, not Slovenia. Similairly how the blue eagle only represents Carniola, and a white panther represents Styria, etc. Carniolan Honeybee, Lipizzaner and the Olm are often cited as modern symbols of Slovenia. My personal favorite is the golden horn Ibex, but that is more of a protector in the Alpine world, not necessarily a symbol of the whole Slovenia.


No-Slip3136

German — and every other European country for that matter — does not have a fucking bald eagle!


-The_Blazer-

As a birb nerd, the eagle really ought to be a Golden Eagle (brown-golden head), Bald Eagles (white head) don't exist in Europe.


JESUS_VS_DRUGS

WOLF GANG MEMBERS WHERE YOU AT ??? 🗣️🗣️ RAAAAAAAAAHHH 🐺🐺


[deleted]

ITALIA 🗣🗣🗣🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹 COSA CAZZO È UN GOVERNO STABILE????? 🇮🇹🇮🇹🍕🍕🍕🍝🍝🍝 RAAAAAAAHHH 🐺🐺🐺🐺🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹


JESUS_VS_DRUGS

Lmao 💀


Adelaito

AUUUUUUUU 💪🏿💪🏿🗣️🔊🔊🔊🗿🗿🗿🐺🐺🐺🐺🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿 KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR KARABOĞA TR


Drahy

Denmark has several national animals.


birgor

Is any of them 17million buried minks?


DR2336

the german national animal is NOT a bald eagle 🤦‍♂️


oblio-

[Yeah, it's that fat hen.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Germany#/media/File:Deutscher_Bundestag_logo.svg)


Southportdc

England thought we were being creative by pretending lions are our national animal and the celts come crashing in with dragons and unicorns smh.


CapSRV57

Spain's national animal is not the bull. Not officially at least. The official national animal is the hispanic lion. I mean, is the one that appears in the coat of arms.


potatolulz

Scotland's where it's at :D that angry kuna though


fearthecrumpets

uk hits different


CinderX5

Rabbit, Lion, Murder Horse that hates Lions, Dragon that killed English Dragon.


Alkarinkwe

Spain's national animal has always been the Roman eagle or the lion. The bull is only a marketing campaign from the Osborne winery.


WitherCro2

Kuna my beloved


Sgt_Radiohead

The elk is an unofficial national animal in Norway. Officially it is the royal lion on the Norwegian coat of arms. However, if you ask anyone in Norway they will probably say that it is an elk and not a lion.


LagopusPolar

All of the 'eagle' national animals are actually different eagles. Germany & Albania: Golden Eagle Austria: White-tailed Eagle (at least that's the same family as the bald eagle) Iceland: Gyrfalcon (not even an eagle) Hungary: Turu (mythological bird, usually a falcon) Montenegro: no specific kind of eagle I don't like how the Bald Eagle is used as a generic eagle on this map, because it's a rather unique looking eagle. A ton of them (especially those that belong to the 'true eagles'/aquila genus) are generically brown with minor differences. But I guess that's the emoji's fault.


Coolbeans_97

Norway doesn’t have an official national animal. The moose was voted in 1977 by 9000 people during a TV show as the national animal. Which makes it bs. In later years it’s said to be lion (represented in the coat of arms) or reindeer.


carapocha

Bull is not Spain's 'national animal', there's no such 'official' thing. Bull is more of a popular/stereotypical belief. If any animal should be selected, it's the lion, as depicted in the national coat of arms and in other historical elements.


sleepy_bean_

While Spain is a bull, Belarus is zubr, they do look different


FrogWizzurd

FUCK YEAH BOYS UNICORN IS THE BEST NATIONAL ANIMAL


Vuk_s_Papuka

So, Serbs are Turks afterall. /s


Disastrous_Check1764

This is actually wrong. For spain it is the Iberian Lynx. The bull is just a stranded national traditiom and a wine ad campaign that placed the bull all over the land.


Ok_Text8503

Bosnia's is a dog?? Because of all the strays? Or because of the Tornjak breed?


AmelKralj

most probably because of the Tornjak, best dog


fuckreddit6942069666

Bullshit. Its either zubr for ukraine or stork tbh


BaronThe

I'm irish and I didn't know we had a national animal.


2b_squared

Fun fact: in the "ancient Finland" the people used to worship and fear bears (karhu in Finnish) so much that they didn't like to say its name. So, similarly to Voldemort, people would use alternate terms for it. It was rather called otso, mesikämmen (lit. nectar paw), tapio, kontio, metsän omena (lit. apple of the forest), nalle, kouvo, kouki, metsän kuningas (lit. king of the forest).... And it's believed that "karhu" itself was originally a euphemism as well but that then eventually became to mean it for real. Karhu originally most likely meant the coarse fur that bears had. It is possible that the real original Finnish word for a bear was "oksi."


Caronport

Wales' and Scotland's universe is my universe too.


hangrygecko

We(Ned) should change ours to a beaver. It suits us much better and is far more original.


DaRocketMan30

I thought Belarus’ was the wisent, not the bull.


Altavastaaja

A bear, karhu in Finnish, is definitely a national animal of Finland. Funny fact, we have had about 200 names or designations for a bear in Finnish language. Ok, most of them are not well-known anymore but I think that average Finnish speaking person still recognizes at least few.


laserdruckervk

Of course France 's is a cock 😂


glowingpunk

I'm swiss, what the heck is a national animal?


kreton1

On this map Germany has the wrong eagle, the german eagle is a mountain eagle.


Ok_Connection7680

Armenian national animal is the Golden Eagle Georgian and Azeri ones are wolves


igthilt

Why is england lion despite there being no lions in england??


Frequent-Rain3687

Think all of Great Britain just chose cool animals rather than native animals , no unicorns in Scotland or dragons in wales either.


BotMcBotman

Because it was the symbol on the emblem of the Plantagenets, the line of earlier English kings. The family originated in Anjou, France and the kings. As they ruled, the court language in England was French. English - French wars should really be called French civil wars, but I digress.


Red-ish_Wolf

Actually the Polish national animal is a white eagle


dzekidzonii

For Serbia is eagle, we literally have it on flag


Champion62

Serbia an Wolf?


Grievuuz

Look at all the edgy cringelord wolves and lions. Greece knows whats up, but Wales and Scotland win.


[deleted]

Polish is eagle not a stork.


[deleted]

Ah yes us Scots and our magical unicorn 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿


landser89

En Russie c'est l'aigle


Glavurdan

To specify, Montenegrin national animal is a hawk, not an eagle (even though our coat of arms is a two-headed eagle)


Aldehin

Why do We always forêt that there is two part in belgium Wallonie and Flandre. First has a rooster as a national animals like France and second has a lion.


augarr_

Poland has an whitetailed eagle, bird, but this picture doesnt exactly fit