How much does the hare hare weigh. For two hares

Today we will tell about the most common types of hares. In Russia, the most numerous are the hare and white hare, there are also the Manchurian hare, tolai, and the hare-cuck, which is a cross between a brown hare and a hare and does not bear offspring. We are interested in the first two types, as they are most valued and most often encountered. Also, these species are often confused, consider their differences.

Species of hares: hare

The hare is a large species. It weighs from four to six kilograms, rarely, but still there are individuals whose weight reaches seven kilos. This is a fairly long beast, an adult can be up to 68 centimeters. But with all its external bulkiness, the physique remains rather fragile. The type of the hare is characterized by long ears (up to 14 centimeters), by which it is easy to distinguish it from the hare. The tail is also rather large (from 7 to 14 centimeters), wedge-shaped, brown or black in color from the upper side. The paws of the hare are longer than those of the hare, but the feet are shorter and narrower, since it lives in those places where the snow cover is not too deep.

The appearance of the hare is very beautiful all year round. It has a brown, ocher-red, olive-brown, brown, ocher-gray or ocher-brown color in summer. In Rusac, the fur is variegated, shiny, and wavy. The sides are noticeably lighter than the back, and the stomach is completely white, with no variegations and spots. Around the red-brown eyes of the hare there are light circles, and the ears of this animal remain black all year round. In winter, the hare is a little lighter than in summer, but it never completely changes color, as does the hare.

Lifestyle and habitat Rusac

Various types of hares are found everywhere in all areas, in all territories. Hare is a hare is a inhabitant of the steppes, tundra, woodlands. He chooses mostly deciduous forests for his life and there he is looking for a clearing or ashes. Very rarely the hare can be found in the coniferous forest.

These hares love to colonize areas closer to human settlements, rivers. They select areas where human lands alternate with rare plantings, fields, mountains, ponds and networks of ravines. They mostly live in thickets or a small hole adjacent to some tree or reservoir. Often the hare is inhabited by burrows abandoned by foxes, badgers and other animals. In winter, hares dig rookeries in the snow, and these holes can be as long as two meters. However, not only in the steppes wintering hares, they can lie down in the autumn and also dig a shelter in the territory adjacent to the human house.

In summer, the hare trying to climb to a great height, go to the mountains, in the high forests. Closer to winter hares descend back, trying to get to the settlements as much as possible.

The active time of day for hares is night. At this time they are engaged in feeding and can go several kilometers from their habitat. During the day, hares are sleeping in bushes or holes. In inclement weather, these hares may not feed for several days, sit in a dry and warm shelter.

Run hare fit perfectly. It can reach speeds of up to sixty kilometers per hour, moving long jumps. Rusaks, like all kinds of hares, are very quiet animals. The female calls her offspring with quiet sounds, males can chatter with their teeth. They also often bang their paws, this is also their type of communication. Being wounded or caught, the hare starts screaming very loudly.

Nutrition and breeding hare

In the summer, the hare feeds on variously. He chooses young shoots of trees and shrubs, eats stems and leaves, and can dig up roots.

The second half of the summer dilutes the diet with seeds of plants, which the hare distributes, since not all the food is digested. He likes to feast on dandelions, alfalfa, chicory and other plants. He is looking for berries, wild apples, but sometimes he climbs into a person’s gardens, causing enormous harm to them. Also the hare ruins the fields, his favorite delicacies are various cereals, buckwheat, sunflowers, grain cultures.

Unlike the white hare, in winter time, this hare continues to feed on the remains of grass, winter crops, seeds, vegetables, left by people, which it pulls out of the ground. Also, he will not deny himself the pleasure of gnawing the bark of a pear and apple, willow, aspen.

In the breeding season, the hare hare can bring up to five broods. In each brood - from one to nine young, and they are born already covered with hair, sighted, weighing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty grams. Before giving birth, the hare builds a small nest, carpets it with grass. Having given birth, the female leaves and only once a day comes back to feed the cubs. It happens, it comes and less often, about once every four days. By the second week of life, the hares themselves begin to get out of the shelter, they can eat grass. By four weeks, the kids become completely independent and no longer need the help of the mother.

The value of the hare for a person

Rusaka, almost like all other species of hares, are quite numerous. They are a valuable beast for hunters. They are mined for the sake of meat and hides, which are used to make fur products, felt.

But the hare is not only useful for humans, but also harmful. It greatly affects the yield, as it is very voracious and, once in the garden, can harm it. Rusaks dig up vegetables, eat berries, and in one night one hare can eat bark from fifteen fruit trees, and after its attack the plant can die or become sick for a long time.

Also hare are carriers of numerous diseases. They are dangerous not only for themselves, but also for people and animals that hunt them - wolves, foxes, lynxes and eagles.

White hare: appearance

The hare has smaller sizes in comparison with hare. Its size reaches from forty five to sixty five centimeters, weight fluctuates from three and a half to five kilograms. The build of this hare is not as fragile as that of the hare. The ears are also not so long, they are very neat, there is black fur on the tips.

The hare has powerful hind legs, rather long, and short front, like all other types of hares. Photos of this animal can be seen in our article.

The white hare justifies its name by changing the fur coat for the winter period. In the summer, he has a red-gray color and thanks to him he masks well. In the summer, inexperienced hunters or ignorant people can call him a hare. In winter, this hare becomes snow-white, and it is almost impossible to notice, only black tips of the ears and eyes can give out.

Habitat habitat

In contrast to the hare, the hare chooses woodlands, avoids the plains and open fields, swamps and too dense forest. The hares are sedentary animals and do not go very far from their rookeries. In winter, they rarely leave the territory at all, only the lack of food can make them move away for a long distance, and then they leave for a world full of dangers.

Also, a white hare can leave a hatched and lived-in place due to drought or, conversely, flooding of the territory.

White Dog

Eats white hair, as well as hare, at night. In summer, it feeds on grass, various plants, shoots of bushes and trees. In winter, the diet becomes scanty, and the white hare cannot eat only the bark of aspen and willow; it searches for the bones of dead animals, horns dropped by moose, and deer. Otherwise, it feeds just like all kinds of hares.

Breeding

In a white hare, one to five cubes are born from five to eleven. They, as well as hares, immediately see covered with fur. Unlike the cubs of the hare, the hares already can eat independently by the week, and become independent by two weeks.

The female gives birth to her offspring in the open area and only in the winter can dig a small hole.

The hare is also a fishing beast. Its fur and meat are more valued than the hare, therefore experienced hunters prefer to hunt on this species.

The hare family includes hare, white hare, tolai, and Manchurian hare. This includes the wild rabbit living here in the south of Ukraine, but we will not touch it, because our book is dedicated to hunting rabbits. Sometimes there is a cross between a hare and a white hare - a hare-cuck, having signs of both kinds. Such hybrids of offspring do not give.

The hare and white hare are the most common, but in recent years the hare is becoming less and less, and this is alarming.

The livestock of hares-tolayev is in a somewhat better condition, their reserves are not even fully developed.

As for the Manchurian hare living in a relatively small area, it is not as numerous and popular as other species.

Brown hare lives mainly in the European part of our country - from the western borders to Zauralye, from Arkhangelsk to the coast of the Caspian Sea. The area of distribution of the hare gradually expands, and only in the last 50–60 years has it advanced to the east by more than a thousand kilometers. In addition, the hare was released where it had not been before: in Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Far East.

Rusak is the largest member of the hare family (up to 7 kg), although its weight is different in different areas. The smallest are the southern Rusaks, weighing only 3-3.5 kilograms. The largest hare live in Bashkiria. The size of the hare's body is also different, the length of the largest exceeds 70 centimeters.

Unlike the white hare, the hare has a longer, wedge-shaped tail, painted black on top. It has long ears, narrow and long legs, the soles of which are covered with short, stiff hair. When it is necessary to distinguish the hare and white hare in the summer pubescence, they are usually compared along the length of the ears: the hare's ears, if pulled out to the nose, will stand for it, since they are longer than the head; the white hair has shorter ears and does not reach or barely reaches the tip of the nose.

The hare has a beautiful wavy and silky hair, the color of the hair coat varies from clay-brown-gray with a pale-yellow shade (in the south) to light gray, almost white with a constant dark “belt” on the ridge (in the north and north-east). The color of the hairline in the southern and western hares is almost unchanged in seasons. In the northern and northeastern regions, the summer brownish color changes to a light, almost white color by winter - molting occurs. The tips and the rim of the ears, the upper part of the tail and the narrow strip on the ridge do not change their dark color.

