Local plant species in Eurasia. Eurasia
The complexity of the natural conditions of Eurasia, the uneasy structure of the relief, the large contrast of temperatures - all this greatly influenced the entire fauna of the largest continent, making it diverse and unique.
The fauna of forests in different regions of Eurasia is more differentiated.
Many large mammals live in the European part, such as red deer, brown bear, roe deer. In the mountain forests and reed thickets of Asia, you can find bamboo and black Himalayan bears, leopards, pandas. Alligators, turtles, freshwater crabs, scorpions are widespread. In India and Indochina, there are a large number of monkeys, many reptiles, in particular poisonous snakes.
Typical representatives of the taiga fauna of Eurasia are lynx, elk, bear, wolverine. Reindeer, white hare, arctic fox are often found in the tundra. On the desert plateaus and mountain ranges of the continent, the species composition is relatively poor, ungulates and rodents predominate. In the steppes of Eurasia, the saiga is found, as well as ground squirrels, various mice, and the steppe ferret. In the fauna of the southern part of Eurasia, which has pronounced tropical features, there are often primitive predators, amphibians and reptiles, which are almost absent in the northern parts of the continent.
Many animals of Eurasia, including bison, Ussuri tiger, tur, are on the verge of extinction. The number of mountain goats, deer, wolves and bears has been greatly reduced.
Of the birds, hazel grouses and black grouses, partridges and capercaillies, as well as a great many songbirds, also live in the forests. Thrushes and orioles, warblers and warblers, nightingales and tits - all of them inhabit the forested area of the mainland in large numbers. It should be noted that there is a wide variety of waterfowl. Also swallows, sparrows, rooks, crows, pigeons, cuckoos, rooks, storks settle near human habitation. Many birds are migratory. Therefore, at a strictly defined time, gathering in large flocks, geese and ducks, cranes and rooks, storks and swans fly to the south, and bullfinches fly to the north with the onset of heat.
In the rivers and lakes of the middle zone, there are pikes and crucians, carps and burbots, catfish and roach. Representatives of the salmon class are also frequent. In the same place, on the rivers, you can find a muskrat, an otter and a great toiler - the beaver.
Common types
Badger
It inhabits almost all of Europe, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, the Crimea, Asia Minor and Central Asia, South and Central Siberia, the south of the Far East, Eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan.
The badger has massive, short legs, resting on the ground with the entire foot. The fingers have long blunt claws adapted for digging. On the face of the animal, you can see two dark stripes stretching from eyes to ears. Inhabits, as a rule, in mixed and taiga, less often in mountain forests; in the south of the range occurs in steppes and semi-deserts. It adheres to dry areas, but near (up to 1 km) water bodies or swampy lowlands, where there is more food.
The badger lives in deep holes, which digs along the slopes of sandy hills, forest ravines and gullies. It is worth noting that badgers from generation to generation adhere to their native places. According to research results, some of the badger towns are several thousand years old. Solitary individuals use simple burrows with one entrance and a nesting chamber. The badger has a very important economic value: it destroys pests, especially the larvae of the May beetle, thereby bringing great benefits to agriculture. Badger hide is of little value, but hair is used to make brushes.
Brown bear
A male brown bear can reach a length of 2.5 m and a body weight of up to 500–750 kg. In appearance, the brown bear is clumsy, although in reality it is very agile and dexterous: it can run quickly, make large jumps, climb trees, and swim.
He moves like a pacer, that is, he alternately steps on both right and left paws at once. Leaning on the entire foot, it can rears up, stretching up to a height of 3 m. The brown bear runs faster uphill than on level ground, since its hind legs are longer than the front ones. He walks through the forest carefully and almost silently. Unlike a polar bear, it avoids diving and plunges into the water, leaving its head outside. In a quiet time he walks slowly, putting his feet a little inward, justifying the popular name "clubfoot".
Another name "honey, after all" is associated with the fact that this animal loves honey very much and knows (knows) where to look for it. After him, he climbs into tall trees in hollows with honeycombs of wild bees, often makes forays into apiaries. By way of life, the brown bear is a crepuscular animal. During the day, it hides in the wilderness of the taiga and only in the evening goes out in search of food. The forest provides him with abundant and varied food. At the beginning of summer, he eats young shoots, roots, bulbs, later - mushrooms, berries, acorns, nuts. In autumn, it goes to fields with oats or corn, where it does more damage by crushing the ears and stems of plants. In the Caucasus, he visits groves of wild fruit trees, willingly eating pears and cherry plums; in Central Asia, he eats pistachios, grapes, apricots, going to their plantations. Sometimes it gets out on the outskirts of large orchards, dropping apples and pears with ripe fruits. In the forest, he unfolds ant heaps, rips off the bark from old stumps, catching bark beetles and other insects. On the way, it eats eggs and chicks from nests on the ground, catches small rodents, frogs. During the course of fish in taiga rivers (in Kamchatka and the Far East), he catches it off the coast and eats it in large quantities. On occasion, it attacks moose, wild boars, reindeer, cows and horses. It often feeds on carrion.
