Editing Shetland (section)

=== Fauna ===

[[File:Puffin Party IMG 3348 (19674441423).jpg|thumb|290px|Atlantic puffin in the Shetland Islands]]

Shetland has numerous seabird colonies. Birds found in the islands include [[Atlantic puffin]], [[European storm-petrel|storm-petrel]], [[red-throated diver]], [[northern gannet]] and [[great skua]] (locally called "bonxie").<ref name="SNH 2008 p. 16">SNH (2008) p. 16</ref> Numerous rarities have also been recorded including [[black-browed albatross]] and [[snow goose]]. A single pair of [[snowy owl]]s bred in Fetlar from 1967 to 1975.<ref name="SNH 2008 p. 16"/><ref name="Guinn">{{cite book|editor=McFarlan, D.|year=1991|title=The Guinness Book of Records|location=Enfield|publisher=Guinness Publishing|page=35}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/index.htm "Home"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726013401/http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/index.htm|date=26 July 2011}}, Nature in Shetland, Retrieved 12 March 2011</ref> The [[Shetland wren]], [[Fair Isle wren]], and [[Shetland starling]] are subspecies [[endemism|endemic]] to Shetland.<ref>Williamson, Kenneth (1951) [https://archive.today/20120605021225/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119785912/abstract "The wrens of Fair Isle]", ''Ibis'' '''93'''(4): pp. 599–601, Retrieved 12 March 2011</ref><ref name="Endemic">[http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/nature/endemverts.htm "Endemic Vertebrates of Shetland"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726013245/http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/nature/endemverts.htm|date=26 July 2011}}, Nature in Shetland, Retrieved 12 March 2011</ref> There are also populations of various moorland birds such as [[Eurasian curlew|curlew]], [[Northern lapwing|lapwing]], [[common snipe|snipe]] and [[eurasian golden plover|golden plover]].<ref>SNH (2008) p. 10</ref>

One of the early [[ornithologist]]s that wrote about the wealth of birdlife in Shetland was [[Edmund Selous]] (1857–1934) in his book ''The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands'' (1905).<ref name=selous>{{cite wikisource|last=Selous|first=Edmund|title=The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands|year=1905}}</ref> He wrote extensively about the gulls and terns, about the [[arctic skua]]s, the [[black guillemot]]s and many other birds (and the seals) of the islands.

The geographical isolation and recent glacial history of Shetland have resulted in a depleted mammalian fauna and the [[brown rat]] and [[house mouse]] are two of only three species of rodent present in the islands. The [[Shetland field mouse]] is the third and the archipelago's fourth endemic subspecies, of which there are three varieties in Yell, Foula, and Fair Isle.<ref name="Endemic"/> They are variants of ''[[Wood mouse|Apodemus sylvaticus]]'' and archaeological evidence suggests that this species was present during the Middle [[Iron Age]] (around 200 BC to 400 CE). It is possible that ''Apodemus'' was introduced from Orkney where a population has existed since at the least the [[Bronze Age]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nicholson|first1=R.A.|last2=Barber|first2=P.|last3=Bond|first3=J.M.|year=2005|title=New Evidence for the Date of Introduction of the House Mouse, ''Mus musculus domesticus'', Schwartz & Schwartz, and the Field Mouse, ''Apodemus sylvaticus'' (L.) to Shetland|journal=Environmental Archaeology |volume=10|issue=2|pages=143–151|doi=10.1179/env.2005.10.2.143|bibcode=2005EnvAr..10..143N |s2cid=83897428}}</ref>