Тип публикации: статья из журнала
Год издания: 2022
Идентификатор DOI: 10.1134/S1062359022070214
Ключевые слова: fox, raccoon dog, corsac, badger, wolf, predator burrows, species count rabies
Аннотация: The existing methods for determining the species identity of shelter hosts and taking censuses of the natural hosts of the rabies virus (foxes, corsacs, two badger species, raccoon dogs, and wolves) have been improved during a spring–summer inspection of burrows of these predators. The field work was carried out in the years 1976–2Показать полностью011 at 42 census sites with a total area of 3582 km2 in natural foci of rabies within 14 administrative territories of the Russian Federation: Amur, Astrakhan, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Saratov, and Tula oblasts, Altai krai, Transbaikal region, and Khabarovsk krai, and the republics of Tyva and Altai. In total, 111 censuses were conducted and 3920 burrows of these animals were inspected. Burrows built by individuals of the same species could later be used or reconstructed and used by other species. Therefore, it was impossible to compile a dichotomous key to differences in the characters of the actual use of a specific shelter by a certain species in a given year during the research. The exception is the size of side holes of the fox and corsac that were dug by these predators in the first year of their settlement. Clear differences were observed only between the burrows of foxes, corsacs, and wolves in the presence of excrement and food debris near their shelters, in contrast to the unpolluted burrows of badgers and raccoon dogs. Burrows of foxes, corsacs, and wolves could alternately be occupied by different host species in subse- quent years. It was possible to identify reliably the carnivorous species that occupied the shelter only in May to early June by the size of excrement of young and adult individuals. Shelters of badgers and raccoon dogs significantly differed only in paw prints and the color of fallen hair during the replacement of one species by the other in a burrow. It is necessary to use a set of key characters for the species identification of shelter hosts in each particular case. During primary censuses, it is extremely laborious to identify and map the territorial distribution of burrows. However, a high-quality registration of burrow hosts in the first year of the study made it possible to reproduce registrations in many subsequent years with low material and time costs. It is recommended to use this corrected methodology both for the real-time counting of the relative and absolute numbers of the main natural distributors of the rabies virus and for analysis of their intra- and interspecific biotic relationships. In the natural foci of rabies, this technique makes it possible to record not only the abun- dance of predators but also their territorial distribution and concentrations near burrow shelters, which is important during oral vaccinations of predators against rabies.
Журнал: Biology Bulletin
Выпуск журнала: Т.49, №7
Номера страниц: 942-952
ISSN журнала: 10623590
Место издания: Москва
Издатель: Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. (Плеадес Паблишинг, Лтд)