"Current status of diversity and peculiarities of the landscaping of mammals in the Arshata forestry (Katon-Karagay National Park)"

Abstract:

The article considers the diversity of mammals living in the territory of the Arshatinsky forest area, Katon-Karagay National Park: Altybay (1400-1500 m), Zhalgyz kungey (1400-1500 m), Sarybet (1500-1800 m), Shakabay (1500-1800 m), in the valley of the Bukhtarma River (1200 m above sea level), mountain ranges and watersheds. Materials on the frequency of occurrence of species are presented. Studies have shown that the species composition of the theriofauna, despite the similarity of the habitats, is different. 21 species of mammals were recorded on the territory of the Arshatinsky forest area. This is approximately 31% (n=68) of the mammals found in the Caton-Karagai National Park. Of these, 4 species of teriofauna live on Mount Altybay in the summer months, Zhalgyz kungey-4, Sarybet-5 , Shakabay-2, in the valleys of the Bukhtarma rivers-6 species. Their species ratio is different. Thus, 19% of all recorded mammals are found in the Altybay Mountains, Zhalgyz kungey-19%, Sarybet-24%, Shakabay-9.5%, Bukhtarma-28.5%. A high similarity coefficient is observed in species that live in mountain ranges, including among mammals whose habitats are located in river valleys. Among the mammals in the study area, 3 rare species were identified. They account for 14% of the total sample of mammals (n=21) living in this territory.

Key words: Katon-Karagai, Arshaty forestry, mammals, diversity, landscape, coefficient of similarity, rare species.

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Introduction:

It is known that the animal world is an invariable part of the biosphere. Anthropogenic impact on this part by people (in particular, the intensive development of new lands due to the development of mining, advances in technical sciences, pollution of the natural environment by industrial, agricultural and household waste) leads to an imbalance in ecosystems. One of the manifestations of the imbalance caused by the above factors leads to a decrease in the number of some animal species in nature. And the extinction of any species in nature is, first of all, a great tragedy for the human race (Sludsky [Sludsky] 1982; Lebedeva et al. [Lebedeva et al.] 2004).

The conservation of biological diversity, including animal diversity, is one of the major challenges facing the biological sciences, which has not stopped since the end of the 20th century and continues into the 21st century. The study of animal diversity helps to comprehensively know the qualitative (species composition) and quantitative dynamics of the fauna of a certain territory. Any animal species is a bioindicator, which can be used to determine changes in natural territorial complexes under the influence of various factors.

Currently, a number of studies of animal diversity are being carried out, the results of which are published in the materials of various international and republican scientific and practical conferences. However, such studies have not yet been carried out at their level in various regions of vast Kazakhstan. Even in the monograph “Mammals of Kazakhstan”, known to many specialists, data on mammals characteristic of mountain ranges are very limited. There are almost no published data on mammals in this region, that is, East Kazakhstan (Prokopov et al. [Prokopov et al.], 2000). And for individual sites of great theoretical and practical importance is the knowledge of the theriofauna species that permanently inhabit those places or occur in certain seasons of the year.

The purpose of the work is to study the diversity of the theriofauna of the Arshat forestry of the Berel branch of the Katon-Karagai National Park and the features of their location. As a result of the research, the distribution areas of rare mammals and professional animals in the landscape zones of the Katonkaragai State National Natural Park, the diversity of mammals and their location, collected as a result of various surveys carried out in each season, were presented, and the degree of similarity of the composition of the theriofauna of some mountains in the park was determined.