Voronezh Nature Reserve: animals and plants. Nature of the Voronezh region - unique corners of the region's nature

Animal world Voronezh region, a historically established set of animal species living in a certain territory, consists of animals of different origins.

The fauna of the region is closely related to vegetation. In some areas in the steppes and fields you can find typical steppe animals - marmot, ground squirrel, voles, and a few years ago, very rare birds in our area - bustard and little bustard, listed in the Red Book. Brown hare, steppe polecat, jerboa, and mole rat are quite common. Of the reptiles - the steppe viper.

The fauna of forests is more diverse. In the oak forests there are numerous elk, wild boar, white hare, and wolves. Chiropterans are represented by several species, one of them is the bats. The world of birds is rich.

Forests differ from oak forests in their sparse fauna, but they fulfill important function conductors. It is along the pine forests, which extend predominantly from north to south, that northern species settle into the central and southern regions of the region. Prominent representatives northern species are jay, chickadee, and eagle owl. Squirrels, voles, and badgers are found everywhere in the forests. Quite a lot of birds - woodpeckers, thrushes, finches and others.

Numerous colonies of gulls, ducks and other waterfowl nest along the banks of reservoirs and in thickets of marsh vegetation.

In 1996, the Committee for the Protection environment Voronezh region in the series « Natural resources Voronezh region" a cadastre of vertebrate animals has been published. According to updated data, 70 species of mammals, 290 species of birds, 56 species and subspecies of cyclostomes and fish, 10 species of amphibians, and 9 species of reptiles are found on its territory. The army of insects is large - more than 6,000 species.

Thanks to the protection measures taken, the number of valuable fur-bearing animals - beaver, muskrat, muskrat, marten, hares, foxes and other species - has increased significantly.

Wild boars, elk, sika and red deer, and roe deer settled everywhere. Their numbers have increased to commercial levels, and this was facilitated by our nature reserves, hunting reserves, as well as scientifically based regulation of fishing.

The Voronezh State Reserve specializes in the protection and breeding of beavers, and the Russian muskrat is preserved in the Khopyorsky State Reserve.

The territory of the Voronezh region is home to a number of rare species that require protection (beluga, sterlet, European vendace, carp, Russian bystryanka - from fish; copperhead - from reptiles; black stork, greylag goose, whooper swan, wigeon, most birds of prey, Bustards, many representatives of Charadriiformes and other families of birds; muskrat, late leatherback, wood mouse, bandage - from mammals). Insects that require protective measures: the Apollo butterfly, the beauty beetle, the steppe rack and others.

Animals are of great economic importance. The essential function of insects is to pollinate plants. Many insects are natural regulators of the number of pests of forests and agricultural crops. Some animals have a significant impact on the health of the population of the Voronezh region, participating in the spread of pathogens (malaria, tularemia, hemorrhagic fever and other diseases).

Lesson 21 Fauna of the Voronezh region Goals and objectives of the lesson: a) educational - summarize interdisciplinary information and show general patterns of distribution of the animal world; promote the development of environmental thinking; b) developing - development cognitive interest; desire to independently search for information; using the computer as a tool for practical and educational activities;

c) educational - formation ecological culture; formation of a holistic picture of the world.

Equipment: Great encyclopedia Cyril and Methodius; computers, table: “Fauna of the Voronezh region”, projector.

During the classes:

1. Organizational moment.

2. Introductory speech by the teacher.

On the territory of the Voronezh Territory there are about 70 species of mammals, 290 species of birds, 9 reptiles and 10 species of amphibians, 50 species of fish, and over 10,000 species of insects. At the same time, some species are widespread, others are rare and need protection. Careful attitude deserve both. I give examples, there is a table on the board:

The territory of the region is located in two zoogeographic zones: forest-steppe and steppe. You can also divide animals into the groups in which they occur. Showing the table slide.

3. Work on the topic of the lesson.

Prepare reports about the animals of the forests, meadows and swamps, and reservoirs of the Voronezh region. Students are divided into three groups.

Group No. 1

Study the animals of the forest (using a computer and an encyclopedia, as well as a table on the board).