The hare, whose hind legs are much longer than the front ones, runs well on a hard surface, but with difficulty in deep, friable snow.

This hare is perfectly adapted to life in open spaces. His eyesight is well developed, and he can distinguish danger at a distance of 300-400 meters. The statements about the "myopia" of the hare are erroneous and are probably caused by the fact that it does not always determine the degree of danger, and sometimes it is too curious. That is why the hare quite often lets the hunter close.

Hearing and sense of smell are equally acute in the hare, helping him to navigate well in the environment. One can hardly be considered a hare a cowardly animal. There are many examples of the manifestation of his excellent exposure, cunning and resourcefulness. In addition, very often the hare lives in close proximity to a person. And many habits of the hare often convince of his high ingenuity and almost "calculating." In moments of extreme danger - from under the rut of dogs - he sometimes even escapes in human settlements or in a herd of livestock.

The hare lives in a wide variety of lands. It can be found in the semi-desert and Arkhangelsk forests, in the alpine meadows of the Caucasus and the Don steppes, in the Carpathian spruce forests and in the fields near Moscow. However, in most places he retains his original attachment to open lands. Therefore, the main habitats of the hare are fields with various agricultural crops, meadows and meadow floodplains, ravines, gorges, as well as gardens, forest outskirts and forest belts, shrubs, sandy forests with tree-shrub vegetation.

In its way of life, the hare is a twilight-nocturnal animal, but where it is less disturbed, it is also active during the day. It lies in a variety of places, although it often depends on the weather conditions, the nature of the terrain, and light conditions. From the bed of the hare you can raise in the open field, and in the overgrown ravine, in the garden and in the forest, in the garden and in the forest belt.

For most of the year, hares feed on various herbaceous plants. Only in winter, especially in the second half, they eat woody plants, nibbling the bark of trunks and side shoots. It is during this period that the hare can damage fruit trees and young plantations. Practically this hare rarely goes hungry. Lack of food can be felt in the snowy winters with blizzards, snowstorms and sleet.

Hares usually do not need water, they satisfy the need for it when they eat juicy grassy vegetation. Sometimes you have to watch them drink from rain puddles in the summer, but this happens quite rarely.

Like other herbivorous animals, hares need additional mineral nutrition and therefore almost always feel the need for salt. That is why they willingly visit artificial salt licks. Sometimes they lick the mineral fertilizers left unscattered, taking them for salt, and die from it.

The breeding period of the hare is rather long and lasts from January (in the south) to September. The beginning of the rut of the hares can be easily identified by their increased activity — numerous tracks with languishing, remnants of the wool of the fighting males, wakefulness in the daytime. In this case, the snow is clearly visible spots of blue urine.

After a six-week pregnancy (it can vary from 41-42 to 48-51 days), a hare usually brings 2-5, less often up to 9 hares. During the breeding season, it may have from 2 to 4 broods with a total of 10-12 or more hare. Zaychat born sighted, pubescent and grow very quickly due to nutritious hare milk (up to 24% fat and 12% protein) and an early transition to green food. A three month old hare is difficult to distinguish from an adult hare.

Hares have amazing adaptability to the environment: they lie motionless in one place, without giving out their presence, among the thickets of grass or shrubs and have no smell. The fact is that the hares sweat glands are located mainly on the soles of the paws. Even the keen sense of a fox rarely allows her to detect a hidden hare. It is believed that the hare, returning to the hares for regular feeding, finds them most often only after they give a trail. The hound, too, as a rule, does not smell the reclining hare, often runs past and finds it only when the alarmed animal rises from the bed, leaving behind a sharp-smelling trail. Therefore, it is rather difficult to detect a lurking little hare even in the open, besides, it is well masked by a longer coat on the abdomen and sides, making it almost imperceptible.

Despite such a high adaptability to the conditions of the terrain, only a few rabbits survive from autumn of rather numerous offspring, so that, in general, their growth is not always noticeable. This is due to the high natural mortality of young stock from various causes.

White hare has a lot in common with hare, but it also has differences in color, body structure and lifestyle. We indicate the main features that need to know the young hunter.

The white hare inhabits a vast, much larger area than the hare: it lives in almost the entire forest zone, in the forest-steppe, partly in the steppe, and also in the tundra, although its numbers vary in different zones.

The hare differs from the hare with a lower weight (2.5-5.5 kg) and size, shorter hind legs and a massive head. The largest hare live in the tundras of Chukotka and Taimyr, the smallest in the south of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

The soles of the paws of a white hare are wider, "razlapistye", better pubescent and although it is inferior to the hare horse in terms of speed, but it moves better along loose snow.

Its name - white - he received for the winter coloring. This snow white rabbit lying on the snow is given only by the black tips of the ears. In summer, white hare has a reddish-brown-gray color and resembles a summer hare. True, the white coat undercoat is tougher and the guard hairs are completely straight.

White-haired is considered mainly a forest dweller and prefers such areas of the forest where there are better feeding and protective conditions. Therefore, it should not be sought in the dense and dense forest. It is more convenient for him to have more diverse forest lands with glades, shrubs, mossy and small swamps, aspen forests, mudflows, old burning beds and ravines. In summer, the white hare can also live in dense forest. In winter, it usually avoids it.

In contrast to the hare, the white hare is more associated with certain places of the beds, sometimes it reuses them. For a day it occurs in a variety of, but always well-protected places. Especially likes to go under the trees felled by the wind, in heaps of brushwood, among the hummocks in the marshes, in clumps of dense bushes and in forest ravines.

Usually, a white hare lives sedentary, but sometimes migrates. Within the same areas of land, these migrations are insignificant and are associated mainly with the seasonal change of feed. But hares can travel significant distances, especially in the tundra, when the need causes them to migrate southward to the forest tundra.

Just like the hare, this hare leads a twilight-nocturnal lifestyle. Its activity depends on the state of the weather: in winter it is most active on frosty nights, and in the thaw it does not rise from its bed longer, sometimes remaining on it for up to two days.

The composition of the white haze feed is different in that its food contains more woody and shrub than grassy vegetation. It is especially important for a white hare to have a sufficient set of winter feed, as it usually does not feel the lack of food in summer. The best-quality forage whitefish finds on the edges and large forest glades, where the plants are well lit by the sun, more diverse and nutritious. White hairs also need mineral nutrition, solonetz willingly attend. Females often gnaw bones, discarded antlers of deer and moose, filling up the need for mineral substances, especially necessary for developing embryos and newborn hares. The white hare feels the need for water only in dry weather, which forces it to move closer to forest watering places.

The mating season lasts from February to July; rabbits appear after a seven-week gestation from March to August. In total, the hare can have from one to three broods, each with from 1 to 3-5 hares. The most important thing is the first brood (in the rusak is the second!), Which determines the increase in the number of this species.

Zaychata well adapted to the environment, rather quickly grow. But, like all hares, young white hare, especially summer broods, are subject to high mortality, more than half of the animals die in summer, so that out of 10-11 hares brought by one female only a few survive.

The hare, more than other hares, is subject to various diseases, especially helminths. More often it is observed in damp, low-lying lands, favorable for the development of various worms. The spread of the disease contributes to the rainy summer weather. A lot of hares are killed by predators, their main enemies are the fox and the lynx. However, in general, the population of hares does not depend only on foxes.

In spite of all these reasons, the population of the white hare can reach a high number, especially in the northern and central regions of the European part of the country.

Tolai hare inhabits the southern regions of our country: Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia to the Trans-Baikal steppes, lives in deserts and semi-deserts, in the steppes and tugai thickets, even goes into the mountains. Especially likes to live in various thickets of dense and prickly vegetation, it is found in deciduous and coniferous forests, on subalpine meadows.

It resembles a hare, but its weight is almost two times less than that of a hare (from 1.5 to 3 kg). The body length is about 50 centimeters. More modest than in Ruska, the winter pubescence of the Tolay has a dull, ash gray or grayish brown color. The dark and light ends of the guard hairs create a peculiar streaky pattern, and unlike the hare, the pubescence is short, sparse, without waviness. The tail is black or blackish-brown on top, the ears are longer than those of the hare, and have no black border around the outer edge.

It is rather difficult to detect this hare, as it settles in dense thickets of shrubby or grassy plants, hiding from its enemies: jackals, foxes, wild cats. The Tolai lifestyle has much in common with other members of the hare family. It feeds at dusk-night time, and during the day it is at rest, and the tolai practically spend their whole lives in the same microdistrict where they were born. This is a typical herbivorous animal, feeding on various herbaceous and woody-shrub plants. It eagerly feeds, like the hare, on agricultural crops, especially where they are located near the undergrowths — diaries.

