EXPANSION OF THE CROCIDURA LEUCODON IN BELARUS

Abstract

A modern assessment of the number and habitat boundaries of the Crocidura leucodon as a typical thermophilic synanthropic mammal species in the northern limits of the habitat in Belarus has been carried out.The most optimal method for assessing the relative abundance of Crocidura leucodon is a set of methods based on the analysis of undigested forage residues of the house owl A. Noctua and other owl species that nest or feed on the border of settlements.In agro-economic terms, C. leucodon can be considered a useful species, since invertebrates form the basis of its diet. In recent decades, the extension of the habitat of C. leucodon to the northeast has been established on the territory of Belarus. The dynamics of the abundance and the expansion of the habitat of C. leucodon in the south of Belarus are characterized by a further increase. From 1982 to 2021, the number of C. leucodon increases many times. The number of C. leucodon has increased 15 times in the southern part of Belarus over the past 30 years. There is a tendency of 3–4-year cyclical numbers. A noticeable increase in the number of C. leucodon was observed after a severe summer drought in 2015. Cyclical interannual increases in the abundance and chronological “impulses” of C. leucodon were observed after droughts and during especially warm winters.The appearance of C. leucodon in new places on the way of expanding the habitat coincided with a local increase in the species diversity of small mammals Micromammalia and an increase in the number of terrestrial insectivorous mammals: Soricidae and Vespertilionidae. A significant expansion of the area (from 51°50ʹ s.w. to 53°20ʹ s.w.) and the expansion of the number of C. leucodon on the territory of Belarus was observed during the warming of the climate after the transition of the average annual air temperature through 7,9° C (2015) in the initial band of the habitat.