Prepare reports about forest animals (2-3 minutes for each species)

Group No. 2

Study the animals of the meadows and swamps (using the encyclopedia, as well as the table on the board).

Prepare reports about animals of meadows and swamps (1-2 minutes per view).

Group No. 3

Study the animals of the reservoirs of the Voronezh region (using the encyclopedia, table on the board).

Prepare reports about animals in water bodies of the Voronezh region.

The student works with a computer and prepares information about the fauna of the Voronezh region (15 minutes).

The corresponding animal is projected onto the board. For example: a student from the group talks at the board about a particular animal.

For example, Boar.

The wild boar, or wild pig, inhabited its former range, moving from the southwest to the northeast. The settlement proceeded from the Ukrainian-Belarusian habitat along river valleys. In 1946, wild boars were recorded in the Ostrogozhsky region. Here in the Tikhaya Sosna valley, they quickly multiplied, and in 1954 this population center amounted to more than 100. From here they moved north along the Don valley. In Voronezh reserves, wild boars appeared in 1950. Thus, wild boars settled primarily along river beds. The number of the species quickly increased and soon became sufficient to populate not only floodplain forests, but also small tracts on watersheds. In the Khoper forests, the wild boar population increased from 1950 to 1960 from 2 individuals to 50.

4. Summing up the lesson.

5. Homework: learn the animals of the Voronezh region in groups.

Forest occupies approximately 10% of the region's territory. There are big ones here forested areas, pine forests and oak groves. Small groves are also common. The banks of the rivers are covered with bushes (hawthorn, rose hips, vine). There are willows, willows and aspens. Backwaters with reeds, calamus, water lilies and other water-loving plants are common here. Unplowed steppe herbs remain in the region. About 1,000 plant species have been collected in the reserves of the Voronezh region, including 272 species listed in the Red Book. Mostly plants forest-steppe zone: Swamp blueberry, swamp cranberry, round-leaved sundew, umbrella winterweed and many others.

1 Blueberry

2 swamp cranberries

3 sundew rotundifolia

4 Umbrella wintergreen

Animals of the Voronezh region.

The fauna of this area is rich and diverse. The fauna includes more than 10 thousand species of insects, 10 species of amphibians and reptiles, 70 species of mammals, 300 species of birds. Foxes, wolves, weasels and stoats live here. There are many shrews and bats, as well as other animals of the forest-steppe. Beavers and muskrats are found in the reservoirs of the region. Large animals live in forests and forest belts: roe deer, red deer, elk, wild boar.

2 muskrats

3 red deer

The most common birds here are passerines. The vast expanses of the region are inhabited by storks, starlings, swifts, pigeons and crows. There are also many representatives of swamp-meadow game. There are dabbling ducks, corncrakes, waders, coots, and gulls. Shore swallows live on the steep banks, and bitterns and reed harriers live in the reed thickets. Swamp turtles, frogs and snakes live in the waters of rivers and lakes. There are a lot of fish in the rivers: bream, ide, catfish, pike perch, asp, sabrefish and carp. Animals listed in the Red Book live in Voronezh nature reserves. These are the golden eagle, white-tailed eagle and others. Their protection helps preserve rare species.

The Voronezh Nature Reserve is one of the most environmental protection zones in Russia, created during 1923-1927.

It was founded on the territory of the Voronezh region, first as a Beaver reserve, which later became a nature reserve.

Voronezh Nature Reserve. museum of nature photo

In the mid-1980s. The reserve received the status of a biosphere reserve, protected by UNESCO. At the end of August 2013, the institution received the name of the famous journalist and writer V. Peskov, as well as the status of a federal reserve.

Briefly about the Voronezh Nature Reserve

Located in Voronezhskaya (40 km from Voronezh) and Lipetsk regions, occupying an area of ​​31 thousand hectares. This is the territory of the forest-steppe zone, which covers the Usmansky forest, where there is a very rich flora and fauna.

beaver nursery photo

The reserve includes the following objects:

• Museum of Nature;
• Dendrological Park;
• Experimental beaver nursery;
• Monastery of the Holy Savior;
• An oak tree that is over 400 years old.

