РЕСУРСЫ ЗАЙЦА-РУСАКА (LEPUS EUROPAEUS PALL.) В РЯЗАНСКОЙ И ТУЛЬСКОЙ ОБЛАСТЯХ

Abstract

The brown hare has always been a favorite traditional hunting species in Russia. One of the main tasks of ecology is the study of populations. The most important quantitative parameter of a biological community is the change in the number of its individuals. On the basis of the official data of animal counts, we have established some characteristics that provide information on the state of the resources of the European hare on the territory of the Ryazan and Tula regions. The aim of this work was to carry out a population analysis of the resources of the brown hare in Ryazan and Tula regions on the basis of official long-term data. Long-term official data allowed us to determine some population characteristics that provide information on the state of the resources of the traditional hunting species of the brown hare under the conditions of a powerful prey pressure and other anthropogenic factors in the hunting grounds of the Ryazan and Tula regions. The population analysis included the study of static (the number and density of the population of hares, 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 the brown hare were collected using the winter route census methodology. The population density of hares was determined on the total territory of the hunting grounds of the corresponding constituent entity of the federation. Based on the data obtained, it was revealed that during the study period in the Ryazan region, the number decreased by 1308 individuals (by 24.7%). In the Tula region, the number of European hares during the period under study, on the contrary, increased by 1444 individuals (by 20.2%).