The national animal of Serbia is the gray wolf. This animal is a very important part of Serbian and Balkan mythology, and has been used as a totem as well as a symbol of fearlessness in Serbian epic poetry. The wolf today still features as a symbol on many coats of arms and heraldic images.
Gray wolves are often very important to the mythologies of these parts of the world.
Serbia is no different, and the gray wolf has played a very important part in the country’s mythological history.
There’s a great deal to unpack about the wolf’s place in Serbian identity, so let’s dive into it.
What is the national animal of Serbia?
The national animal of Serbia is the gray wolf.
For most of us, the word “wolf” is basically synonymous with gray wolf.
This is the animal that the vast majority of us in the west are imagining when we think of a wolf.
These are the largest living members of their broader family of wild dogs, with around 30 subspecies found throughout the world.
They are closely enough related with other Canis species, though, like dingos, coyotes or jackals, that they can produce fertile hybrids.
They are highly specialized cooperative hunters, and are clearly physically adapted for tackling very large prey.
However, it is in their advanced social nature that their complexity really becomes apparent.
They are well adapted for complex hunts in large groups, often involving large scale coordination over big distances.
They sometimes travel in larger packs but are much more likely to move in smaller, nuclear families with only a single mating pair.
Interestingly, they have a higher success rate on the whole as a single wolf or mated pair than large packs do.
Though at certain times and in certain places they have been threatened by extinction, the global population has more or less completely bounced back and they are not currently listed as being at serious risk of endangerment.
In Serbia the population is relatively small at around 500 to 1000 in the country, but generally wolves need very large territories to hunt so large populations are not all that common and this is a fairly stable figure.
Here they mostly hunt deer, wild boar, and sometimes livestock, this often being a problem for farmers.
Wolves are important symbols of a variety of different things in many countries and this is just as true in Serbia as it is elsewhere.
Why is the wolf the national animal of Serbia?
There is a wide variety of reasons why the gray wolf is the national animal of Serbia.
They have historically played a big part in Serbian and Balkan mythology, and in old Serbian religions they were used as a totem.
This means an emblem of a family clan and usually a reminder of ancestry.
It can also be a sacred object, but in all cases it is meant to symbolize family and ancestry.
This, then, was an important symbol to the people who lived in Serbia long before Serbia was a country in the modern sense.
The gray wolf has also featured heavily in old Serbian literature.
In Serbian epic poetry, the wolf was an important symbol of fearlessness.
Often, people would name their child Vuk if they had lost several children in succession as this would ward off witches who feared wolves.
Today, the wolf continues to be an important symbol and is depicted on the coats of arms of Serbian municipalities as well as heraldic symbols.
Wolves are powerful, elusive, and mysterious, and when you live surrounded by them, even when you may not very frequently see them, it’s easy to see how they would influence your national identity.
Is the gray wolf dangerous?
Generally speaking, gray wolves don’t pose much of a danger to humans.
They have developed a fear of people and tend to stay away from them, so you’re very unlikely to even see wolves in the wild unless you’re looking for them—and that you know what you’re doing.
Obviously, though, gray wolves are physically dangerous to humans—they are very large and more than capable of killing a person if cornered.
The likelihood, though, of actually cornering a wild gray wolf is basically nil, again unless you are trying to do so.
Where do these wolves live, then?
Where do gray wolves live?
Gray wolves can be found throughout both North America and Eurasia.
There are around 50-60,000 within their historical range in Canada.
Wolves in the U.S. have declined a great deal historically due to hunting and agriculture but they have bounced back in recent years.
In Europe, excluding Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, you can find as many as 17,000 wolves.
Wolves are generally strictly protected under conservation laws and cannot be hunted.
Unfortunately, though, they have been wiped out in Britain, Ireland, and Central Europe.
The global populations, though, are very strong and show no signs of worrying decline.
It’s very easy to imagine and understand the kind of place that wolves would have in the imaginations of prehistoric people—they still hold the same significance for us today implicitly.
Serbia carried that right through its history and at virtually all stages the gray wolf has been a vital part of national culture, identity and mythology.
It remains the national animal officially today and continues to feature heavily in coats of arms and other imagery.