The largest exhibition exists in the Museum of Nature, opened in 1934, and which is almost the same age as the reserve. The total exhibition area is more than 820 square meters.

Monastery of St. Savior photo

They are divided into five huge halls, decorated in the form of artistic panoramas and dioramas, where you can see the following exhibitions:

• Animal and vegetable world;
• Collections of rare species of flora and fauna;
• A collection of antlers of a species of deer such as the European noble;
• Entomological collections.

Animals (fauna) of the Voronezh Nature Reserve

Fauna is represented by:

• birds - more than 200 species that live here permanently, while others fly in for the winter;
• mammals;
• fish that are found in rivers flowing through the reserve;
• cyclostomes;
• reptiles;
• amphibians.

Voronezh Nature Reserve. woodpecker photo

Among the birds, about 26 species live sedentary, these include: Tree Sparrow and Blue Tit, Pika and Magpie, Gray Crow and Pigeons, Woodpeckers, Eagle Owls and Owls, Goshawk and others.

The following types of birds fly to the reserve for the winter: Long-eared owls and siskins, bullfinches and goldfinches, linnets and crossbills, and nutcrackers.

The world of mammals living in forests and forest-steppe zones is quite diverse. In particular, there are: Red deer and roe deer, foxes and wolves, wild boars and beavers, raccoon dogs and ground squirrels, hamsters and mice, muskrats and rats, hares, muskrats and ferrets, pipistrelle and marten, jerboas and badgers, noctules and noctules, minks American and stoats, weasels.

The existence of several species has not been definitely proven, but research in this direction is ongoing.

The following species of mammals and birds were included in the Red Book: muskrat, imperial eagle, golden eagle, sea eagle, and short-tailed snake eagle.

Plants (flora) of the Voronezh Nature Reserve

On the territory of the reserve there are forests, represented by oak groves and oak forests, as well as more than 1 thousand species of plants. The following types of trees grow in the forests: pines, occupying more than a third of all plants, oaks - almost a third of the forests; aspen – almost 20%; birch; alder.

old-timer oak photo

Alder trees grow on the banks of the Ivnitsa and Usamani rivers. Among the plants you can find:

• Bryophytes;
• Lichens;
• Mushrooms.

The reserve is not an ordinary place where animals live, trees and many plants grow. Employees are actively research work, creating entertainment for visitors. For example, ecological trails, rope park, the museum's exposition is being replenished.

reserved fairy tale photo

The Beaver Museum, which has an interactive nature, began to function in the Scientific and Educational Complex. The life of beavers is open to all visitors, who live in a large two-level aquarium.

Ecological trails are fascinating places that are short in length but have a special energy. They stretch between centuries-old trees, in whose branches birds live.

Two trails attract attention - the Malaya Cherepakhinskaya and the Reserved Tale. The walk along the latter passes through the ancient Usmansky forest, the population of beavers from which became the reason for the creation of the reserve. While visiting the trail you can see quite rare species of animals.

handsome deer in the Voronezh Nature Reserve photo

A rather interesting place that adults and children like to visit is the beaver town. Interestingly, it began its work back in 1932. This is where you can look at the beavers, their activities, and take pictures.

Appearance red deer in these parts was not accidental. One of the former owners of the reserve brought several individuals here, which adapted and began to multiply quickly.

The relief is quite atypical for this region. There are many rivers, lakes, and northern-type swamps, near which berries grow - blueberries and cranberries.

Time flies slowly. Individual cities and entire states are disappearing into oblivion, and the appearance of vast spaces on earth is changing. Where the Central Black Earth economic region is now marked on maps, the Great Foresteppe used to stretch.

For centuries, the Great Foresteppe was the scene of a fierce struggle between the Slavs and nomads who inhabited it. The Polovtsians and Tatars more than once passed through it with fire and sword.

Only at the beginning of the 16th century. fortified cities are being built. At different distances from them, guard posts - “watchmen” - were established, which were located mainly on large roads, near fords across rivers, and large forests.

In the first half of the 17th century. historians note the rapid growth of the population of the Great Foresteppe. New cities are being built, ditches are being dug, abatis are being set up.