Reproduction of Tolay is poorly studied, even the duration of pregnancy of females is not established. Gon starts early - at the end of January and ends in September. The young appear in the period from February to October, and in the brood there are three to six or more hare. It is believed that a total of three or four broods in tolay and more numerous hares in the second and third litters.

The population of this hare can reach a high number, much larger than that of the "white hare, and the tolya reserves are not fully developed, they are valued only as an object of hunting.

Manchurian hare in terms of lifestyle and appearance, it resembles a white hare, although in size and body weight it may be smaller than the smallest white hare. It differs from other hares by the fact that its ocher-brownish-brown color with a pronounced dark variegated pattern does not change in seasons. The coat is hard, bristly. The Manchurian hare resembles a wild rabbit with short paws and overall body compactness.

The distribution area of the Manchu Hare is insignificant. It inhabits the deciduous coastal forests of the Far East, the Amur Valley. Like the white hare, it is a typical forest dweller, avoids open spaces and old forests, prefers mountain slopes, ravines, floodplains of rivers and other areas with thickets of hazel and young oak, aspen and birch forests with rich shrub undergrowth.

The Manchurian hare is a sedentary animal, active in twilight-night time. He spends the whole day on a maturation, which he arranges in thickets, hollows of fallen trees, in cliffs and badger burrows. In winter, it can have several trails connected by trails.

It feeds on trees and shrubs, berries, fruits, algae. In winter, it sometimes feeds under the snow, breaking through its passages.

The reproduction of the Manchurian hare has been little studied. It is known that the mating season lasts from March to June, and rabbits appear in April - July. In the brood there are from 1 to 4 hares.

Since the Manchurian hare usually does not reach high numbers, has small sizes and poor quality of hair, its economic value is small.

A brief biological description of hares remains to be supplemented with general information about the features inherent in all considered species of the hare family.

Hares, like other fur animals, change their hair every year. Only in the Manchurian hare does the hair cover apparently remain unchanged.

In the spring of thick, long winter hair changes to a more rare and short summer fur. In the autumn, on the contrary, there is a complete change of summer hair for winter. A sign of the beginning of molting except for the fragility of the falling out hair is the change in the color of the core (skin) of hares. In the autumn moult, the core is blue with the back of the body, and in the spring the molt starts from the head. Spring molting proceeds rapidly, hair quickly losing its luster, becoming brittle, thin and fall out in whole tufts. Such scraps of white wool, like clumps of late snow, are often found in the spring woods when they hunt a woodcock.

In autumn, the molt passes more evenly, and the time of its completion determines the time when the hunt begins. The skin becomes full-fledged only after the completion of the molt. Usually, by the time of the establishment of the white path (stable snow cover), the white hares completely wrinkle, putting on their winter, dazzling white fur coat. But sometimes the weather brings them: the first, unstable snow is driven by the late October rains, and the faded white hares stand out sharply among the darkened autumn forest and withered, red foliage. It is on this feature, by the way, that the "in-game" hunt is based.

In the autumn molt, the white hare does not turn blue, like other rabbits, remaining white. In the spring, it is as dark as a hare and tolai. This is explained by the fact that by the winter white hair grows in a white hare that does not have a special coloring matter in the roots - the pigment.

In healthy, well-fed hares molt usually proceeds normally, and the males, and then the females, wipe out earlier. At the same time, molting in females in terms of time is faster than in males. Young broods of late broods enter into molting later than other rabbits, it is also delayed in sick and unborn animals. Dates of molting may vary depending on weather conditions. Usually in the central regions the molt of the hare ends by the middle of November, and by the hare by the end of this month.

All hares are susceptible to disease, so in some years there may be a massive death of these animals, or pestilence, as they said before. However, such a mass death is usually associated with certain conditions - the state of their numbers and weather. With high numbers, when hares are more likely to come into contact with each other, diseases spread faster. Wet weather contributes to the occurrence of diseases, especially cold summer rains. There are diseases of a constant nature, which are practically unrelated to the high number of hares and weather conditions.

Some diseases of hares are common to humans and pets. Some diseases can occur in small areas without affecting a significant population of hares, others capture large areas. In most cases, a sick hare is easily distinguished from a healthy one. The sick animal lays tighter on its bed, is unable to walk away from the dog for a long time, is less careful. In some diseases, hares lose their reaction to danger, their appearance becomes unattractive - brittle, dull hair, impaired coordination of movement, thinness, and indigestion. However, it is not uncommon for a hunter to find a dead hare without any outward signs of a disease: with good fatness, shiny, even coat. Death can be caused, in particular, by acute poisoning by toxic chemicals, the presence of which in a dead hare is not easy to establish, even in the laboratory. It is important not to ignore such cases.

The spread of diseases depends on the sanitary condition of the land, on the soil, local climate, composition of vegetation, the number of different insects, the presence of sick domestic animals, stray dogs, etc. Therefore, the role of diseases in the fluctuation of the number of the same species of hares in different geographical areas not the same. So, for a hare in Yakutia and in the European North, diseases are the main cause of death.

Worm diseases affecting the lungs, trachea, bronchi, intestines, and liver are the most common among hares. (That is why, in particular, it is not recommended to feed raw insides of hares to dogs in order not to infect dogs with worms).

The thicker the territory is inhabited by man, the more intense his economic activity. Since the whitefish mainly lives in forest areas, in the middle zone, various forestry and land reclamation works have a significant impact on its population.

So, for example, clear cuttings that form large areas of cutting areas, at first, it would seem, create the most favorable conditions for the hare's life: in the place of dense, continuous forest small shrub and shrub seedlings quickly appear, grass cover is improving. But after ten or fifteen years, the young growth grows up, the young growth enters the next age group - perch - and the forage properties of the hare land significantly deteriorate.

Worsening conditions of the hare's habitat and planting coniferous trees on large areas, depriving the forest of its diversity. Such areas of the forest become unsuitable for hares. The white hare land and some forest irrigation and drainage works in the central regions of the forest zone have a negative effect on the state.

In densely populated areas near the hams, the white hare has a negative impact on the state of the so-called disturbance factor. True, the white hare, like other hares, has adapted well to the neighborhood with a man. But when there is a simultaneous impact of several factors — constant anxiety, various chores, including cattle grazing and mowing — this begins to affect the number of hare. It is not difficult to understand that the situation is aggravated by the immoderate hunting, which greatly undermines the white herd population in certain areas of the central zone. At the same time, there are many places where the white hare grows significantly, and its reserves are not developed or are not sufficiently developed.

It is advisable for a hunter to know, for example, that different hares of the same species, different in age and sex, have different cautions and reactions to danger. It is noticed that the males are more careful, who earlier rise from the bed, seeing the hunter. Females, on the contrary, more often hiding and more quickly fall under the shot. The caution of hares increases with their low numbers, frequent disturbance by humans and dogs. In the same place, where there are a lot of hares and they are less disturbed, they often allow a person to walk 15-20 meters. It also depends on the season: in spring and summer, for example, they are more trusting than in autumn and winter. At the beginning of the hunting season, these animals are closer to approach than at the end of it. Young hares and sick animals reluctantly rise from the bed. All these features must be considered when hunting.

There are many other interesting points in the hare behavior that need to be noticed by a young hunter. Each approach to hunting may give it new, unknown, or previously unknown information about the habits of these animals. Therefore, a very important quality of a hunter should be observation, without which it is difficult to feel the real joy of communication with nature. It is hunters who can significantly complement information about the behavior of hares, which is very important for managing the livestock of these animals. The more information we have about hares, the easier it will be for us to keep a “hare farm”.

The hare and white hare are the most common, but in recent years the hare is becoming less and less, and this is alarming.

The livestock of hares-tolayev is in a somewhat better condition, their reserves are not even fully developed.

As for the Manchurian hare living in a relatively small area, it is not as numerous and popular as other species.

The hare, whose hind legs are much longer than the front ones, runs well on a hard surface, but with difficulty in deep, friable snow.

White hare has a lot in common with hare, but it also has differences in color, body structure and lifestyle. We indicate the main features that need to know the young hunter.

The soles of the paws of a white hare are wider, "razlapistye", better pubescent and although it is inferior to the hare horse in terms of speed, but it moves better along loose snow.

In spite of all these reasons, the population of the white hare can reach a high number, especially in the northern and central regions of the European part of the country.

The population of this hare can reach a high number, much larger than that of the "white hare, and the tolya reserves are not fully developed, they are valued only as an object of hunting.

It feeds on trees and shrubs, berries, fruits, algae. In winter, it sometimes feeds under the snow, breaking through its passages.

