Predatory (carnivora). The animal world of the Republic of Belarus: features, examples and photos of animals Report about animals of Belarus
Fauna– (from Lat. Fauna - the goddess of forests and fields, the patroness of herds of animals) -
Historically developed set of animal species,
living in this area and included in all its systems.
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Number of species
Vertebrates
470
Invertebrates
30 thousand
Belarus
7 13
Birds 227 nest in RB
61
76
Mammals (rodents and predators)
Fish and cyclostomes
309
Reptiles
Amphibians Fauna
Taiga
Deciduous forest
Tundra
Steppe zone
Taiga fauna
Representatives:Elk;
Brown bear;
Lynx;
Black ferret;
Grouse;
Capercaillie;
Etc.
Deciduous forest fauna
Representatives:Bison;
Roe deer;
Boar;
Pine marten;
Woodpecker;
Nightingale;
Etc.
Fauna of the tundra and steppe zone
Representatives:Tundra:
Partridge;
Etc.
Steppe zone:
Common hamster;
Hare;
Speckled ground squirrel;
Lark;
Quail;
Etc.
Extinct species
Over the past 300-400 years, more than 20 species have died outvertebrates.
About 10 species of fish.
189 species of animals are listed in the Red Book of Belarus.
Tour
Pink pelican
Wolverine
Bustard
Doe
Salmon
Faunistic complexes
- grouping of animals according to their habitat.Faunistic
complexes
The woods
Fields and Meadows
Swamps
Ponds and
the coast
Settlements
of man
Forest animals
The presence of food and shelters;In forests with undeveloped undergrowth, it is more uniform (fox, squirrel, roe deer,
Elk);
The wildlife of spruce forests is more diverse (pine marten, wild boar, elk,
wolf, crossbill, hazel grouse, tit, jay);
The fauna of mixed forests is even more diverse (wild boar, roe deer,
red deer, elk, pine marten, hedgehog, forest dormouse, cuckoos, nightingales,
goldfinch, hawk, owls, etc.).
Animals of fields and meadows
Typical representatives: rodents (gray vole, field mouse, shrew,hamster, gopher);
You can meet a hare, a mole, a hedgehog;
Of the predators - fox, affection, ermine;
A diverse fauna of birds (quail, partridge, lark, white storks and
etc.);
Among amphibians and reptiles: lizards, frogs, snakes.
Swamp animals
Due to adverse conditions, the animal world in the swamps is not rich;Amphibians and reptiles (frogs, snakes,
vipers);
From mammals - ermine, weasel, mink;
Among birds, these are herons, waders, ducks, marsh owls).
Animals of ponds and coasts
The habitat of fish, amphibians, many species of birds and mammals;Widespread: pike, perch, roach, bream, ide, crucian carp, tench, catfish;
Valuable fish species - pike perch, burbot, European eel;
Mammals: beavers, otters, etc .;
Teals, ducks, gulls, dives, etc. nest.
Human settlements animals
The smallest group;Typical representatives: mice and rats;
Moles, shrews, hedgehogs live in vegetable gardens and gardens;
Of the birds - swallows, sparrows, starlings, pigeons.
Forests are richer in wildlife than other ecosystems in Belarus. The most common inhabitants of the Belarusian forests are: elk, wild boar, red deer, roe deer, wolf, hare, fox, squirrel, hedgehog, weasel, marten. Among the rare and protected species of animals there are: bison (Belovezhskaya Pushcha), lynx, badger, brown bear (in the north of Belarus). There are a large number of bird species, the most common of which are woodpecker, crossbill, jay, cuckoo, tit, hazel grouse. In moist forests, there are many amphibians and reptiles - frogs, lizards, snakes, vipers. In the wild, it is quite difficult to track and observe these animals, therefore, many reserves set up open-air cages for keeping and observing representatives of the fauna of Belarus.
Bison is the largest land mammal not only in Belarus, but also in Europe. The bison is a species of bull from the genus of bison. A subspecies, the Bialowieza bison, lives on our territory. Reaches masses up to 1200 kg (males), height at the withers up to two meters. Females are significantly smaller. The coat is dark brown in color and is developed throughout the body. Bison are considered herd animals, but males over 10 years old graze separately and are called lonely. Everyone who is lucky enough to see this rare animal in the wild will certainly be impressed by it. The bison is listed in the Red Book and is considered an unofficial symbol of Belarus.
Red deer
Red deer is common in many areas of Belarus, although it was completely destroyed in the 19th century. This is a very beautiful and strong animal, a meeting which in the wild many will consider to be great luck. Body length up to two meters, height at the withers up to one and a half meters, body weight can reach up to 220 kg. Males have large branched horns that are discarded in early spring. Red deer inhabit in mixed and deciduous forests, preferably in the presence of glades. It feeds mainly on grassy vegetation, leaves of trees and shrubs, and bark. Lives mainly in small groups - herds of 4 to 20 individuals.