Beginning of the 18th century marked the acceleration and intensification of human impact on the nature of the Substeppe. At this time, more steppes were plowed than in the previous two centuries. The population density in the northern half of the forest-steppe increased to 42 people per square verst, while in the southern half it did not exceed 7. The majority of the population were serfs, whose main occupation was agriculture.

The appearance of the steppe has changed. Its characteristic feature is the striped pattern. Ribbons of black plowed earth alternated with strips of winter crops. The squares of stubble turned yellow, interspersed with litter - weedy areas of the previously raised steppe. Here and there along their edges towered stacks of hay and sheaves of bread swept into stacks.

Another important branch of agriculture was cattle breeding. It was most important where vast steppes still remained. Virgin steppes and fallow areas in the second half of the 18th century. preserved only in the southern districts of the Voronezh and Tambov provinces. Arable land there ranged from 23 to 50%, while in the northern counties the share of arable land reached 60%. Back in the 20s of the XIX century. In the Voronezh province, cattle breeding was the main occupation of the population. More than two hundred stud farms kept 12 thousand purebred horses, and in total in the Voronezh province there were about 572 thousand horses and 600 thousand heads of large cattle. It is the pastoralists who are responsible for giving the Foresteppe another, hitherto uncharacteristic, landscape feature. An integral attribute of the Prasol farms were steppe ponds - stakes set up for watering livestock. When strengthening earthen dams, the owners of reservoirs lined them with willows. Over time, it was possible to unmistakably determine the location of the pond from the trees sticking out far in the steppe.

Simultaneously with the plowing of the steppes, further deforestation took place. In 1701, by decree of Peter I, at the mouth of the river. Crows prepared 53 thousand logs for firing bricks and lime alone. For the needs of the Admiralty, the Shipov Forest and forests near Kostensk, previously considered impenetrable, were cut down.

The gradual reduction of suitable habitats and direct persecution by humans could not but affect the number and distribution of animals in the Foresteppe. First of all, this affected those species whose life required large areas of forest, vast steppe spaces, and quiet places rarely visited by people.

From the first years of settlement of the region, the life of the inhabitants of fortified settlements - “fortifications” - was closely connected with animals. As evidenced by archaeological data obtained during excavations of two ancient settlements near the village. Borshchevo on the Don and in the Kuznetsov tract on the river. Voronezh, the basis of the settlers' diet were beavers and ungulates, which accounted for 80% of all animal remains found in kitchen waste. The share of beavers there was 39, ungulates - 42% (Barabash-Nikiforov I.I., 1957).

In the 17th century The beaver (Castor fiber L.) was highly valued, therefore, when describing estates, estates and cares, beaver lands were especially highlighted. In the second half of the seventeenth century, south of the river. The Seim also encountered vast steppes, abundant in ungulates. Historical sources relating to the southern Trans-Don forest-steppe and dating from the 50s and 60s of the 17th century provide a lot of information about elk camps, stalls and bathing places, about “Goat” camps and stalls, about “pig lairs” and “prorysks”. These animals were found at that time in the upper reaches of the river. Tsna, in the basins of Lesnoy and Polny Voronezh, Vorona and Khopra. Separate mention was made of the presence of these species in the Tellerman Forest. Deer were rarely seen in these places. IN late XVII V. There has been a worldwide reduction in the ranges of elk, deer, roe deer and wild boar. Bison, according to historians, were no longer found in the Voronezh forest-steppe after 1709. In the Voronezh province by 1781, elk (Alces alces L.) were also not found. A large decrease in the number of moose occurred between the Don, Khopr and Medveditsa. At the beginning of the 18th century. roe deer (Cervus elaphus L.) lived everywhere in the Voronezh province, but in response to later inquiries from the Academy of Sciences (1781), only Bobrovsky district reported that there were wild goats there, and even then only occasionally. Deer (Cervus elaphus L.) in the central black earth forest-steppe at the end of the 19th century. kept only in menageries.

TO mid-18th century V. The forest-steppe south of the Voronezh Territory in some places retained pristine natural features. Forests did not undergo the same decline that occurred in subsequent decades, and arable land occupied only a small part of suitable land. As N.A. Severtsov, one of the founders of Russian ecology, testifies (1855), the feather grass steppe in many places was preserved in its “original” form. A typical bird of this steppe - the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax L.) - was found in those years during migrations in flocks of several thousand individuals.