Brown bears live 35-50 years. In the past, these animals were common inhabitants of the forest zone, but as a result of intensive felling, plowing of fields and excessive hunting of bears, a little more than 100 thousand heads have survived in Russia. Bears are hunted mainly for tasty meat, healthy, vitamin-rich fat and warm, albeit very heavy skin, which is relatively cheap. The protection of some subspecies of brown bears has become necessary.
Bison
Large European bull. The bison is the heaviest and largest land mammal in Europe, but at the same time, already in late XIX century, there was a tendency towards a decrease in the size of the European bison. Even in the first half of the 20th century, there were adult males of the Belovezhskiy subspecies, reaching a mass of 1200 kilograms. Lives in flat, partly swampy or mountain forests. Eats grass, leaves, tree shoots, bark. In the morning and in the evening he goes out to graze in the meadows, and in the middle of the day he lies in the forest, chewing gum. In hot weather, he goes to a watering hole twice a day. Bison keep in groups: mother with calves or only adult bulls. The differences between the bison and the American bison are negligible. The bison has a higher hump, different in shape, longer horns and a tail. The bison's head is set higher than that of a bison. The body of a bison fits into a square, while a bison fits into an elongated rectangle, that is, a bison has a longer back and shorter legs. In the hot season, the back of the bison is covered with very short hair, almost bald, while in the bison, the coat is developed all over the body at all seasons. Both species are approximately the same in size, although the American bison looks more compact and stronger due to its squat.
Boar
Description. By outward appearance similar to the common domestic pig, which is the descendant of a domesticated boar. It is characterized by a strong development of the front of the body, in comparison with which the back is much lower and seems weak. The head is large and massive. Canines are highly developed, especially in males: lower, sharp and triangular, directed upward; the upper ones are blunt and sometimes curved so strongly that their ends are bent upward. In females, the canines are weaker, the upper ones are not bent and do not protrude outward. The sizes of wild boars in different areas are not the same. Males from the Caucasus reach a length of 205 cm, with a height at the withers of up to 120 cm. The weight of adult animals in different subspecies ranges from 48-50 to 320 kg.
The hairline is highly developed. In winter, it consists of long, split at the end of the bristles, which form a mane on the back, and a thick undercoat. The color of the bristles is dark brown with light ends, grayish, sometimes almost white. Thick chestnut-brown undercoat. The overall coloration varies both due to geographic distribution and individually. The most characteristic of wild boars is a dark brown or dark brown color, with darker colored legs, sometimes completely black. With lengthening of the light-colored ends of the bristles, the boar acquires a lighter color. Summer hairline consists of sparse short bristles, the undercoat falls out. The color in summer is brownish-gray, sometimes ash-gray. Piglets' coloration is very peculiar and consists of alternating dark brown and light longitudinal stripes.
Wolf
A very smart predator. In the Far North, wolves are larger, in the south - smaller. The wolf loves open places: it is easier to catch prey there. It runs beautifully, quickly, as if it creeps along the ground. The wolf chooses a pair for itself for life. And wolves often hunt together: one sits in ambush, and the other drives prey at him. Wolves have their own communication system. They use howling, howling, whining, grunting, growling, yapping, barking, and even different movements for communication. Hearing is best developed in a wolf. The color of wolves often corresponds to the places in which they live. For example, desert wolves have a reddish tint, tundra wolves have white, and forest wolves vary from light gray, gray-brown to black. It has been proven that the wolf has better mental abilities than the dog. Scientists at the Vienna Veterinary University conducted an experiment in which 15 mongrel puppies and 14 wolf cubs, six months of age, participated. All animals participating in the experiment were shown how a trained dog uses its teeth and paws to open a wooden box with food. Then each puppy was able to try to cope with the same task on its own. The result amazed the scientists, only 4 mongrels coped with the task, but all 14 wolf cubs were able to open the box using the same techniques as a trained dog. The experiment proves that cubs remember well and are able to learn.
musk deer
The smallest forest hoofed animal is musk deer from the group of deer. The musk deer has no horns, but the upper canines are highly developed. In males, they protrude far outward. The musk deer feeds mainly on tree lichens. The male has a pouch on the ventral side that contains musk, a special substance with a strong odor that is used in perfumery.
Sable
The most valuable fur animal, the sable, lives in the most remote parts of the taiga, most often in areas overgrown with tall trees, littered with windbreaks and dead wood, crossed by streams and rivers. The sable also loves the impassable thickets of dwarf cedar on the stony slopes of the mountain spurs. After these thickets are covered with a thick layer of snow, the sable finds in them an excellent refuge from their enemies, and it is almost impossible to get it there.