The moose is considered a rare animal of Belarus, although it is often possible to meet it both by hunters and random mushroom pickers and even drivers on the roads. This is a very large animal, reaching a weight of up to 500 kg.
Squirrel is one of the most common animals of the Belarusian forest. Belongs to the genus of rodents of the squirrel family. It is found everywhere, even in city parks. Prefers squirrel coniferous and mixed forests, preferring spruce-leaved and spruce. It feeds on a variety of plant foods: nuts, seeds, berries and fruits, mushrooms, buds and shoots. But it does not disdain animal food - insects and other small invertebrates, bird eggs and even small rodents and lizards.
Lynx belongs to predatory mammals, the cat family. Outwardly very similar to a domestic cat, but much larger. The length of the body of a lynx is about a meter, weight 16 - 40 kg Males are larger than females. The color is reddish-gray with a spotty pattern. It has a distinctive feature - at the tips of the ears are clearly visible hairy black tassels. On the territory of Belarus, individuals of this rare species are only about five hundred, and lynx is distributed unevenly. Most live in the northern and central regions of the republic, preferring old forests, where there is a windbreak and enough shelter. Lynx perfectly climbs trees and is good at swimming. Leads a twilight and nocturnal lifestyle, and in the daytime prefers to hide in secluded places. Lynx food consists of fresh meat of rodents, hares, forest birds. It can also attack larger animals - roe deer, young deer or moose. Lynx is listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus.
Roe deer is a cloven-hoofed animal, a representative of the deer family, which lives everywhere in deciduous and mixed forests of Belarus. This graceful animal often catches the eye of a person in the wild: in the forest, in the fields near the forest, and even sometimes driving on a country road or highway, you can see the roe deer very close by. But it is worth stopping to watch or photograph, immediately rushes into the race. Roe deer color is one-color - in summer it is bright red, and in winter it becomes dull, grayish. The average weight of 20-30 kg. body length 100-125 cm, height at the withers 75-85 cm. For individual males, indicators may exceed.
Hedgehogs are quite widespread in Belarus. Of the two species living in Europe, in our forests the most common is the white-breasted hedgehog, less often (in the north-east of the country) the hedgehog. It is considered not a large animal: Length 20-30 cm, weight 700-800 g. The body of the hedgehog is covered with short needles up to 3 cm, which characteristically differs from other animals. Between the needles, thin, long, sparse hair grows. Hedgehogs are able to run and jump fast, they also swim well. Hedgehog is a nocturnal animal, therefore vision is poorly developed, but is compensated by acute sense of smell and hearing. It lives in both coniferous and deciduous and mixed forests. The hedgehog is considered an omnivore. Diet mainly: insects and their larvae, sometimes eggs and chicks of small birds nesting on the ground. In winter, hedgehogs hibernate.
Three species of hares live in Belarus: the white hare, the brown man, and the so-called hare cuff. Hares belong to the family of the hare detachment of the hare. The hare lives mainly in the forests of the central and northern parts of Belarus. The coat is white in winter and brown in summer. In size, the hare is slightly smaller than the roe. A hare on the territory of Belarus lives everywhere. In summer, its coat is brownish-gray, and in winter a little lighter. Of the hares, the largest: body length 60–68 cm. Weight 4–6 kg., But can reach up to 7 kg. Rusak is a valuable commercial animal, an object of amateur and sports hunting. At the same time, it often harms winter crops, orchards and nurseries, gnawing unprotected young seedlings overnight. A cross between a hare and a white hare is called a lozovik (hare-cuff).
Some species of these still exist in other regions, others have disappeared from the face of the earth forever. introduces animals that are no longer in Belarus.
According to the former Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus, Valentin Malishevsky, over the past 200-300 years, about 10 species of animals have disappeared from the wildlife of Belarus. In the Red Book of Belarus, some of them are categorized as “Regionally Disappeared” (RE), others are gone forever.
Baltic sturgeon
Fisherman's street stretches along the right bank of the Neman in the historic center of Grodno. 500 years ago there was a small settlement - Fisherman's Suburb. Its inhabitants had state privileges, because they were engaged in fishing. Salmon and other fish caught here went to the table of the highest persons.
