Restoration of the little bustard population in the northern steppe Trans-Urals

Abstract

The dynamics of a population of little bustards in the northern steppe Trans-Urals is considered. After a period of almost complete absence in the 1970s and 1980s, since the early 1990s, temporarily vacant parts of the range have been inhabited again and an increase in the population has been observed. By the beginning of the 21st century, the little bustard had almost regained its former habitat in the region. By the end of the 1990s, the average population density in the agricultural landscape reached 1 ind./km2. By the end of the first decade of the 2000s, it exceeded 2 ind./km2. In recent years, the little bustard has rarely been observed in steppe pastures but is found more frequently on perennial grass crops and harvested grain fields, while the bulk of its population (up to 70–80% of all couples) inhabits fallow lands, the appearance and preservation of which is associated with the steady reduction in agricultural production in the last two decades.