The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. Brown bears are very important symbols in Finland both in the sense of their symbolic importance and in their embodiment of Finnish natural landscapes. They also feature prominently in mythology and folklore, and so are vital national symbols for a great variety of reasons.
The brown bear is a species that is found over a fairly wide range across Eurasia and North America, but nonetheless, it plays a unique and particularly important symbolic role in Finland especially.
To the people today, both indigenous and otherwise, the bear is a very important national symbol.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Finland?
The national animal of Finland is the brown bear.
Brown bear is a large species that is found over a fairly wide range today, in Eurasia and North America.
There are different names for brown bears depending on where you are in the world, but that’s something we’ll get into later.
Brown bears are among the biggest terrestrial members of the Carnivora order, only rivaled in size by the polar bear.
The brown bear is highly variable in size, and the average size can vary a lot depending on the population.
Sexual dimorphism does play a role here, as male brown bears tend to be at least 30% large than females.
Their weight can also vary a lot seasonally, as they will hibernate for the winter and come out weighing considerably less than they would in the late fall when they begin fattening up for the winter.
So, on average, a brown bear could weigh anywhere from 180 to 1,320 pounds depending on the population and the time of year.
They could be anywhere from 1.4 to 2.8 meters in length, with a shoulder height anywhere from 2.4 to 5 feet.
They are not always fully brown.
They have long, thick fur and a moderate mean at the back of the neck.
Again, their color can vary a lot depending on the population, and Finnish bears are often a lot darker though they can also have the lighter brown hair.
They eat a highly varied diet, being omnivorous.
They eat plants and berries, as well as fish and small mammals, being particularly known for catching salmon during the spawning season.
They are extremely intelligent and may find many different sources of food, being able to smell food from many miles away; this had made them a big problem for campers.
Why is the brown bear the national animal of Finland?
The brown bear is an important symbol to the people of Finland for a variety of reasons.
Of course, on the most essential level, they are symbols of strength, pride, courage and boldness.
They are seen as embodiments of the Finnish national spirit in this way.
Historically, they were feared and revered all at once, unsurprisingly, and played an important role in Finland’s history and epics.
They are among the country’s best known native animal, and for many both in and out of Finland, the first animal that will come to mind when thinking about Finland is the brown bear.
On the other, more literal hand, they are also seen as the perfect embodiment of the country’s natural beauty.
Finland is of course a cold, rugged, forested country with a great deal of alpine environments.
This, too, is an important point of Finnish national pride, and in many ways the brown bear is a very important aspect of this.
The two, almost, are inextricable; you can’t have one without the other, at least in the minds of the people.
So, on virtually every level, the brown bear is simply the most important animal to the people of Finland.
Is brown bear the same as grizzly?
The simplest way to look at this question is that all grizzly bears are brown bears, but not all brown bears are grizzly bears.
Grizzlies are indeed brown bears, but they are considered a subspecies of brown bear.
Grizzly bear is most often the name used in North America for brown bears found there; you won’t really hear this term used in Europe and certainly not in Finland.
There are often disagreements when it comes to distinguishing subspecies, but if there is any difference then it is that grizzlies are a subspecies of brown bear.
Are bears aggressive?
You might be surprised to learn that brown bears will generally prefer to avoid confrontation with people rather than to seek it out.
They are not a hugely aggressive species, but that of course does not mean that they are not very dangerous.
They could very easily kill a person if they felt threatened or pushed to it, and indeed they would not hesitate if you angered them.
But, again, bears are not usually known for hunting large prey, and generally prefer to simply find smaller food sources, so usually you aren’t in much danger from brown bears if you know to keep your distance and be careful.
So, though they might not be as much of a danger as you might expect, that doesn’t mean you should start seeking them out in the wild.
Bears in Finland play an important role in national symbolism on just about every level.
They were important historically in the country’s mythology and folklore and still are today, and they have come to embody the country’s rugged, natural beauty in their own way, too.