Since the Manchurian hare usually does not reach high numbers, has small sizes and poor quality of hair, its economic value is small.

A brief biological description of hares remains to be supplemented with general information about the features inherent in all considered species of the hare family.

Hares, like other fur animals, change their hair every year. Only in the Manchurian hare does the hair cover apparently remain unchanged.

Hares - a favorite object of sports hunting; in the fur trade of the Soviet Union they own one of the first places.

In our country, there are 4 known species of hares: white hare, hare, tolai and Manchu. Unlike rabbits, they, as a rule, do not dig permanent shelters. There is no reliable information about leporids (rabbits with rabbits).
Hunters are best known for our white hare and hare.

Belyak lives in continuous forests and groves - from Finland to Kamchatka and the Pacific; it inhabits tundra, forest-steppe, partly steppe, where it remained even after the disappearance of forests (Kustanai and some other areas).

Belyak has adapted well to life in forests covered with snow in winter. The reddish-brown summer fur of this hare falls out and is replaced by snow white; only the tips of the ears remain black. The wide feet of the hind legs almost do not stick in the loose forest snowdrifts: only 12 g of live weight of the white hare fall on 1 square meter. see his trace. In addition, the white hare makes trails that facilitate its movement. This animal is not in the forests of the Crimea, the Caucasus, Central Asia and in the southern parts of the Tien Shan. It is very rare in the forests of Belarus, where the snow does not always fall, and the white skin easily gives out then this rodent. The white hare lives sedentary, moving only from one seasonal station to another. In the drought, when the swamps dry up, the whites, especially pregnant and lactating, concentrate near the streams, where they greedily drink water. During the period of leaf fall, many migrate to spruce forests and dry sedge swamps, where they find refuge, hiding during the day under a low and thick spruce, under sedge leaning to the ground.

After a long snowfall, longer migrations take place. Traces in these cases go straight, almost without stopping for feeding. If you raise such a white hare who has come from afar and has not yet settled down in a new place, he will run to the old place, sometimes for 2-3 dozen kilometers. In these cases, the loss of good, viscous hounds by a hunter is not excluded.

In the tundra of the North, long migrations are observed, which are carried out in the autumn from north to south. At the same time, hares gather in hundreds and run from one willow thickets to another, gnawing at them.

In summer, hare feed on various herbs, shoots of shrubs. Bunnies gnaw bones, discarded antlers of deer containing phosphate of lime, which is necessary for developing embryos and new-born hares. With a lack of mineral salts in the feed, osteomalacia occurs, i.e. the dissolution of the mother's bones. At all times of the year, hares feel a lack of table salt.

Only in the autumn, after the leaves fall, a full supply of all nutrients is found in the bark of the trees, which in the spring is quickly spent on the growth of shoots, leaves and flowers. That is why many animals begin to gnaw trees in winter. The whites prefer aspen, especially fallen.

Autumn-winter life of forest hares is simple. At dusk, when they are stretching, they rise from the daytime beds and go to feed (fat). They move in slow jumps, losing undigested food remnants - “nuts” - accumulated during the day in the rectum and leaving holes in the snow for urine that cannot be left on the ground. Especially a lot of hare droppings accumulate at stops where the rodent was feeding.

The long (more than 70 cm) cecum of hares endures everything that has not yet been digested in the stomach, so the “nuts”, consisting of wood, retain their shape for a long time, without attracting either dung beetles, or worms, or flies.

With the first signs of dawn, the hares go for a day. Their jumps become longer, footprints - slim. Before laying, the tracks look like separate, well-spaced fossae. Hare, as they say hunters, "cheats", confuses traces. Indeed, the impression is sometimes the impression of a reasonable action of the animal: it doubles the track many times; a huge leap, which is often difficult to notice, is “swept away” to the side and, finally, having made a few loops and wits, lies in a secluded place. Going to the bed, he usually does not leave nuts, which makes it easy to distinguish the morning trace from the evening one. It is difficult to lay a white hare, especially in a frost, to sling along the trail: it leaves the bed imperceptibly, while the unsophisticated hunter unravels the trail. In the thaw and cloudy weather, the white hare lies stronger.

All hares behave this way - inexperienced young, and old ones, and even hares in zoos, accustomed to people: they duplicate traces, make smacks. It is an innate instinct, useful in life.

No matter how much the dog is, the dog doesn’t smell these rodents, since here the hares usually never defecate or urinate, and besides, their skin does not have sweat and sebaceous glands; a lot of them only on the underside of the legs. A white hare sitting in the snow and pressed to the soles of its paws does not only disappear from the eyes, but is not detected by the instinct. The hound does not lose a jumping-up rabbit even at full gallop. Particularly stubbornly, it pursues the hare, which has long been chasing and the paws of which, therefore, sweat and emit a strong smell. Sweat on the legs prevents the sticking of dirt, which is easy to notice when the hare runs across the plowed field and bucks, shaking the sticky ground from its paws.

The older the hare, the more distant the neighborhood he is familiar with, the more circles he describes under the hounds. Yearlings give usually small circles. Paratrooped hounds sometimes put a white hare outside the familiar plot, and then the hare obviously begins to stray, runs into the villages, does not give circles.

During a long night of snowfall, hares do not run and can stay up to two days. In these cases, the feces and feces and urine. If some people go out to fatten up, then they leave very short traces and soon lay down where they fed. However, not snowfall directly reduces the activity of hares, but some other accompanying phenomena in the atmosphere. So, for example, white fish contained by industrialists in huts do not feed during the snowfall at night and do not leave marks on the floor sprinkled with lime or flour, and therefore the hunter does not go so far to check the loops set on the hares.

Hunters-athletes appreciate the first powder, especially when the snow stops falling long before dawn. They are accustomed to let hares pass by the blackcrop past the bedding of mushroom pickers, and they continue to allow the hunter close by the first powders. Later they become much more cautious.

Interesting breeding hares, which we studied at the zoo and tested in nature. The party of white hares, donated by the Moscow Society of Hunters, was settled in a spacious fenced meadow of the Moscow Zoo. In the spring, the race began: the males began chasing after three females. They sat around a hare, crouching and occasionally quarreling among themselves. Suddenly, she took off and rushed in circles along the fence. Trying to catch up with the hare, the white hares stretched themselves in a chain, the most frisky were ahead, and the lame and others behind.

Experiments in the zoo and further observations in nature have shown that with a sufficient number of hares, the offspring are born from the most frisky and hardy males.

Hares have a delicate, specialized instinct, which they search for each other, at least during the rut. In addition, they emit squealing cries, heard per kilometer and beyond.

51 days after the beginning of the rut, the first female brought 6 hares to us. The delivery lasted for several minutes, with the mother pulling out some of the hares, seizing the placenta with her teeth, which she tore and eagerly devoured. And the wet hare climbed to the nipples and, smacking it with confidence, noticeably swelled from milk, which is 4 times fatter than a thick cow and contains 23.6% fat. The experience of the hare, as experience has shown, can apparently go without food for 3 days, showing only the fourth noticeable signs of hunger. Unlike the rabbit, the hares are born sighted, covered with curly fur, capable of running.

For some time the newborns sit in a handful, and after drying out, they scatter in different directions and hide. Now after the delivery, the males and the rut begin to stalk, as described above, lasting about two days.

After the end of the rut, the hare's maternal instinct manifests itself; she begins to look for a hare, sniffing near the place of birth.

On the 3-4th day, the hungry hares, which until then (at the zoo) could not even be found by the fox, held on a chain next to them, leave the bed and give the trail that the hare feeds them. It has been observed that hungry hares feed not only their “own” mother, but also a stranger who has discovered a trace. On the 8th-9th day, the young grow teeth, and they, without refusing milk, begin to eat grass.

All of these breeding patterns illustrate the adaptability to the life conditions of the species as a whole and, all the more helpless, surrounded by the enemies of the young. The hare eats the afterbirth, which otherwise would decompose and attract the smell of predators to the place where the newborns sit. A. Bram, who wrote in his time that hares are bad mothers and do not care for newborns, did not understand, apparently, all the peculiarities in the breeding of hares.

The hare in the zoo multiplied 2 times a summer. How many litters they give in the wild remains unexplained; Occurred sometimes in September and October, the hares may equally well refer either to the third litter or to the litter of some strayed females.

As a rule, only one is observed annually in the north, but numerous litters are observed. In Yakutia, for example, it has 13-14 hares. There are 3 litters to the south of the Moscow region.

