Token European Grayling MMD 2018

Coin "European Harius" 2018

Series "5 chervonets. The Red Book of the USSR. MMD"

Artist: Ivanov MA
Sculptor: Parfenov A.I.

The European grayling (Thymallus thymallus) lives almost all over Europe: there is this fish in France and England, Germany and Switzerland, Denmark and the Benelux countries, Finland. Grayling lives in the basins of the Dniester, Danube, Neman, Western Bug. And, of course, it lives in the rivers of Western Russia up to the Ural Mountains.
The European grayling reaches sexual maturity quite early: females at 2 years old, males at 3-4 years old. Males are noticeably larger than females; they are distinguished by the presence of bright coloration and larger size of the dorsal fin. The high dorsal fin of the European grayling is not just a decoration of fish. Experts and scientists believe that during spawning, the male fin creates powerful turbulence of water, which is why the milt is not carried away by the current, and this increases the number of fertilized eggs.
Grayling is a pronounced predator. If the European grayling has to live in small creeks and streams, where there is a rather poor food supply, it feeds on aquatic insects and their larvae, air insects falling into the water, less often - fish fry. If caddisflies live in a river, they can make up to 80% of the dietary ration of fish. In the diet of the European grayling, small mammals can also be found: shrews and mice, fallen into the river or streams and rivers crossing during the migrations.