Of these, the most common are gray rat(pasyuk), house mouse, cat and dog.
Gray rats live mainly in basements and lower floors of buildings, as well as in landfills, where more garbage and food waste accumulate.
Rats are intelligent, quick-witted, and easily adapt to changing environmental conditions. They bring great harm to humans: they eat and spoil food, spread dangerous infections (tularemia, leptospirosis, trichinosis, rabies, plague, etc.), damage structures, underground cables and communications. According to American scientists, almost 20% of fires in cities are caused by short circuits in electrical wiring caused by rats. Hordes of rats around the world are destroying enough food to feed almost 0.15 billion people.
However, upon completion of measures aimed at exterminating rats, other ecological problems. Thus, rats leave behind the ticks that lived on them, which gradually move on to people and other animals, causing a blow to their health. The ecological niche vacated by rats is quickly filled by house mice.
Unlike rats, mice master all floors, even the top ones. They especially prefer the lower and upper floors, where there are more opportunities for nesting (basements, attics). According to experts, mice most often appear in buildings that have technical violations.
The invasion of mice into urban settlements mainly occurs in the fall, after the onset of cold weather. As for rats, their relocation is often facilitated by repair work in their original habitats (for example, in areas of underground communications) or the elimination of landfills.
The fight between humans and these rodents is going on with varying degrees of success. They counteract their efforts to survive either by their increased rate of reproduction (mice) or by their amazing ability to adapt to the stressful situations they create. Thus, rats learned to bypass many traps and even developed immunity to some poisons. Many scientists believe that before dying, these animals manage to transmit a danger signal to their relatives, and they avoid the corresponding place. Very effective are those drugs that, without destroying animals, suppress their ability to reproduce or lead to an increase in the proportion of males in the litter.
Thanks to the highly developed higher nervous system Some predatory mammals adapt well to life in the city, such as the black polecat, weasel and even common fox. During the day they hide in burrows, and at night they get food for themselves by catching small rodents or visiting landfills, containers with food waste and so on.
Among the mammals living in the city there are insectivores and chiropterans. The first group includes hedgehogs, moles, shrews and shrews. Chiropterans are represented mainly by bats. The latter settle in shelters with a suitable microclimate (stone buildings with an iron roof and wooden ceilings) and feel comfortable in the presence of a high number and diversity of night-flying insects.
Of particular concern to people among representatives of the urban fauna are stray animals, mainly dogs and cats. They are dangerous to humans: they worsen the sanitary and epidemiological situation, since they are capable of transmitting certain diseases (rabies, leptospirosis, helminthiases, etc.); often attack people. Stray dogs often form packs that pose a threat not only to people, but also to domestic animals.
Due to the above, the number of feral animals should be regulated. However, methods such as catching them and then killing them (euthanasia) should be eradicated due to their cruelty and moral damage that they cause to the human psyche, especially a child. Moreover, the extermination of some animals contributes to the filling of the vacated ecological niche with other individuals, sometimes more aggressive and at the same time cautious, adapted to human behavior.
ka. So, mass destruction cats leads to a sharp increase in the number of rats and mice.
In this regard, it is necessary to properly study and adopt the experience of a number of countries, in particular Europe, where methods of mass sterilization of females and castration of males are widely used. Quite effective method is also the elimination of places that can be used by homeless animals to make dens (abandoned buildings, mothballed construction sites, open basements and heating mains).
More on the topic § 2. Mammals in the city:
- BEHIND. Zorina ELEMENTARY THINKING OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
- A TREATISE ON ANIMALS, IN WHICH, AFTER CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE VIEWS OF DECARTES AND M. DE BUFFON, AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO EXPLAIN THE MAIN FACILITIES OF ANIMALS
Of the mammals in the city, the most common species are the gray rat, or pasyuk, and the house mouse. These animals belong to the group of true synanthropes, whose distribution area is many times larger than their original range. They can live in all types of buildings, including multi-story ones stone houses, these animals feed mainly on humans.
Gray rats and house mice
Gray rats inhabit mainly basements and lower floors of buildings. Especially great importance at the same time, the height of the buildings has: the more floors, the more garbage accumulates in the garbage collection chambers - and the more food for rats. On the outskirts of the city, they are numerous in summer in landfills, along the banks of rivers and streams, and there are many of them in irrigation fields” (Ecology..1998).” Rats bring great harm to humans. They not only eat and spoil food, but damage structures, underground cables and communications, and spread infections dangerous to humans, such as trichinosis, leptospirosis, tularemia, salmonellosis and others. So, in Moscow alone and only registered bites there are 150-200 cases annually. According to American scientists, almost a fifth of fires in cities are caused by short circuits in electrical wiring due to the activity of rodents. Estimates of economic damage vary greatly; for example, for Moscow they amount to tens of millions of rubles per year. But once the rats are killed, the problems don't end.