In captivity, white hare lived to be 10-11 years old, but in nature their life is much shorter: too many feathered and four-legged predators, reducing the number of hares! Many of them die from various diseases, especially where the density of animals is not regulated by hunting. The hare's susceptibility to infectious and helminthic diseases increases in damp and wetlands. After the moors, when the white trail becomes uncommon and occurs 70–80 km one from the other (Yakutia), a pair of white habits give rise to a poorly settled, closely related and so weakened by this population that after a few years it starts dying out without suffering diseases. In Yakutia, for example, the years of maximum numbers and its fall to almost 0 alternate every 9-11 years. The average weight of a white hare is 3.5 kg, although individual specimens pull it up to 5 kg.

In sport hunting farms, the density of local populations should be monitored, avoiding, on average, more than 25 hares per 100 hectares.

To remove whites from wetlands to dry elevations, additional feeding is necessary with salt fallen with aspen from the fall, adding acorns, etc. Then in the swamps where the hare usually feeds in the fall, feces will not accumulate in the spring, and billions of larvae of trichostromygidus, a worm, dangerous for hares running around to drink in the swamps.

In order to strengthen the vitality of the whites, it is useful to artificially resettle healthy individuals from remote areas to hunting farms.

Hare avoids solid forests, preferring fields, steppes and woodlands. Only where the snow rarely falls, does he live in the forest (Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the Caucasus). The Forest Urals turned out to be an insurmountable obstacle for the hare and the animal crossed this ridge in its treeless part between Chkalov and Guryev, having spread along the steppes to Kustanaya, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan.

The best felt products are made from the wool of this hare. In order to increase the harvesting of rusak skins, from 1936, mass artificial resettlement of the best subspecies, Menzelinsky - Uralian hares in the boundless steppes of Siberia, began. The hare himself was unable to overcome the loose forest drifts, in which his relatively narrow legs were deeply stuck (16 g per 1 sq. Cm of the wake).

It differs from a white hare with a black stripe on the upper side of the tail, long ears and a reddish-pinkish color of the wavy wool. By winter, it is overgrown with fluffy hair, light from the sides and on the thighs. The back remains dark gray. The autumn hawk of the hare ends in middle latitudes by the middle of November.

In reproduction, the hare is close to a white hare - it bears about 50 days, but feeds newborns more often. Hares dig a cave and keep it. The female actively protects the young from the attacks of moons and other birds of prey. It was necessary to observe how the lunar rushed into the oats, and towards him a hare jumped out, scratching it with its front paws.

In the middle lane there are two litters, and the third, like that of white hares, requires confirmation. In a litter, 4-4 are most often harassed, but in the south (North Caucasus), hares bring 4 and even more litters, but only 1-2 hare each.

The largest adult hare weigh up to 8 kg (Bashkir).

Occasionally a hare with a white hare give hybrids (Kazan zoological garden), capable of bringing further offspring, impregnated by the hare. Whether these hybrids (cuffs) can multiply in themselves or mating with white hairs - requires further experimentation.

The cuffs in the winter cover resemble white hairs, but differ from them by a dark underfur, translucent under white wool. Red strips are visible on the front paws, as well as one speck on each cheek.

While living in crops, the hare feeds on sufficiently high-grade fodder, and in winter it visits haystacks and clovers in the fields, eats sprigs of wormwood, sometimes gnaws bark and branches of fruit trees. During the frosty night, over a compacted snow, he manages to radiate a large area, and by the morning, having done doubles and sweeps, usually lies on the field or in the steppe, where his gray back merges well with the dark strips of blowing.

Only good, sticky hounds can drive the hares long, far ahead of dogs and confusing tracks on the roads.

After icing or prolonged blizzards, a number of the harelings die, and the rest in the steppes undertake lengthy migrations to reeds by the rivers, and so on. In the summer, during the breeding season, the hare will not migrate.

A lot of youngsters die from high-speed tractors, exciting wide lanes by plowing; rabbits do not have time to "step aside" and plowed. It is noticed that part of the hares in the steppes began to multiply in shrubs and ravines, applying to modern culture.

The hunt “recently used” in Ukraine, which has been used recently, is very destructive, because of which this hare has become rare in some regions of the Ukrainian SSR. Poaching of hares at night from a car with strong headlights is no less destructive.

In Rusakov living in dry fields and steppes and widely migrating, diseases are rare. They suffer from ticks, blistering embryos of tapeworms, with which they are infected by foxes, wolves and dogs.

Tolai hare distributed in the steppes of Kazakhstan, in Central Asia. It occurs in the mountains. Tolai looks like a little Rusak, but dimmer in color. It has a small size (weight about 2 kg) and even longer ears. In the prisaysan steppes, there are many tolai in the thickets of high cereals. In the Altai mountains, this bunny lives among the stones, along with the hare. Tolai are especially abundant in the willowy rivers and coastal tugays of Central Asia. From one bed in the fall, sometimes 2 hares jumped up there. Near Samarkand it was necessary to trail the tolai after snow fell. The area where he ate, usually did not exceed 2 hectares. Before bedding, he doubled the tracks, made sweeps, and often lay down under the channels (earthen fences of the gardens). In the south of Central Asia, Tolai breeds 3 times a year and more often.

In the Kyzyl-Kuma deserts, many tolai were found near salt lakes, around which the grass Aelurupus, the main food of the local hare population, grew. Looking for fresh water in the desert (when there was no dew at night), tolai fell into wells and, decomposing there, made the water unfit for drinking. In the northern parts of this desert there were sometimes (1913) hares, who seemed to be giants among the tolai.

It is not known whether tolai interbreed with hare or hare. A rare encounter in the Far East of black white hares is all the more interesting: aren't these hybrids with a Manchurian hare? The hunt for the latter is only sporting. It is not fished, as its weight is small (about 2 kg) and the skin does not represent much value.

Manchurian hare lives in the deciduous coastal forests of the Far East. He got there from Manchuria and North China.

With short legs and compact body, it looks more like a wild rabbit than a hare, it is distinguished by relatively short ears. The biological features of it are hare. Its color is the same all year round (the back and sides are gray), the top of the tail is a black stripe.

Hares are of great economic importance. White hare and hare blanks exceed 8 million skins in another year. Millions of hare skins are still deposited by hunters, falling out of the country's economic trade.

Nutritional and tasty hare meat is produced annually at about 240 thousand centners.

The quantitative accounting of hares (Lepus L., 1758) from the very beginning developed in two directions: relative accounting and absolute. Relative accounting consisted of obtaining comparative numbers of traces on the tracks in the winter period or collecting survey data from hunters and other specialists of the hunting economy, who estimated the number of birds with such assessments: a lot, medium, little and more, as much, less.

Relative accounting of hares from the boat. Yu.M. Malafeev (1980) described a method for the relative accounting of a hare (L. timidus L., 1758) in southern Yamal. He was driven from a motorboat on the sandy streamers blown by the wind, where the hares gathered to escape the blood-sucking insects during their mass departure.

Payroll and running accounting. Absolute accounting with obtaining indicators of population density of hares in specific biotopes is carried out mainly by salary and driving methods. With the salary method of accounting after the powder, all input and output traces of hares in a small area of land are counted, and the number of individuals in the salary is determined by their difference. A more accurate method is considered to be a running method in which the test site is passed with noise, after which the traces of the scared animals are calculated on its peripheral part. The sizes of trial plots in both cases depend on the number of accountants. It can be assumed, based on the ecology of the brown hare (L.europaeus Pallas, 1778), that accounting for its run with obligatory passage through areas typical of lezhek land gives a fairly complete picture of the number of animals in the trial area. Under the conditions of open landscapes, when running, there is a greater likelihood of scaring hares with their exit beyond the trial plot.

V.A. Agafonov (1982, 1988), who thoroughly studied the running and salary methods of counting the white hare, showed that when running, skipping of hidden animals is possible, moreover, it is not always possible to gather for such an account a sufficient number of participants. Therefore proposed two to four days salary accounting hare on the site of the original configuration. As a result, the accountant examines five adjacent square salaries of 25 hectares each (500 x 500 m). Salaries are arranged in such a way that the clerk passes each side of a single square only once during a walk. The whole day route on the test site is 16 km (Fig. 1.2.1.1. And 1.2.1.2.).

Fig.1.2.1.1. Scheme of laying the route Fig.1.2.1.2. Route map

On the first day, all fresh entries and exits of hares in each salary are taken into account and erased. The following days take into account the traces of those hares that were on the site on the first day of recording and left it. Thus, they clarify the number of hares that were on the site on the first accounting day.