It was in the Neman that they caught sturgeon. The majestic fish had a length of up to 350 centimeters with a weight of up to 320 kg. Huge sturgeons could carry up to 80 kg of caviar. Fishing was strictly controlled by the state. Sturgeon was found in the North and Baltic Sea, and in May-June went to spawn in the channels of fresh rivers. Passing several hundred kilometers, fish often appeared on the territory of Belarus. This continued until the 1910s. The merciless extermination and economic development of the rivers led to a reduction in the number of swiming individuals and a significant reduction in their size. The “cross” on the spread of the Baltic (Atlantic) sturgeon in the country set up the launch of the Kaunas hydroelectric station, the dam of which blocked the path to the upper Neman.
The famous ichthyologist Prokhor Zhukov reports that workers of the Grodno artel caught the last sturgeon in the country in 1958. Since then, this fish has not been observed with us. In the world, sturgeon fishing has survived in North America. In the Black Sea and the Bay of Biscay, about 300 individuals remained.
Bustard
A beautiful and powerful bird was last observed in the Pruzhany region of the Brest region in 1931. Today, the species belongs to the regionally extinct, and in the world bustards are under the threat of complete extinction.
The steppe bird has a length of about 1 m, and the wingspan can reach 200 cm or more. Bright and saturated plumage makes the bustard one of the most beautiful birds. It turned her into a valuable trophy. Mass hunting in the middle of the century before last led to a sharp drop in numbers. It is especially difficult for bustards to fall in the fall: birds do not have a characteristic gland that provides the release of an oily liquid, which prevents the plumage from getting wet. As a result, with the onset of frost, the bustard's wings simply froze and people clogged them with sticks.
In Belarus, bustards were distributed throughout the south of the country.
Common desman
There is unconfirmed evidence that the common desman is still found on the territory of the Polessky Radiation and Ecological Reserve. And 100 years ago, point ranges were recorded throughout the Dnieper.
The desman is distinguished by a conical elongated nose. The body shape of this "living fossil" has not changed for 30 million years. Small size (20 cm), tail of the same length and weight up to 0.5 kg. Vykhuhol, which in the XVIII still met in the area of \u200b\u200bthe river. Chat, tried to restore several times. From 1951 to 1962 Hundreds of animals were released several times in different regions of the country, but a sustainable result was not achieved. The last time they saw a muskrat was in 1970 on Ptichi.
One of the reasons for the descent disappeared was competition from the American mink. This animal began to breed since 1933. By the 1970s, about 7,000 individuals were released into nature. Mink eats far more birds than it can eat and behaves very aggressively. As a result, rodents and cunyas began to cede their areas to an overseas guest.
Wolverine
It is the wolverine that most often acts as a prototype of the legendary "chupacabra." Very brightly described the largest representative of the marten historian Matvey Mehovsky in the XVI century:
“There is still in Lithuania and Muscovy a very gluttonous and useless animal that is not found in other places, by the name of Wolverine. It is the size of a dog, with a cat's face, body and tail like a fox, black; feeds on corpses. "
Large claws, dangerous fangs, a powerful physique, a length of up to 1 meter and a weight of up to 30 kg are a pretty serious opponent for any animal, including humans.
Wolverine prefers to live in quiet places, away from noise and possible meetings with anyone. Therefore, it may be good that there are no wolverines in Belarus today. In search of food, the beast can travel several tens of kilometers per night, which means that meeting with him, given the size of the country, would be more than frequent.
In the 17th-19th centuries, wolverine was found in mixed and deciduous forests of Belarus, Poland and Ukraine. But by the middle of the XIX century, a view on the territory of the country did not occur. Wolverine prefers taiga. Experts say that Wolverines lived in Belarus when there was much less civilization. Today, their restoration is impossible. But occasionally penetrating solitary individuals stimulate the emergence of "urban legends."
According to Decree of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of 2014 No. 26, the list of rare and endangered species of wild animals included in the Red Book of the country consists of more than 200 species of fish, animals, birds, insects, mollusks.
Forest cat
Unusual, but quite aggressive predator. Outwardly resembles a domestic cat of gray color and with striped fur. But the dimensions are noticeably larger - body length up to 80 cm, height 35 cm, powerful chopped tail 30 cm and body weight up to 8 kg.
The last individual was noted in 1927 in the Borisov district. Some experts agree that this copy came from neighboring countries. Belarus has never had a large, stable population of animals.
The cat leads a solitary lifestyle, converging in pairs only during the mating period. It preys on small mammals, sometimes it can attack cubs of large animals.
The project to restore the forest cat population in the Polessky Radiation and Ecological Reserve was rejected. There is a risk of the cat spreading out of the territory, and an aggressive animal can be dangerous for households.
The same Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Valentin Malishevsky, said about 10 years ago that "the Ministry of Natural Resources is initiating the return to the wild nature of the republic of fallow deer and tarpan that disappeared more than 200 years ago."