Firstly, they remain rat mites. Having no permanent hosts, they move on to people, causing them severe dermatitis, the cause of which is the mouth
It is quite difficult to treat, and a person, unaware of mites, can undergo treatment for a long time and without success.
Secondly, when rats are exterminated, the vacated ecological niches are quickly occupied by house mice. These are another of the most competitive representatives of rodents. House mice prefer dry rooms; optimal conditions for them are found in grocery warehouses. In houses, unlike rats, mice live on all floors, but prefer the lower and upper ones. There are fewer of them on the middle floors, which is apparently due to greater opportunities for nesting in basements and attics. According to the observations of T.Yu. Chistova and L.L. Danilkina, “most often house mice appear in buildings that have technical violations. The colonization of these premises by mice occurs in the fall, after the onset of cold weather. The appearance of gray rats is not associated with weather conditions, but is determined mainly by the disturbance of these rodents in their permanent habitats. For example, carrying out any repair work almost always entails the infestation of rats in the premises connected to the work area by underground communications.”
It is currently quite difficult to calculate the exact number of rats and mice, since an accurate method for counting the number has not yet been developed. However, there is usually a sharp increase in the number of these rodents by autumn and a decrease in numbers by spring.
Man is constantly fighting against rodents, trying to reduce their number. An interesting fact is that if the house mouse survives in these conditions due to very rapid reproduction, then the rat tries in one way or another to adapt to the methods of control. Over several generations, rats managed to develop immunity to some poisons, learned to bypass many traps, and gradually mastered new territories.
Insectivores and bats
Another group of mammals living in the city is only partially related to humans. Insectivores can be found common hedgehog, common mole, common shrew and small shrew. This also includes bats, represented in the cities of continental Europe mainly by insectivorous bats. It is interesting that, inhabited mainly in deciduous forests where there are many natural shelters, they also settle indoors, but feed outside them. Research by S.V. Kruskop and A.V. Borisenko showed that the key environmental factors The factors that determine the sustainable existence of bats in the city are the good state of the food supply (high numbers and diversity of night-flying insects).
the presence of feeding stations (primarily river floodplains and deciduous forests with an area of up to several square kilometers), as well as the presence of shelters with a suitable microclimate located close to feeding stations. According to K.K. Panyutin, human buildings (primarily stone buildings with an iron roof and wooden floors) are the best suited for such shelters, since thanks to the combination of materials with different thermal conductivity and heat capacity, a mosaic temperature regime. In Moscow, bats can be observed more or less regularly only in the vicinity of large forest parks, as well as along the floodplain of the river. Moscow. There you can find the rufous noctule, whiskered noctule, water bat, pipistrelle bat, northern leatherback and two-colored leatherback.
Rodents
From the order of rodents, the group of mammals partially related to humans includes field and forest mice, common and East European voles, common hamster and squirrel. The squirrel itself does not strive to be close to humans, however, once within the city, it easily adapts to the urban environment. The number of squirrels in forested parks and parks is sometimes even higher than in the forest. This is greatly facilitated by feeding animals, although, of course, the main protein feed is seeds coniferous trees, And largest number These rodents reach the cones of pine and spruce trees during harvest years. Squirrels tame very quickly and deliver great joy, especially children and the elderly. But, unfortunately, these rodents cause big damage songbirds, they eat eggs and even chicks of small passerine birds that nest openly, primarily song thrushes, finches and others.
Carnivorous mammals
To life in the city thanks to a highly developed higher education nervous activity Carnivorous mammals adapt well. Predators include black polecat, weasel, and common fox. Weasels can live anywhere where there are small rodents - bank voles, wood mice. In years when the number of these species is minimal, the weasel completely disappears. Foxes don't either rare guests in the city. They have adapted to making burrows under pieces of abandoned cement and in other places that are difficult for poachers or dogs to dig up. Sometimes they settle in the built-up part of the city, getting used to its noise. Researchers from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after. A.N. Severtsov RAS observed how in Moscow, on Pyatnitskaya Street (in the very center of the city), a fox lived for several years in the courtyard of a small house. During the day she hid in a hole dug under the house, and at night she came out, fed in the trash heap and caught rodents.