Winter route accounting (ZMU).Winter route registration of hares on the trail is carried out in a complex, taking into account other species. It provides for tracking the daily legacy of animals for the subsequent calculation of conversion factors in order to move from relative accounting indicators (tracks / 10 km of the route) to absolute ones (the number of hares in a certain area). The main methodological disadvantage of ZMU, according to V.A. Agafonov, - non-constant value of the daily rate of hares during the period of accounting within one hunting farm. For example, as a result of tracing 34 full daily courses, it turned out that they differed in length by 30 times (Agafonov, 1982). He does not mention the technical difficulties of tracking the daily movements of the white hare, in particular, the peculiarities of determining their length on the fats, as well as those cases when traces of several individuals interlace with a high population density of the species on the fats, and accurate identification of the trail is impossible. Despite the indicated difficulties in accounting for hares (white hare and hare) according to the methodology of PMU, the State Accounting Service continues to consider the numbers of hares received by it in the country's regions to be quite correct.

Available accounting hare with collective huntswhen hunters move through a certain area with a chain, shoot raised hares and thus count the number of individuals caught and who fled from a given area. Earlier in the south of the country there was a hunting “boiler”, now banned as a fighter. But the "boiler" in the presence of a sufficient number of accountants may well be applied without shooting to account at the trial site.

Accounting by the survey method. Mass polls obtained from correspondent hunters are of priority importance for both types of hares, as they provide extensive information on the number of hares in Russia.

In some well-arranged and successfully regulating the hare fishery, farms need to keep records of hares on trial sites at least once every 2–3 years in addition to PMU. Accounting should be maintained in one of the following ways: by the method of V.A. Agafonov (1988) or run. When conducting collective driven hunts for hares, according to the method of the Baltic countries (Ling, 1973), count all the hares that were shot and left the pen during the entire hunting season. The work should be carried out under the guidance of specialists of each farm: game managers, rangers or community leaders of hunting.

Squirrel

Accounting for proteins is fraught with difficulties caused by the movement of this animal, not only on the ground, but also on trees, changes in activity under different weather conditions, significant migrations and migrations associated with crops and crop failures. Annual and seasonal fluctuations in numbers in one region can reach 2-5 (Kiris, 1973) and even 8-11 times (Kolychev, 1992). All this greatly complicates the task of determining the number of this rodent. There are five most common methods of counting proteins, with which you can get estimates of the number of rodents in absolute (number of individuals) or in relative terms (frequency of encounters of animals on the routes, abundance in points, etc.).

To account for proteins (Sciurus vulgaris L., 1758), several techniques have been developed. The simplest method of relative accounting is in the footsteps, as well as meetings of animals on the route and the hunter’s daily prey. When taking into account on routes, the final result is the number of tracks or squirrels per 1 or 10 km of the route in typical sites. By comparing such indicators of accounting in different types of land, habitats or for different periods and years, it is possible to determine the tendency of rodent abundance occurring.

Data that allows you to move from the population density of proteins to the determination of its population in a specific area, followed by extrapolation, can be obtained by taking into account a small animal with a dog that runs on protein, or when calculating isolated groups of gains on a test plot, in a mathematical way using the results of several days fishing (Smirnov, 1964), with integrated accounting (ZMU).

Pre-field accounting with husky. This method of protein accounting was developed by S.V. Lobachev (1932). Dates for its - September - October. In some regions, it is better to conduct accounting in November, when the chipmunk goes into hibernation (Teplov, 1952 a). Accounting time is 8 - 10 am and 15 - 18 pm. Crucial in this method of accounting are the working qualities of the dog. It is advisable to pick up dogs:

a) specializing exclusively in protein;

b) having experience in the field for at least 1-2 seasons;

c) having a stable search width (the search width of 80-100 meters can be considered optimal);

d) "disciplined" to avoid problems with the withdrawal of the dog from the squirrel.

The recording route should run through various types of forest plantations, reflecting, to the extent possible, the composition of the plantations of the area to which the accounting data will be extrapolated. Therefore, proteins found, for example, in spruce forests, are counted separately from squirrels in pine or cedar forests. Calculation of indicators of accounting is carried out separately for afforestation. The length of the route should be as long as possible, but not tiresome for the dog.

Essential are the weather conditions in the period of accounting work. Hot, rainy and windy days should be avoided when the activity of the protein and the possibility of its detection by the dog are noticeably reduced. The work of the dog prevents drops and frost more than -20 ° C.

To calculate the number of detected proteins per unit area, it is necessary to determine the length of the route and the width of the reference band. The length of the route is determined by the map, the glades, the time spent on the route and the speed of movement, with the help of a pedometer and the calculation of the average step length, etc., but approaches to the detected protein should be excluded from the route. The width of the accounting strip, which is equal to the width of the dog search, is determined by the tracks of the dog left on the snow or dewy grass, making at least 10 measurements (Larin, 1954).

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the omissions of protein by the dog. To do this, make repeated control passes along the routes on which during the first pass all the detected proteins are shot off. Typically, gaps make up 20-25% of the livestock, but in dense stands can reach 40% or more (Larin, 1954).

This method of accounting is still the most common and most objective. It allows you to get indicators of the density of the population of proteins by type or group of types of forest land and calculate the amount of proteins in absolute terms in a single farm or the whole region.

Accounting for the gayna. In sparse middle-aged and low forest stands, especially pine, it is possible to use winter accounting of proteins, in particular teleut proteins (S. v. Exalbidus Pallas, 1778), on trial plots of guineas.

A squirrel in winter usually has one permanent shelter - a gayno (nest), less often a hollow. With a certain skill, you can find a living gayno. Gaina are located more often near the edges, glades, glades, clearings. A squirrel usually feeds near its nest. Gaina are located in groups, rather isolated from each other. The group includes old, already uninhabited gayna and one or more fresh nests. Fresh gayno has the shape of a fairly regular ball, into which fresh branches with green needles not yet fallen are woven. Old, non-residential gayna dark color and flattened on top. They appear large in size compared to fresh ones and are clearly visible from afar in green branches. Fresh gayno notice more difficult, since it does not stand out against the background of kroner. In this case, one animal is counted for each group with a fresh nut. Such records can be kept on trial sites and on transects with a certain width of the review on both sides of the route. As a test site, it is convenient to take a forest quarter of 1 x 1 or 1 x 2 km, that is, 1 or 2 square meters. km By means of a consistent walkdown and inspection of the site, all residential points are taken into account. It is more convenient to work on fresh powder, on which traces of proteins are clearly visible. It should be borne in mind that when approaching a squirrel, the squirrel climbs up into the trees and goes some distance (“top”) (usually about 50 meters or more).

With careful examination of the test areas, this method of accounting gives good results, but its essential drawback is the limited applicability: in dense plantations of the Gaina are poorly noticeable, and the gaps reach large values.

Accounting "in uzerku". Even less accurate results are obtained when taking into account squirrels in meetings (in a pattern and by ear) on permanent routes.

Accounting is carried out on certain (better - permanent) routes and also separately for different plantations. The censor moves very slowly through the forest, stopping and listening every 50–100 m, trying to find the squirrel by ear (you can discern the peeling of the cones in good weather, the squirrels move along the trunks of the trees) or see them. The detected squirrels are marked on the route map, dividing them by forest plantations.

Such accounting is carried out, as a rule, in August-September at the hours of the greatest activity of the squirrel, at a suitable day for the weather. The best results are obtained after the weather with long rains.

This method is most suitable for many years of work on the same routes, especially on equipped routes (Teplov, 1952 a). It is relative, since the detected proteins cannot be attributed to any area and the abundance can be calculated, but it is possible to judge the trends of changes in the resources of the rodent according to these counts.

Winter route tracking on the trail. The most common method of counting is the winter route metering (ZMU), based on counting traces of a squirrel crossing the route. In the best way, ZMU credentials reflect the state of squirrel numbers in the rutting season of squirrels - in March. The rest of the time, the number of tracks is determined not so much by numbers as by weather conditions (Teplov, 1952 c). This method is widely used in relation to squirrels because it is generally accepted for other major game animals, and the protein enters the accounting materials along the way.

According to the methodology of PMU, the rodent's resources in absolute terms (in the number of individuals) are calculated based on the indicators for recording tracks on routes (tracks / 10 km of the route), using the A.N. Formozov and the Malyshev-Pereleshin amendment, the average daily course of a squirrel (km) under accounting conditions. Often, performers face great difficulties in tracing daily movements of a squirrel due to its semi-woody lifestyle, which makes it difficult to identify the individuality of the trail, especially when the species is medium and high, when the traces constantly intersect, and in places of feeding they form a rather dense network. Only in the conditions of small number of proteins, with a large sparseness of the population, such work can be carried out reliably enough.