Sable reluctantly climbs trees and arranges its nests under tree roots, in hollows located not high from the ground, or in crevices of rocks. Sable is distinguished by his attachment to the area of the taiga forest that he once chose for life.
Hare
The largest hares - white hares live in the tundra, in Western Siberia, their body length reaches 70 centimeters, and their weight exceeds 5 kilograms. The smallest whites are in the taiga of Yakutia, they weigh no more than 3 kilograms. The hare's ears are not very long, they are bent forward; they reach only the tip of the nose and slightly exceed it. The tail of the animal is white, with an admixture of dark hair. The tail is relatively short and rounded. The hare's paws are wide, and the feet are covered with thick hair, which provides better support in the snow. The color changes depending on the season. In summer, the fur on the back is brownish brown, the sides are light, and the belly is white. In winter, the animal is dressed in pure white fur, but the tips of the ears remain black. Winter fur is thicker and longer. A means of protecting the hare from pursuit is a fast run and confusion of tracks, the so-called "doubles" and "discounts", dead ends of tracks that make it difficult to track down.
Harvest mouse
A small animal with a body length not exceeding 12 cm, and weighing 31 g. Long small tail, slightly elongated body, covered with soft hair. The color of the vole is from dark brown to gray. The field mouse is widespread in Europe and Asia (Siberia, Baikal). Lives in fields, meadows, on the edges of deciduous and mixed forests and near rivers in burrows dug shallow in the soil.
Each mink has several entrances and a nesting chamber built from dry stems, twigs, leaves, grass and other natural “materials”. The field mouse is more active at night than during the day. In this chamber, mice rest during the day, waiting for their nocturnal adventures in search of food. They feed on seeds of various plants and insects. Nutritious feed is scattered throughout the field. To find it, voles have to travel long distances from their homes. She is helped in this by a long tail, which is a "balancer" and, of course, well-developed legs, which help the animal to run very fast.
At the age of two months, the field mouse is already capable of sexual reproduction. She brings offspring up to 4 times a year, each time bringing 4-8 mice. Cubs are born blind, but they develop quickly, feeding on mother's milk. On the 12-12th day, the mice begin to see clearly, and after 2 weeks they begin to lead a more independent life. The vole is good at hiding, running and hiding in case of danger. It is extremely difficult to see the animal.
Frogs
These are tailless amphibians. There are a lot of frogs, they are all different, but, in general, they are similar: the body is short, there are no neck, tail and outer ears, the hind legs are two to three times longer than the front ones. They move by jumping. Eggs spawn in the water, tadpoles hatch from them and, growing up, turn into frogs. Vision in frogs is arranged in such a way that they can simultaneously look forward, sideways and upward. They never close their eyes for a long time, even during sleep. The moist skin of frogs has antibacterial properties. Our ancestors, knowing this, threw them into milk so that it would not turn sour.
Jerboa
It is difficult to imagine how many rodents are destroyed by feathered and four-legged predators. And yet, as long as conditions are favorable for the reproduction of rodents, predators cannot stop the growth of their number, they only restrain it. But gradually the rate of reproduction of rodents decreases: lack of food, intense competition due to burrows and habitats, and finally, a special state of the organism that occurs during overpopulation, lead to a drop in their fertility.
Such mass reproduction of steppe mouse-like rodents usually occurred once every 10–11 years, but it is difficult to establish a strict periodicity here. In our time, a man who plowed up almost all the steppes of the planet has made significant changes to this picture. Where agricultural technology is at a high level, correct crop rotations are observed, and birds of prey nest in forest shelter belts, mass breeding of rodents is simply impossible. Where the rules of agricultural technology and the system of crop rotation are grossly violated, and our friends predators are killed or dispersed, the number of mouse-like rodents increases sharply almost every autumn. Fighting them with pesticides is expensive, dangerous and ineffective.
Wood grouse
It is a large relative of the chicken. Lives in coniferous and mixed forests. In summer, he pecks berries, flowers, leaves, insects on the ground - and all at a run. In autumn and winter it feeds on trees: needles, young twigs, buds, rowan. In winter, dives from a tree into the snow at night. Takes off hard, noisy, low and not for long. In early spring he talks, calling for a friend. It starts in a tree: raises and lowers its tail, throws its head back and slowly walks back and forth along a branch. Then it sinks lower, lower and flows already on the ground. While turning, the capercaillie hears nothing, that's why they named him that. Capercaillie builds a nest in a hole on the ground, lays up to 16 eggs.
goose
Famous waterfowl. Flies south in winter. In summer, the couple builds a nest on the shore - in the grass or in thickets. The goose lays it out inside with fluff: plucking it out from itself, and sometimes from daddy. The clutch contains more than 5 eggs. Chicks, having dried, immediately begin to run, swim, dive, look for food - under the supervision of their mother. Geese have horny plates on the edges of their beaks. Through them, the water is filtered, and algae, aquatic insects, mollusks remain in the beak. On land, the geese nibble on the grass while feeding.
