Employees of the Saratov branch of the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution Olga and Mikhail Oparin told Rossiyskaya Gazeta journalists how the fauna is changing and why this is connected to more than global warming.
Expat from "Africa"
Recently, RG-Week spoke (“Saving the Bustard”, dated January 24, 2024) about the critical situation with the world’s largest flying bird, the bustard, living in the Saratov region. Scientists associate the sharp decline in the number of the Red Book bird, which has long adapted to living in fields cultivated by humans, with changes in agriculture and the active use of new agricultural technologies in recent decades.
In order to protect the bustard, according to experts, we need cooperation between the state, science, agricultural enterprises and a set of measures, including changes in legislation.
Thanks to the chemicalization of agriculture and the active use of pesticides, there are fewer weeds and pests in the fields, but at the same time the food supply is decreasing not only for the bustard, but also for other birds, such as larks and partridges. As a result, their numbers are also greatly reduced.
Following the decrease in the number of partridges, an unexpected newcomer who appeared in the region about a quarter of a century ago - the African wildcat - has almost disappeared from our region.
The common habitat of the African wildcat, or Felis lybica, is southern countries, including the African continent. It also lives in Central Asia, but the northwestern border of the distribution of this animal usually ran along the Emba River in Kazakhstan. However, at the end of the 90s of the last century, the cat began to be found in the Saratov region.
This is a large animal, weighing up to 10 kilograms, with a characteristic yellow color with dark spots and seven dark stripes on the tail. This cat lives in holes, and does not dig them itself, but occupies those of others. Its common prey in desert and semi-desert areas are gerbils. Since they are not found in our area, the cat switched to other rodents, including hares, as well as partridges.
When, after several snowy winters, the number of partridges sharply decreased in our country, we almost stopped seeing the alien predator. According to Mikhail Oparin, the last time a small, apparently young, African wildcat was seen was in 2018 at a pond in the Fedorovsky district.
Time of the jackal
Another immigrant from the south, the common jackal, or, as it is called in Europe, the golden jackal, has successfully taken residence. It is not surprising, as this animal, as it turned out, has excellent adaptability to a wide variety of conditions.
Over the past decades, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of this predator and its spread throughout Europe.
Back in the middle of the last century, the jackal was found on the territory of the European part of our country only in the Caucasus, and in Europe - occasionally on the Balkan Peninsula, in Greece.
Since then, the jackal has tirelessly explored new lands and today has reached Norway. And on the territory of the Russian Federation, an individual of this animal was recently discovered also far to the north - in the Arkhangelsk region, in the Pinega Nature Reserve.
The first reports of the appearance of a jackal in the Saratov region date back to the late 80s and early 90s of the last century.
The first jackals were spotted in the area of the Dyakovsky forest, and since 1995, hunters have reported from these places that broods of jackals have already appeared. In 1998, the chief forester of the Dyakovsky forestry enterprise, Eskov, killed a male jackal while hunting hares with hounds.
In the winter of 2010-2011, jackals appeared on the right bank of the Volga in the Krasnoarmeysky region, and soon the animal spread throughout the Volga Upland. Nowadays, it is also found in the area between the Khopr and Medveditsa rivers, tributaries of the Don. Several cases of jackal sightings have already been recorded in the Penza region.
According to Mikhail Oparin, such a wide distribution cannot be explained by climate warming alone; most likely, there is a whole complex of reasons, but special research is needed for more accurate conclusions.
Apparently, the widespread distribution of the jackal became possible thanks to the unpretentiousness of this animal.
“The jackal can eat pheasants, hares, partridges, eats carrion, berries, insects, waste from slaughterhouses, landfills and garbage cans,” says the scientist.
And jackals are not particularly afraid of people either. Recently, a hunter caught this animal near the village of Aleksandrovka on the outskirts of Saratov.
It was believed that the factor limiting the spread of the jackal to the north was the depth of the snow cover, but apparently these predators are able to withstand snowy winters.
While some animals, for various reasons, move to the northern regions, others migrate to the south.
In recent years, residents of the Penza and Ulyanovsk regions have repeatedly observed brown bears, which had not been seen in these areas for a long time. And recently, a camera trap recorded a bear very close to the border with the Khvalynsky district of the Saratov region.
In search of the muskrat
As scientists say, sometimes it can be traced that the spread of new animal species occurs as a result of direct human impact on the environment.
Thus, in the Volga region, biologists have discovered an expansion of the range of small mammals: the bank vole and the yellow-necked mouse. Back in the 30s of the last century, these types of rodents were found only in the meadow steppe in the Samara region, and by the end of the century they settled in more southern areas. As it turned out, says Olga Oparina, the migration of rodents took place through forest belts planted by humans from north to south.
And in the Krasnopartizansky region, another rodent - the tundra vole, which is generally considered a taiga inhabitant, has successfully mastered the new landscape created by man. As Mikhail Oparin says, there was a system of ponds there, then they were abandoned, the dams broke, this area was overgrown with shrubby wormwood, but the area still remained moist, so rodents chose it.
At the same time, it has long been known that the emergence of new species of animals, especially when people import them from other countries or even continents, can pose a great danger to the biodiversity of nature. The story of the American mink is well known, which not only supplanted its European counterpart, but also destroyed some rare species of local animals. Scientists believe that the not very successful attempts in our country to restore the population of the ancient endemic animal, the muskrat, are largely related to the spread of this new predator.
In the Voronezh region, an entire reserve has been created to protect the muskrat, but the muskrat is no longer there. For decades they have been trying to resettle the muskrat in the Saratov region. On the Khoper, Medveditsa, and Balanda rivers, conditions seem to be suitable for this animal. Occasionally, in hard-to-reach places, it is still found, according to local hunters. However, scientists have not yet been able to detect the muskrat in our area in recent years.