The efforts and resources expended on such work are probably in vain, not only because of the dubious nature of their objectivity, but also because of the economical uselessness of permanent protein counts in the vast majority of regions. The resources of the squirrel everywhere, except for the tape hogs in the south of Western Siberia, where the Teleut protein lives, are under-owned. And although the total number of rodents due to cutting down a significant part of ripe and over-mature forests and replacing them with poorly suitable squirrels for young and small-leaved plantations was greatly reduced in the second half of the 20th century, its resources are usually underused, especially during the peaks of the population. With a low number of squirrels, the hunt for it becomes unprofitable, and hunters - fishermen stop hunting for a squirrel. But even if the hunt continues in such conditions, it is simply impossible to get all the proteins on the site. There are always animals that lead a secretive way of life, leaving the pursuit of huskies on tree crowns and "tightly" hiding in the thick crown of a tall tree.

Questionnaire survey hunters who regularly come to the grounds, gives good results in the presence of an extensive network of correspondents. This method of accounting is based on a survey on the frequency of encounters of squirrels in the forest, on the state of the food supply of proteins, on the activity of reproduction, etc., in a special form that allows you to further translate the survey data into a numerical score. From these estimates, the average score that can be used to characterize changes in the number of proteins. The perennial data from the VNIIOS harvest service shows that the regional scores reflect the squirrel abundance fairly well. For example, in the European part of Russia, the correlation coefficient of the polling estimates of abundance and abundance according to ZMU data for 10 years (1981-1990) averaged 0.833, which corresponds to the 99.9% confidence level (Voznesensky, 1969).

Accounting for the daily production of the hunter. Among the relative methods of accounting can be attributed to the daily production of protein hunters, proposed by V.S. Smirnov (1964). But such a method of estimating the number of a species in modern conditions is almost impossible.

Relative tracking of tracks on routes. For permanent and annual accounting, it is sufficient to keep a relative calculation of the fresh tracks of the animal on routes, better than regular ones, during the same PMU. But at the same time it is necessary to exclude the coincidence of accounting with the beginning of the spring rut. It is desirable to keep such records in the same weather conditions over the years. Fluctuations in the metering index (number of tracks per 10 km of the route) by year give an idea of the changes in the squirrel's abundance.

Marmots

The development of methods for recording the number of marmots (Marmota Frisch, 1775) was determined by the tasks of anti-epidemiological practice and, to a lesser extent, by the needs of the hunting economy.

Visual registration of marmots on accounting sites during the hours of their maximum activity, it was applied to long-tailed woodchucks (M. caudata Geoffroy, 1842-1843) (Kaiser, 1940).

Counting holes. For the first time, a method for recording burrows to characterize the geographical distribution and abundance of tarbagans (M. sibirica Radde, 1862) was developed and tested in 1937–1938. in the southeastern Transbaikalia I.P. Bromine (1945). He took into account the number of residential and non-residential holes on tapes 60 meters wide with a route length of 840 meters, and then recounted the data obtained per 1 square meter. km

Subsequently, these two main ways of accounting for marmots were improved and supplemented. The improved method of accounting for burrows is reflected in the instructions for fighting marmots on the Tien Shan (Instructions on the organization, methods ..., 1949) and in Transbaikalia (Temporary Instructions ..., 1950). It provided for the registration of burrows on transects with a length of 1-5 km and a width of 10-30 m with a total area of registration tapes of at least 1-2% of the surveyed area. The routes were arranged evenly so that in mountain conditions they would cross the main elements of the relief, including low ridges. The width of the account tape was determined by eye, but in doubtful cases the true distance from the route line to the hole was measured by the accountant.

Mapping holes on the routes.IN AND. Kapitonov (1970) proposed for the flat areas where the steppe marmot lives (M. bobak Müller, 1776), a more productive and accurate method of mapping all holes on the recording tapes with a length of 7-10 km and a width of 50-150 m, so that the area of the tape was 1 sq. km In a typical area for a given area, 20-30 groups of family holes are mapped, their average in one group and the percentage of inhabited groups of holes are calculated. Determine the average number of animals in the family, watching them in the hours of their greatest activity, as well as polls, catching individual families. The percentage of the area inhabited by marmots is determined by the area occupied by them on the strip. An eyeland of the groundhog's habitable area (solid bushes, forest, rocky areas, etc.) is estimated by eye. It is subtracted by extrapolation from the total area of the study area. Knowing the average number of families per 1 square. km, the number of animals in the family and the area occupied by the settlements, and multiplying the density of families by the number of individuals in the family and the area of suitable land, count marmot stocks.

In the autumn, after hibernation of marmots, only burrows closed with traffic jams can be taken into account, each of which corresponds to one family.

Accounting for holes on the sites. A simple, but less accurate method of accounting at sites of 100–200 hectares for residential summer nesting holes (Elkin et al., 1970) was also proposed. The number of animals living in the hole under various conditions is determined visually and the average value is calculated. This technique did not receive recognition due to a significant distortion of the final results.

Accounting for burrows on routes and sites. According to another method, on routes of 10 km long and 50 m wide (Shubin, 1961) and on squares of 0.5 square meters. km count wintering baibaka holes. The average number of individuals in a family is determined by the complete capture of rodents and visual counting of individuals. According to experts (Bibikov, 1963), the technique is laborious and gives significant errors, which limits its application.

Combined accounting of animals at the sites and holes on the routes. In order to get a more complete picture of the total number of marmots in unevenly inhabited habitats, accounting at sites is combined with simultaneous consideration of residential holes on the strip. For the calculation of abundance, the average number of inhabitants of a single burrow obtained from these visual counts at sites is used. A visual record of individuals at the sites is made to calculate the average number of inhabitants of one hole, which is necessary to know in order to determine the total number of animals based on the results of the counting of residential holes.

They choose sites ranging in size from 3 to 5 (sometimes up to 15 hectares), their borders are marked with tours of sod or stones (Bibikov, 1956). The animals are counted on each site 3 times at the hours of their greatest activity. The meter for each observation twice with an interval of 20-30 minutes Considers being on the surface of marmots. After the end of the counting, it is recommended to shout off the woodchucks by shouting in order to take into account those that were not seen, hiding in the uneven terrain or in the grass. The maximum of the received figures is taken as the number of inhabitants of the site for the subsequent recalculation of the number of marmots per 1 ha or per hole.

Accounting for animals on the routes. In the mountain conditions, anti-plague institutions widely used counting on strip belts, with which relatively low-cost labor can provide relatively reliable data on the number of animals on a large area (Bibikov, 1963). Routing is preceded by a thorough study of the territory on a large-scale map and a reconnaissance detour to determine the general nature of the distribution of settlements of animals. Based on this data, the direction of the routes is chosen. It is desirable that each separate section intersected with two parallel route passes, in which the accountant would move first in one and then in the opposite direction for a better view of the opposite slopes. In large areas (more than 10 sq. Km) it is advisable to lay two or three paired route runs that intersect the main elements of the relief and lie at a distance of 1-1.5 km from one another.

The meter moves along a previously planned route, maintaining the direction in azimuth and counting all the animals that are in a 200 m wide strip (100 m to the right and left of the sequence). At the end of the survey, the average number of animals in the reference area is calculated and their total number is determined throughout the surveyed area.

Visual surveys of individuals on the grounds and on the routeing tapes have two significant drawbacks. First, without subsequent mapping, they do not give an idea of the distribution of rodents in the territory. This disadvantage is easily eliminated by applying the results of accounting to the appropriate chart. Secondly, a significant part of the animals remains unrecorded, since even during the season and the hours of the highest activity, some of them are in burrows. The introduction of correction factors corresponding to certain seasonal and daily changes in ground-ground marmot activity, significantly clarifies the results of visual accounting (Berendyaev, 1961; Tarasova, Suyazov, 1961).

The best time to take into account the number of marmots is the period after the mass release of fingerlings from the holes to the surface before the beginning of animal harvesting, as well as some days after prolonged bad weather, when the ground activity of animals increases dramatically (Berendyaev, 1961).

Accounting for a car. Accounting for marmot from a car (it is possible and on horseback) in areas with leveled relief is good because marmots show their curiosity about a moving car (Tarasov, Khrustselevsky, 1956). Due to this, to some extent the caution of the animals is overcome, which has a significant effect on the results of the accounting when advancing the accountant on foot or on horseback. The second advantage of accounting from a car is the possibility of examining a large area in a short time, which is ensured by a high speed of movement (up to 35-45 km / h) and a large width of the recording tape (up to 400 m).

