Спонтанна фауна: поняття та критерії її окреслення (на прикладі теріофауни України)

Abstract

The concept of spontaneous fauna is considered by analogy with the concept of spontaneous flora, which is common in botany. The importance of its formulation and the delineation of the scope and limits of application is determined by the fact that the composition of natural communities in general and the composition of species that take an active part in the functioning of natural systems have long been determined by the basic set of aboriginal species. The scope of spontaneous fauna should also include feral mammals, introduced species and runaways, including domestic animals that form viable populations. At the same time, a number of species that have the status of ‘phantom’ (accidentally and once discovered, species-names that appear in checklists as errors in the description of fauna, including synonyms), species whose presence in the modern regional fauna is unproven and which most likely had disappeared a long time ago (reduced the limits of distribution) should be excluded from the spontaneous fauna. Spontaneous fauna is a concept that differs markedly from formally compiled lists, which contain accidentally present and de facto extinct species, but do not contain species that are probably present, but are not included due to their status as alien and (or) domesticated ones.