However, even then, as ravine forests and small forest “islands” were cut down in steppe depressions and under the influence of profound changes introduced into the nature of the steppe by plowing vast areas, processes of restructuring of the wild steppe fauna quickly developed. There was a reduction in the number speckled ground squirrels, hamsters and underground rodents, mole rats, which replaced them in large numbers gray voles. The bandage (Vormela perigusna Guld.) is a motley ferret that hunts gophers and was previously common in the southeast of the Voronezh province, by the time of N.A. Severtsov’s observations it had already become extremely rare. Marmots (Marmota bobacMuller.) have practically disappeared.

On the contrary, the fauna of the fields has not yet fully formed; the animals have not yet adapted to the new conditions produced by the cultivation of the land.

The final formation of the landscape of the modern forest-steppe ended by end of the 19th century V. By this time, there was little virgin steppe left even in the south of the Voronezh province, and in other areas of the Central Russian forest-steppe only small areas survived. Large areas the forests were cleared, and in the remaining ones there was a change of species. Forest cover in Voronezh province was 8%. Most of the forests were cut down. Only isolated scatterings of small forested islands along ravines and ravines have survived, and in some places forests have been preserved along the river valleys - Voronezh (Usmansky Forest), Khopra (Tellerman Massif), Bityuga (Khrenovsky Forest).

In the first half of the 19th century. The most dramatic changes among ungulates occurred in the southern part of the Central Black Earth Region. Describing the fauna of the Voronezh province, N. A. Severtsov (1855) classifies wild boar and roe deer as extinct species, but does not mention elk and deer at all. Wild boars (Sus scrofa L.) were found in the southernmost part of the province until the end of the 18th century, and the last specimen was killed in the Bityug forests in 1820.

With the plowing of virgin steppe lands and clearing of forests, the process of drying out swamps and shallowing of rivers intensified. It reached its peak in the 70s of the 19th century. As a result, the living conditions of aquatic animals and, first of all, beavers and muskrats have deteriorated significantly. There was a widespread decline in their numbers, and in many places these animals disappeared completely (Fig. 63).

By the end of the 19th century. The Great Foresteppe was already a Great Arable Land. Plowed land was more than 60%. For the fauna of the Voronezh region, this meant the transition of many species to complete dependence on humans. In order to survive, it was necessary to adapt to the changed “home” and develop new habitats. Some people got used to it quickly, some experienced these changes painfully, others were unable to adapt at all. First of all, this affected the “steppe people”. It is not for nothing that the marmot, bustard (Otis tarda L.), little bustard and bandage took places on the pages of the Red Books of the USSR and RSFSR.

By the mid-50s of the XX century. On the territory of the Voronezh region, the only small colony of marmots remained on the lands of the Institute of Agriculture named after. V.V. Dokuchaev in the Talovsky district (Barabash-Nikiforov I.I., 1957). However, since 1962, information about encounters with bobak again began to arrive from the southern regions, where the animal apparently entered from the Ukrainian steppe reserve, Rostov region, and perhaps even local micropopulations that have survived here and there. In the next ten years, he populated the beam systems of the Bogucharsky and Kantemirovsky districts (Semago L.D., Ryabov L.S., 1973). At the same time, the secondary adaptation of the bobak to life on the slopes of ravines, narrow strips of deposits, as well as the construction of burrows in the fields was affected. In 1975, its number was estimated at approximately 3.5 thousand individuals, and by 1982 - already at 6.5 thousand (Ryabov L. S. et al., 1983).

Peculiar settlements of marmots formed in many farmsteads abandoned by man; holes there were usually located under the preserved foundations of huts and in dilapidated basements.

Not everywhere the transformative activity of man has benefited this animal. Thus, the creation of a powerful network of shelterbelts at the already mentioned Institute of Agriculture brought the aboriginal population of marmots to the brink of extinction. The fact is that forest plantings over time caused a significant increase in groundwater, and this, in turn, led to the massive death of animals. It was especially significant in 1975.