Before traveling on the route, the clerk trains the eye to correctly determine the recording tape width of 100, 150 or 200 m. The marmots counted on the route are recorded separately for virgin steppes, perennial seeded grasses, wheat crops, deposits, fields under steam, etc. (Kapitonov, 1981) to identify differences in the density of marmot population. For each segment of the route, the time of recording for amendment to daily activity is noted by the hour.

To account for the car requires 5 people: a driver who knows the terrain well; the registrar (records the time on the clock, the speedometer of the car, the nature of the terrain, the number of marmots encountered) and two registrars, each of whom counts marmots from his own side. At this time, the fifth accountant is observing the marmot activity on a test plot.

The best time for such accounting is the end of May - June, when the woodchucks are most active, the grass is still low, and the roads are dry.

A significant improvement in visual accounting is the determination of amendments to the daily activity of marmots on the site, carried out simultaneously with the route accounting. At the site in 1 square. km, where 50-80 marmots live, the observer throughout the day after 20 minutes. counts all woodchucks on the surface and notes the weather and other factors that may affect the activity of the animals. Based on a three-time count, the average result is displayed. Based on these average hourly numbers on graph paper, the daily marmot’s percentage is plotted. For 100%, the highest average number of marmots counted at a given location is taken.

Accounting for the animals. There are three variants of the trap method of accounting:

1) In two different landscapes, the percentage of animals entering traps is estimated, and their numbers are compared (Ioff et al., 1951).

2) By full catch on isolated sites.

3) Accounting for isolated groups of animals on the Lincoln-Peterson index by tagging and subsequent re-capture (of purely scientific interest to researchers).

These methods of accounting are not widely used because of their complexity and questionable accuracy.

Accounting for billet skins. The analysis of the data of marmot skins blanks allows us to obtain material relating to the number and distribution of marmots in large areas (Kucheruk, 1952). Since the groundhog fishery is now limited, the possibilities of using data on harvesting groundhog skins to judge the number of these animals are small.

Routing registration of animals.Analysis and comparative testing of most of the above-mentioned methods of registering marmots helped to create a unified methodology that allows calculating marmot stocks over large areas with high accuracy and estimating the reproductive potential of populations (Mashkin, 1976; Instructions ... marmots ..., 1989). Accounting is carried out in two stages.

First stage - survey and mapping of "lace" area and counting marmot families. Work is done on a car (you can ride a motorcycle or ride a horse, worst of all - on foot). In the mountains on clear days you can use a helicopter (Mashkin, 1976). It is necessary to widely apply the population survey method to determine and clarify the location of isolated colonies or individual families.

The mapping of the “lace” of the area is carried out simultaneously with the counting of marmot families on the routes. The routes are laid in habitats with low (less than 10 families per 1 sq. Km), medium (11-30) and high (more than 31 families per 1 sq. Km) density (tab. 1). They should cover all variety of relief. The experience of accounting and mathematical calculations showed that the accounting route should be in the range of 5-15, 10-30 km, etc. That is, routes should not differ by more than 3-4 times in length. In zones with low, medium and high population density, at least 4 routes should be conducted in each (Table 1.2.3.1.). The width of the recording strip is 200–400 m (100–200 m to the right and left of the route), it should be unchanged throughout the entire route. It is necessary to accurately determine the length of the routes, which is easy to do when taking into account from the car according to the speedometer readings.

Table 1.2.3.1

The average occurrence of families (pieces) marmots per 1 km route

in a strip of various widths

Accounting is carried out in good weather (without strong wind and rain) during the hours of the most active animals: from 7 to 11 and from 17 to 20 hours.

In the spring and at the beginning of summer, it is not difficult to distinguish a family of marmots on the ground, since, seeing the transport, the marmots run to their nesting (family) hole and often stand in a “column” pose. Sometimes it is possible to judge a family by a single beast in a large marmot with a lot of holes or in the accumulation of several butanes 20-50 meters apart. The materials of route accounting are recorded in the appropriate statement (form 1).

In the spring on clear days, you can use a helicopter to keep track of families. After the mass marmots emerge from hibernation in the snow, the holes of the wintering holes are clearly visible, each of which corresponds to the marmot family. After snow melting, the nesting hole can be reliably distinguished from above from other holes along large butane and paths radially diverging from it.

The calculation of the data of the route accounting of families for each density zone is separately made according to the formula 1:

T = (t × S) :( L × W), (1), where

T - the number of marmot families in areas with different densities (low, medium or high);

t is the number of families on routes in areas with low, medium or high density;

S is the area of surrogate colonies in the corresponding area;

L - the length of the route on the site, km;

W is the width of the accounting band, km

The number of marmots in areas with low, medium or high density is calculated by the formula 2:

N = T × b, (2), where

T is the number of families in areas of appropriate density;

b - the average family size in the same areas of density.

The total number of marmots on the territory of an administrative district, a nature reserve, a hunting farm or a fishing ground (N) is equal to the sum of population estimates on plots with different density of marmot population (formula 3):

N = N 1 + N 2 + N 3 (3)

Second phase - registration of families, broods and individuals in them on trial plots of 15–40 ha (form 2). In areas with different density (low, medium, high) there should be at least 4-5 sites covering the whole variety of marmot habitats. The total number of families at the sites in each section should be at least 30-40.

Accounting at the sites is carried out in 5-15 days after a mass and sustainable release of young from the holes to the surface in good weather during the hours of the highest activity of animals (from 7 to 11 and from 17 to 20 hours). For each site, a plan (form 3) is drawn up on which all family holes are deposited and the maximum number of animals recorded during the observation period is noted. At each site, it is sufficient to observe one day.

Marmot registration card at sites (form 2)

Accounting for the number of marmots in the ____________________ area

The total area of the district (farm) ______________ sq. km

The total area of the marmot settlements in the area, household) _________ square. km

Plan of distribution of family holes at the registration site № ___

in ___________ area ________ area "___" _______ 20 ... g (form 3)

According to counting data, the number of marmots in areas with low, medium and high population density (formula 4) is calculated separately:

N = (n × S): g, (4), where

N is the number in areas with low (N 1), medium (N 2) or high (N 3) density of marmot population;

n is the number of marmots recorded at all survey sites of low, medium or high density plots;

g is the total area of accounting sites at each of the sites with different densities;

S is the area of surrogate colonies in areas with different density.

The total number of marmots on the territory of a district, a farm, a nature reserve or a fishing area is equal to the sum of population estimates on sites with different density (formula 3).

With proper surveys, the number calculated by the routes (formulas 1, 2 and 3) and the test sites (formulas 4 and 3) must match or be close enough.

Currently, in the Russian Federation it is generally accepted method of combined route and area registration of families.

There are five species of marmots in Russia: steppe (M. bobak), gray (M. baibacina Kastschenko), forest-steppe (M. kastschenkoi), tarbagan (M. sibirica) and black-capped (M.camtschatica) living in different landscape-climatic zones with various reliefs from flat steppes to alpine and alpine belts. Despite the diversity of habitat conditions, for all species of marmots the route and area method of accounting is equally acceptable, which gives an objective picture of the distribution of individual colonies and vast settlements, the density of the marmot population and the total reserves of animals. Thanks to the use of transport, labor costs in comparison with other methods are immeasurably less, and the accuracy of the results is higher.

The survey method. With the mosaic distribution of individual colonies and settlements in complex lace of the area, which is especially characteristic of the Tarbagan and Black-capped Marmot, mass survey (personal and personal) of hunters, shepherds (shepherds), geologists and other specialists related to marmot habitats is additionally needed. An exemplary survey scheme is provided below. Survey materials are sometimes the only information due to the inaccessibility of some isolated settlements and marmot colonies, so the survey questionnaire should be as informative as possible with the minimum number of understandable questions (they are usually reluctant to respond to complex and wordy questionnaires).

Under normal conditions (even when rational fishing is carried out), the number of families in the colonies is fairly stable, so the survey, mapping of range lace and route accounting of families is carried out after 5-6 years. In the intervals between such records of the number of families, only the number of individuals and broods in families on permanent test sites is carried out annually, which ensures control of the population status.

In some regions of the European part of Russia, the steppe marmot is listed in the regional Red Books, and tarbagan - in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, therefore the most vulnerable colonies of these species should be surveyed annually, preferably in spring, in summer (after the appearance of babies) and before hibernation.

Permanent observation of marmot families (monitoring) provides valuable information for assessing the qualitative composition of the population and predicting the number, which is very important due to the negative impact on the woodchucks of plowing their habitats, direct human persecution and various climatic factors.

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