Inhabitants of conditionally indigenous landscapes
The third group includes mammals that live in areas of semi-indigenous landscapes still preserved in the city. This is an ordinary farm, white and hare hares, hazel dormouse, bank vole, roe deer, elk, wild boar and others. Currently, as a result of intensive development, the number of these animals is rapidly falling. Thus, in Moscow, after the reconstruction of the Moscow Ring Road and the deployment of intensive construction activity in the nearby suburbs, urban forests became practically inaccessible to ungulates. Now only a few moose live in the urban part of Losiny Island, and in some peripheral forest areas Only a few wild boars remained in the city.
Homeless animals
Homeless animals, most notably dogs and cats, stand somewhat apart from the urban fauna. Currently, a lot of attention is being paid to this problem, since, on the one hand, these animals are potentially dangerous to humans. They worsen the sanitary and epidemiological situation because they can carry various diseases, which can affect not only other animals, but also humans (rabies, leptospirosis, dirofilariasis, toxoplasmosis, helminthiases and others), yet every year quite a large number of people are suffering from attacks by wild animals. Abandoned by their owners, dogs can form groups large flocks. While defending their territory, they sometimes show aggression towards humans. According to official data for 1999 alone, more than one hundred owl bites per 100 thousand inhabitants were recorded in Moscow. On the other hand, many of the methods used to control the numbers of these animals are often inhumane and uneconomical. The latter concerns the problem of capturing animals with their subsequent euthanasia (destruction or killing). Until now, this method is one of the most common in Russia. However, the complete extermination of, for example, stray dogs in the area leads to their ecological niche are occupied by other stray dogs or cats, or, even worse, gray rats, and this entails new problems.
In many large European cities, the USA, Hong Kong, and Singapore, less cruel means are now increasingly being used to reduce the number of such animals, for example, methods of mass sterilization and castration. Also of great importance are public organizations and private individuals who create shelters and hotels for homeless animals, where they can not only receive food, but also the necessary qualified veterinary care. Effective method is also the elimination of potential den sites where offspring can be raised without interference (open basements, heating mains, abandoned and mothballed construction sites, etc.).
However, in order for these methods to be as effective as possible, it is necessary to pay attention to information and educational work and carry it out both among ordinary citizens and among catchers, veterinarians, and guardians.
In the fauna of Russia there are 312 species of mammals, including acclimatized representatives of the faunas of other continents (musk ox, raccoon, American mink, Canadian beaver, muskrat, etc.).
The species composition of the population of mammals, like other groups of vertebrates, is subject to seasonal changes, but to a lesser extent. Overcoming negative consequences seasonal changes carried out differently. Most species are characterized by a sedentary lifestyle. Very few, mostly large mammals(saiga, reindeer etc.) make seasonal migrations over larger or smaller distances. Some species avoid unfavorable seasons by spending them in hibernation or falling asleep during sharp drops in temperature (brown and black bears, badgers, marmots, ground squirrels, hamsters and hamsters, dormice, etc.). Many the bats fly away to the south for the winter, and those that remained throughout the entire period from low temperatures sleep in caves and other shelters.
In winter, individuals of those species are active, although they have access to food. Most of them are herbivorous mammals: small animals leading a snowy lifestyle (voles, mice, lemmings, etc.), medium-sized animals (hares, beavers, squirrels, musk deer, etc.) and large animals (elk, Noble deer, roe deer, etc.) feeding on twigs and rags in winter. Omnivorous mammals are active in winter - wild boar, wolverine, sable; carnivores (hunting warm-blooded animals) - wolf, fox, corsac fox, ferrets, ermine, weasel, weasel, solongoi, harza, lynx, etc. and piscivores - otter, European and American mink.
In the spring-summer period, associated with reproduction in most species, the population of mammals is characterized by the greatest species diversity and total abundance. The breeding season determines the subsequent state of most mammal populations and their life expectancy. This time (late spring - early summer) was chosen to reflect the patterns of their distribution on the map.
Since food resources and protective conditions in habitats change from year to year, and the efficiency of reproduction depends on them, the total abundance of territorial groups of mammal populations is subject to long-term fluctuations, which are characterized by large amplitude in the north and in non-forest habitats. The map and legend reflect the average state of mammal population complexes in the spring-summer period, derived from long-term observations.
The population of mammals naturally changes in accordance with the natural and human-induced heterogeneity of their habitat. On the plains and in the mountains, it generally obeys general geographic patterns of distribution of heat and moisture, perceived by biological complexes through the heterogeneity of the habitat.
The boundaries between types and regional variants of mammal population complexes are drawn along the lines dividing different conditions their habitat. The habitats of mammals are heterogeneous in composition, abundance and availability of life-sustaining resources.
