For wildlife watchers

Brochure for wildlife watchers available in English, German, Russian and Latvian!

Animals in Slītere National Park (check out amazing videos!)

The geographic location and diversity of biotopes of the Slītere National Park ensure a wealth of mammals. If you learn to be quiet and careful while looking at the lives and habits of forest denizens, you have every opportunity to hear hooting owns, rooting bucks and howling wolves. You may smell a racoon dog, run into a doe with her fawns, watch a beaver building a home, or spot a group of stags swimming in a lake during the foggy morning. Most of the more than 40 species of mammals in the Slītere National Park are shy and hard to spot. The afforested nature of the territory ensures diversity of fauna, but it also makes it more difficult to spot animals. True opportunities to espy a mammal really relate to open areas.

Mammals in the Slītere National Park begin with the forest shrew, which weighs only 10 grams and is constantly running around looking for something to eat, and end with the world’s largest stag, the Eurasian elk, which weighs in at around 300 kg. The shrew eats insects and uses echo-location of the type that bats use when they go out hunting for butterflies after dark. The most common types of bats in the park are the long-eared bat and the Northern bat. Rodents are the most common type of mammal in the park – field mice, voles and water rats are everywhere. The nests of the yellow-necked mouse have been found to contain as much as half a kilogram of hazelnuts. The Northern birch mouse is uncommon in most of Latvia, but not so in the Slītere National Park, where it’s protected. Up in the blue hills of the SNP, one can spot an endangered, fluffy and mouse-sized animal – the fat dormouse, which lives in families, nests in the branches of bushes, and hibernates during the winter. The swamps and forests of the national park are home to large predators, including wolves and lynx. A brown bear was spotted in the park two years ago. There’s enough food for smaller predators, too – the European pine marten, the weasel and the polecat. The otter and mink hunt for fish in trout streams. Seals do the same in the sea. Hoofed animals include wild board, deer and bucks. The Eurasian elk feels right at home in swampy forests and areas of burned forest.

Animal-watching

Animal-watching at the Slītere National Park is only possible in the presence of a guide, and only for small groups of one to five people (the park asks that children under the age of 15 not be brought along). The process involves sitting around in special towers for several hours, which is why such tours are offered only when the temperature is above 0°C. You must bring water-resistant and comfortable shoes, warm and “quiet” apparel (it doesn’t crinkle or make other noise, and it is not in a noisy colour). You will be walking around 2 km. Bring binoculars, a camera, snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

You must apply for an animal-watching tour at least two weeks in advance:
contact “Lauku Ceļotājs” on +371-6761-7600, or write to lauku@celotajs.lv.

Photo: Peo Jonsson. Wild boars.