Effect of anthropogenic transformation of forest landscapes on populations of small insectivores in eastern Fennoscandia

Abstract

Responses of small insectivores (Sorex L.) to clear felling and formation of an anthropogenic landscape have been studied and found to be ambiguous. Under such conditions, the total population density of the common shrew (S. araneus) increases, but its populations become unstable and sharply fluctuate seasonally and from year to year. The abundance of the Laxmann’s shrew (S. caecutiens) in transformed habitats becomes slightly lower, but its populations acquire certain additional stability. In general, this species negatively responds to felling but nevertheless regularly occurs in young secondary conifer stands. Finally, low-abundance species are either highly tolerant of forest exploitation (the Eurasian least shrew, S. minutissimus) or, on the contrary, show a distinctly negative response to felling in conifer forests (the taiga shrew, (S. isodon).