СОСТОЯНИЕ РЕСУРСОВ ЗАЙЦА-БЕЛЯКА (LEPUS TIMIDUS L.) В РЯЗАНСКОЙ И ТУЛЬСКОЙ ОБЛАСТЯХ

Abstract

The Arctic hare is a traditional favorite hunting object in Russia. One of the main tasks of ecology is the study of populations. The most important quantitative parameter for a biological community is the change in the number of its specimen. On the basis of official data on animal counts over the past 25 years, we have established some characteristics that provide information on the state of the Arctic hare resources in the Ryazan and Tula regions. The aim of this work was to carry out a population analysis of the Arctic hare resources in the south of the Moscow region in the Ryazan and Tula regions over the past 25 years. The population analysis included studying static (the number and density of the hare population, the volume of prey, as well as the long-term average value of the number) and dynamic (the dynamics of the number and volume of prey, the absolute and relative rate of change in the population size) indicators. Primary data on the population of hares were collected using the winter route accounting method. The population density of hares was determined on the total territory of the hunting grounds in the corresponding territory. Basing on the data obtained, it was revealed that over the past quarter of a century, the number of Arctic hares in the Ryazan region has a tendency to decrease. The population density of Arctic hares in 1995 and 2019 in the Tula region remained practically at the same level. The indicator of the Arctic hare kill in both Ryazan and Tula regions tends to decrease.