Each of the six "National Nature Symbols" below were chosen by the voters of Finland. They were officially chosen in the 1980s and 1990s to draw attention to Finnish nature and wildlife and to promote appreciation of them.
The
Whooper Swan, Cygnus cygnus, was at one
time almost extinct in Finland. Once considered a game
bird in parts of Finland, by the 1950s there were only
about 10 nesting pairs left in the country. In 1950,
Yrjö Kokko, a veterinarian, wrote a book about the swan
which made Finns aware of the swan's beauty, as well as
of its pending extinction. Since being made a protected
species, the number of nesting whooper swans has
increased dramatically; there are now about 2,000 nesting
pairs in Finland and the number is still rising.
The symbolic use of the swan has ancient traditions. In the rock drawings at Lake Onega, which are thousands of years old, the swan already features as a mythical being. The "Swan of Tuonela," the swan on the river of death in Finnish tradition, and the "Swan Song" were favorite themes in art. And, a white swan in flight silhouetted against a blue sky looks like the reverse of the Finnish flag, the blue cross against a field of white. Today the swan is currently one of the most popular animals in advertising, and the swan label is used in Nordic countries to indicate that a particular consumer product is environmentally friendly.
The Brown Bear, Ursus arctos, was once considered the
king of the Finnish forest. In ancient times, the bear
was probably even used as a tribal emblem, a totem
animal, alongside the other major animal of the Finnish
forest, the elk. Despite the sacred status of the bear,
it was hunted to near extinction by the middle of the
20th century. Now a protected species, there are about
1,000 bears in Finland, all over the country, except for
the southwestern archipelago and the Åland Islands.
The Birch,
Betula pendula, with its light green foliage and
bright white trunk, is a prominent feature of the Finnish
summer, and is one of the most popular domestic trees in
Finland.
The birch has always held an important place in the life of Finnish people. The tree provided well for those who had the proper skills: in the spring, the birch sap made a healthy drink, and there was always birch bark for roofing, binding, producing baskets and dishes and other containers or even making birch-bark shoes; the wood of the birch was used for buildings, furniture and tools; and, the leafy twigs were made into sauna switches, but could also be dried to make winter fodder for cattle.
In the 19th century, the birch was romanticized in Zacharias Topelius' fairy tale Koivu ja tähti ("The birch and the star"). In the story, two lost children go looking for their home and finally find the right place because they recognize the birch in the yard. Many a traditionalist Finnish man has given his bride-to-be a birch bark ring before giving her a real engagement ring.
The
Lily-of-the-Valley, Convallaria majalis,
is one of the most poisonous plants in Finland, yet it
was chosen as the National Flower of Finland in 1982. Its
white flowers have a delicate, heady scent that is
sometimes used by the perfume industry. The
lily-of-the-vally occurs almost all over Finland.
The
Humpbacked Perch, Perca fluviatilis, is
the most common species of fish in Finland, found in
almost every type of water throughout the country. About
10 million kilograms of perch are caught in Finland every
year, and most of that is caught by holiday fishermen.
This is quite a remarkable number given that most of the
individual perch caught weigh less than one kilogram
each.
Granite
is quarried in several locations in Finland. The Finnish
bedrock, which consists of granite and other intrusive
rocks with a high silica content, represents the oldest
parts of Europe. Most of the granite came into being
about 1.8 to 2.8 billion years ago.
Although commonly used as a building material, granite is also a popular sculpture medium. One of the most essentially Finnish uses of granite, however, is in the rollers of paper machines. These rollers, which weigh tens of tons, are cut to a precision of fractions of a milimeter.
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