The fourth day of the Russian Geographical Society Festival was dedicated to the protection of animals. Guests learned about methods of studying rare leopards and tigers, who is a close relative of the polar bear from the archipelago of Franz Josef Land, what Pallas cats suffer from and which one of the wild cats of Russia has the longest tail.
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The irbis, aka snow leopard - is the most poorly studied representative of the cat family in Russia. At the beginning of a new day of the Festival visitors learned about the number of snow leopards in Russia - the country where the northern boundary of its range lays. Leading researcher at Sayano-Shushensky Reserve, Candidate of Biological Science, Victor Lukarevsky told the guests that an average female leopard brings 2-3 kittens. After reaching 6 months kittens start to go on the meat diet, and their favorite food is the capricorn. To solidify knowledge about the rare cat guests took a quiz, in which both children and adults participated with pleasure. After the competition, guests of the Festival saw a new documentary about the snow leopard, shot with photo and video traps installed in Sayano-Shushensky Reserve.
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The snow leopard’s neighbor - the Pallas’s cat - is also a rare species listed in the Red Book of Russia. Leading researcher at Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RAS, Candidate of Biological Science, Sergei Naydenko told the audience about this animal. In addition to those common to most species threats such as poaching and habitat loss, Pallas’s cat is threatened by diseases.
Together with colleagues from Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RAS, Naydenko tries to find an answer to the question of how a parasitic disease toxoplasmosis is dangerous for the Pallas’s cat and who infects the animals. To this end, scientists take blood samples from the animals of Daurskiy reserve, and from cats and rodents, hunted by Pallas’s cats.
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"We found 6 pathogens, including toxoplasmosis, leukemia, coronavirus, influenza and even feline AIDS - says Naydenko. - We have come to the conclusion that, most likely, domestic cats are not the sources of Pallas' cats toxoplasmosis. "
In this case, suspicion falls on rodents that feed the cats. However, it is too early to sum up the research.
One of the central events of the fourth day of the Festival was the lecture of the Head of the Standing expedition of RAS, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Vyacheslav Rozhnov.
The scientist spoke about the work of biologists on the study of animals and conservation of rare species. For example, in the Far East the road from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok divided the populations of Far Eastern leopards and Amur tigers into two parts. Scientists managed to identify the places where an ecological corridor for large carnivores can be created. The opinion of the biologists was considered, and a part of Vladivostok-Hassan railroad was laid in a tunnel to allow tigers and leopards roam freely.
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Genetic research have refuted the hypothesis existed previously and have proved that the snow leopard has subspecies.
"We can evaluate the ties of the animals with other populations - says Roznov. - For example, polar bears in the archipelago of Franz Josef Land have close family ties with animals from Svalbard, Iceland and Greenland. "
In addition, the scientists studied the routes of belugas. It was believed that white whales swim from the White to the Barents Sea and form a unite population. But within a year all the animals marked with radio beacons did not go beyond the White Sea. This suggests that there is a separate population, believes Roznov.
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Photo: Ilya Melnikov
