[Analysis of size structure of carnivorous mammals community and their preys in the northern part of Belarus]
2007
Shinkevich, E.P. | Sidorovich, V.E. | Sidorovich, A.A.,National Academy of Sciences (Belarus). Institute of Zoology
Research results of the analysis of size structure of carnivorous mammals community and their preys, variation bounds of the main measuring indices of carnivorous, calculation of correlation between carnivorous and their preys size as well as the determination of dependence between sizes of carnivorous mammals and their demographic domination (higher population density and biomass) in the northern part of Belarus were presented. In forest and valley ecosystems the following species were studied: Ursus arctos, Lynx lynx, Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes, Nyctereutes procyonoides, Martes martes, Mustela nivalis, Mustela putorius, Meles meles, Mustela erminea, Mustela lutreola, Mustela vison and Lutra lutra. Investigation results showed that the largest part in community total density belonged to small carnivores, while the proportion of large carnivores was the lowest. The group larger medium-sized carnivore predominated over other size groups according to biomass indices. In spite of the pronounced changes in population density of nine indigenous species which were caused by the naturalization of American mink and raccoon dog there were found no considerable changes in the total community density and biomass of structurally changed community of carnivorous mammals. Research results proved that substitution of indigenous carnivorous mammals species by the competitive acclimatized species was rather balanced in accordance with the potential biomass of carnivores. All studied morphological parameters of studied carnivores showed positive correlations according to all indices of prey weight. The average body mass of various carnivore species negatively correlated with their population density and positively correlated with population biomass
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