What is it about?
In the forest-steppe area, carnivorous mammals are represented by species of different faunistic assemblages. This circumstance makes the study region a priority since the species of which faunistic assemblages prevail is of interest. Fifteen carnivorous species have been identified in the territory of Mordovia. Among them, the family Mustelidae predominates in terms of the number of species. The species are found in all geoecological districts, but their distribution is uneven. The most notable species in the region are located in coniferous and broad-leaved forests (40%) and species widely distributed in several natural areas (40%). 13% of the total number of noted species belong to the taiga fauna types. The steppe type of fauna is represented by only 7% of the total number of recorded species. For each geoecological region, the fauna features are given, and a list of rare and exciting species is given. The forest-steppe zone to which Mordovia belongs is compared by the fauna of carnivorous mammals with other regions from three typical faunal assemblages.
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Why is it important?
The study of predators is important to understand competition among predators and predator-prey relationships so that the viable populations of predators and herbivorous, insectivorous mammals can be sustained (Charaspet et al. 2021). The number of predator species also affects their competitive activity (Lucherini et al. 2009). The abundance and species composition of carnivorous depend highly on the landscape zone. Therefore, we adhere to the term faunal assemblage (Stroud et al. 2015). The definition of assemblage should be used, which will display the following «a taxonomically close group of species that co-occur in time and space» (Stroud et al. 2015). Over the past ten years in Russia, there have been very few zoogeographic papers on mammals, including carnivores.
Perspectives
In Mordovia, the proportion of carnivorous species of the total number of mammal species is 20%. Carnivorous is somewhat inferior to rodents (37%) (Andreychev 2020b; Andreychev and Kuznetsov 2020). Compared to West Java, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, the proportion of carnivorous species from other mammals is higher (Briceño-Méndez et al. 2017; Husodo et al. 2019; Sukmasuang et al. 2020; Clements et al. 2021). There are more species of carnivorous mammals in Brazil (26) than in Mordovia (Oliveira 2009). This is a differing feature Mordovia of many other mammal faunas, where representatives of the other animal orders predominate (Wirdateti et al. 2013; Sulistyadi 2016; Medina et al. 2018). We assume that the geographic latitude of the area inhabited by carnivorous species may be decisive in this difference. Climatic conditions exert real influence. Our research covers the northern sections (ca. 54º N). Thus, the possible causes for the higher proportion of carnivores in Mordovia are more diverse forest-steppe living conditions.
Alexey Andreychev
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This page is a summary of: Short Communication: Proportion faunal assemblages of carnivorous mammals in geoecological districts of Mordovia, Russia, Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity, October 2021, UNS Solo,
DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d221056.
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