Tarpan
A subspecies of the steppe tarpan, forest, lived in Belarus in the Middle Ages. Ever since the Neolithic people have hunted this artiodactyl for the sake of its meat and skin. The population began to decline sharply and by the 17th century it was already quite difficult to meet an animal. The last wild tarpan was killed in 1814 near Kaliningrad. In Belarus, they disappeared approximately earlier. And at the beginning of the XIX century, the last tarps of Belovezhskaya Pushcha were distributed to local residents.
Already in the 21st century, attempts were made to restore the animal's genome based on tarpan-like horses, but this is a completely different story.
Tour
The magnificent animal now looks at us only from paintings and frescoes. The tour is considered the progenitor of all cattle. It was herds of tours that went to feed the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the eve of the Battle of Grundwal. For several centuries, the bull population was mercilessly exterminated, performing the task of supplying warriors. So the tour disappeared.
The last bull died in 1627 in Poland. The tour had a height of almost 180 cm, and the body weight of an adult male could reach 1000 kg. The head of the beast. Such dimensions made the bull the largest animal in the region.
Mostly tours lived in the forest-steppe. Often the herds went into secluded forests, which determined the distribution of animals in Belarus. Gradually, the forests were reduced to arable land. Hunting for tours increased in scale and by 1400 the animal was already protected at the legislative level. But it was not possible to save the hero of epics and myths.
Bonus:one animal that returns to us
Doe
For more than 100 years, an elegant animal has not been found in the country. In the century before last, a large population lived in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The large artiodactyl has a body length of about 1.5 meters and a height of up to 100 cm. The weight of the male can reach 100 kg.
Doe has always been a hunter's desired trophy. In the days of the warrior who plagued the territory of Belarus since the time of the ON, the doe was prepared for the army. Then the hunt for this not at all fearful and not secretive animal became entertainment. Gradually, the population was depleted and from the end of the XIX century doe in the country is not found.
Today, in individual hunting farms, as well as in the Pripyat National Park, small groups of animals are being acclimatized. Scientists are monitoring the adaptation of fallow deer to the current conditions of the country. In the case of positive dynamics, the species will gradually be released into the natural habitat. In the north of the country, 300 individuals purchased in Lithuania have already been released into the wild.
Wolf
The nature of Belarus is very unusual. In the vastness of this country you can meet many wild animals that are one of a kind.
The wildlife of Belarus is famous for a large number of rare, wild animals. The diversity of wildlife is about 457 species of vertebrate animals and about twenty thousand invertebrate animals.
On the territory of the republic you can see more than seventy species of mammals, the most famous and common of them are wild boars, wolves, beavers and others.
But one of the more famous is the Bialowieza bison. Its number was already more than 450 individuals. At least 100 bears live in the northern forests of Belarus. In addition, there are about two thousand wolves in the country. Also, among vertebrates, a large number of birds can be distinguished, namely more than three hundred species. This is almost twice as much as the number of amphibians, mammals and reptiles. The reptiles include a small number of species of turtles, snakes and lizards. The ichthyofauna of Belarus contains about 58 species of fish, 45 of which are indigenous, and the rest were brought for breeding in the vast expanses of the republic.
Marten
Economic - industrial species of wild animals
A considerable amount of the fauna of Belarus is widely used for the needs of economic production. The most resourceful values \u200b\u200bfor the population are hares, roe deer, elk, and wild boar. In addition, the American mink, deer and marten are of considerable importance in the economic industry.
Due to changes in habitat, poaching, and also as a result of the wolf's press, the population of artiodactyls is significantly changing.
For sport hunting waterfowl species are very widely used.
All animals play an important role in human life and in nature itself. Thus, the fauna of Belarus is divided into several groups, respectively, in the meaning of those or other animal species in nature.
Otter
- Animals that are very rare and rare: stone marten, ermine, European mink.
- Animals that are widespread and play an important role for economic production: pine marten, otter, hare, fox - provide expensive fur; wild boar, deer, elk - provide high-calorie meat.
- Animals, the number of which has fallen sharply due to poaching, as well as hunting for which is prohibited in Belarus - European bison and brown bear.
- Animals that adversely affect a person’s life and industry are mice and voles (they are also the causative agents of many infectious diseases).
- Acclimatized animals are a mink, a raccoon dog, actually a raccoon.
In addition to the above, of particular importance to humans is the common viper. Which, thanks to its poison, provides the necessary elements for the production of medicines, in particular - vipraxin.
Brown bear
Thus, we can conclude that the animal nature of Belarus is unique. Many wild animals complement its beauty and picturesqueness. The fauna of this republic gives a vivid note in the animal world. Nowhere can one find so harmonious and unsurpassed beauty as on the territory and in the vastness of Belarus.
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