Among mammals, there are quite a few ecologically flexible species, widely distributed throughout Russia and mastering a variety of life-sustaining resources in a variety of habitats. Their participation in most territorial groupings leads to smoothing out differences between types and regional variations of the population, especially in forests.
Many mammal species are rare. Rarity may be natural, naturally conditioned, since the territory of Russia includes peripheral parts of their ranges, where relatively favorable conditions habitats are distributed unevenly and in small areas. The rarity of other species (especially large ungulates and animals with valuable fur - otter, muskrat, beaver, flying squirrel, etc.) is associated with negative changes in habitats under the influence of economic activity of people. In areas of industrial development of territories, the area and diversity of forest habitats are reduced, and natural and artificial reservoirs become unsuitable for life. During the construction of railways and highways, oil and gas pipelines, obstacles arise for mammals whose seasonal movements are associated with the spatial separation of their habitats (reindeer, elk in the north, saiga in the south).
Under conditions of annual plowing of land, a significant portion of individuals survive only small mammals, whose burrows are located below the arable layer. Autumn and especially spring plowing leads to mechanical destruction of the burrows of small animals and the extermination of animals by birds following the tractor. The most negative impact on herbivorous mammals is sharp fluctuations in the amount of food in the fields, the abundance of which is limited to 1 - 1.5 months. In such conditions, only animals that stockpile food (hamsters, hamsters, gophers) are able to survive. Therefore, the dominant ones in the population before plowing different types gray voles are replaced by hamsters, the number of which is never excessively high. Voles move and concentrate in bushes, forest belts, meadows and weeds along the boundaries. Their density there is much higher than that in natural conditions. As a result, territorial groupings of mammals that are uniform in abundance and species composition are formed in forest and field habitats.
Human economic activities can have positive consequences for mammals. For example, small cutting areas at different times help to increase the availability of branch food, which is used by elk and hare. Protective conditions at cutting sites are favorable for the growth of the number of small mice. Following them, the abundance grows carnivorous mammals feeding on these rodents. The growth of the number of some species of game animals (wolf, wild boar, elk, etc.) was positively affected by consolidation in the central part of Russia settlements, which led to a reduction in the area of cultivated farmland. On abandoned lands, the life of animals is not affected by the disturbance factor and feed and protective properties habitats.
In completely changed and disturbed areas species composition mammals are extremely small (grey rat, house mouse), but their abundance is extremely high, never observed in natural conditions. These types of animals (synanthropes) are omnivores and can tolerate extremely high levels disturbances and make their homes in structures and buildings located near food sources. Synanthropes undertake massive movements from habitats that have become unfavorable to places where there is more food and more reliable shelter.
There are many cities that got their names in honor of animals. Many of them are quite large and famous throughout the world. Among them are not only Russians, but also German, American, Greek and even African. For example, the name of the capital of Uganda, Kampala, means “antelope” literally translated into Russian from the language of the tribes living there. The city of Ivry, France, was named after the wild. Alupka, the name of the city, which is located on the Crimean peninsula and was founded by the Khazars more than a thousand years ago, translated from Greek means fox hole. Located in the state of New York, a city called Buffalo was also named after the animal, because in English it means “buffalo” or “buffalo”. There are many more to discover interesting examples, if you dig a little deeper.
Stories of some cities
Vorkuta, a city in Russia that was founded in 1963, has a name that literally means “many bears.” Although there are no bears in the vicinity of this city.
The Belarusian city of Bobruisk is another matter. Here, according to chronicle data, at the time Kievan Rus There was a village whose main occupation was fishing and beaver hunting. In some countries of the world at the beginning of the last century, these animals practically disappeared. Belarus was no exception, but the authorities intervened in time and created the Berezinsky Nature Reserve for animals, which helped stop the disappearance of beavers in the country. The city has several monuments also dedicated to these animals, with which tourists from all over the world come to take photos.
The Ukrainian city of Lviv, as ancient chronicles report, was founded by Prince Daniil Glalitsky. But most often, city residents tell a romantic story about a lion who stole people who dared to walk alone in the forest, and a brave knight who saved people by killing the beast.
A city in the Yaroslavl region, Myshkin, has been known since the 15th century. At that time it was a small village. Its name is associated with a legend. One day the head of the village was resting on the banks of the Volga. His mouse saved him from the snake crawling towards him. Since then, the mouse has been a favorite animal of the city residents.
The Swiss city of Bern, founded in 1191, was named after a bear. Duke Berthold V swore an oath that he would name the city after the first animal he killed on a hunt. The bear became the trophy, and the city was given the name Bern. On German bear is translated as Bär.
Of course, these are not all cities that are named after animals. There are many of them, and their stories and origins of names are very interesting and exciting.
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