Steppe eagle
Before it gets dark, long-eared owls fly out to help the daytime predators, and long-eared owls fly from the nearest woods in the river valleys and old forest belts. Their bloody feast lasts all night, in which four-legged predators take part - wolves, foxes, corsacas, steppe ferrets, ermines, weasels, badgers. Rodents are found in the stomachs of steppe vipers, patterned snakes and water snakes; they are eaten and fed by their chicks by herring, gray-gray and river gulls, which fly far out into the steppe to hunt. Rooks, hooded crows and magpies successfully pursue rodents, even in a large sandpiper - a large curlew, young voles were found in the stomach. Steppe giants, bustards, swallow both young and adult animals several pieces at a time, gladly diversifying their vegetarian table with them.
Page 1
Animal world Eurasia is very diverse. The distribution of modern wild fauna over the territory depends on the characteristics of natural conditions and on the results of human activities. The most common large mammal in the tundra is the reindeer. Arctic fox, lemming and white hare are also found in the tundra. Of the birds, the most common are ptarmigan and tundra partridge. In the summer, seagulls, loons, eiders, geese, ducks, and swans fly to the tundra. The fauna of the forest zone is best preserved in the taiga. Wolves, brown bears, elks, lynxes, foxes, squirrels, wolverines, martens live here. From birds - black grouse, wood grouse, hazel grouse, crossbill. Steppe animals - steppe ferret, ground squirrels, various mice. Of the large animals, the saiga has survived. Birds are diverse - larks, swallows, falcons. In semi-deserts and deserts, reptiles, rodents, and ungulates predominate. Bactrian camels live in Central Asia, wild donkeys - kulans. In the mountain forests of South China, the bamboo panda bear, the black Himalayan bear, and the leopard have survived. Wild elephants still live on Hindustan and the island of Sri Lanka. India and Indochina are characterized by an abundance of monkeys, a large number of various reptiles, especially venomous snakes. Many animals living in Eurasia are listed in the Red Book: bison, Ussuri tiger, kulan, etc.
The large, northern part of Eurasia belongs to the Holarctic zoogeographic region; the smaller, southern, - to the Indo-Malay and Ethiopian regions (Fig. 20).
Rice. 20. Faunistic regionalization of Eurasia
The Indo-Malay region includes the peninsulas of Hindustan and Indochina together with the adjacent part of the mainland, the islands of Taiwan, the Philippine and Sunda islands, the South of Arabia, together with most of Africa, is part of the Ethiopian region. Some of the southeastern islands of the Malay Archipelago are attributed by most zoogeographers to the Australian zoogeographic area. This division reflects the peculiarities of the development of the Eurasian fauna in the process of changing natural conditions during the end of the Mesozoic and the entire Cenozoic, as well as connections with other continents. To characterize modern natural conditions, the ancient extinct fauna, known only in a fossil state, the fauna that disappeared in historical time as a result of human activities, and modern fauna.
At the end of the Mesozoic, a diverse fauna was formed on the territory of Eurasia, consisting of monotremes and marsupial mammals, snakes, turtles, etc. With the advent of placental mammals, especially predators, lower mammals retreated southward to Africa and Australia. They were replaced by proboscis, camels, horses, rhinos, which inhabited most of Eurasia in the Cenozoic. The cooling of the climate at the end of the Cenozoic led to the extinction of many of them or retreat to the south. Proboscids, rhinos, etc. in the north of Eurasia are known only in a fossil state, and now they live only in South and Southeast Asia. Camels and wild horses until recently were widespread in the inner arid parts of Eurasia.
The cooling of the climate led to the settlement of Eurasia by animals adapted to the harsh climatic conditions (mammoth, tur, etc.). This northern fauna, whose center of formation was in the Bering Sea region and was common with North America, gradually pushed the thermophilic fauna to the south. Many of its representatives became extinct, some survived as part of the modern fauna of the tundra and taiga forests. The drying up of the climate of the interior regions of the continent was accompanied by the spread of steppe and desert fauna, which survived mainly in the steppes and deserts of Asia, and partially died out in Europe.
In the eastern part of Asia, where climatic conditions did not undergo significant changes during the Cenozoic, many preglacial animals found refuge. In addition, an exchange of animals took place through East Asia between the Holarctic and Indo-Malay regions. Within its limits, such tropical forms as the tiger, Japanese macaque, etc. penetrate far to the north.
Cambridge: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Perspectives
Cambridge has always been an important city economically, socially and culturally, so there is no doubt about its further rapid development. Cambridge - along with Oxford, one of the most attractive higher educational institutions, it is the center of development ...
Textile industry
Recently, there has been a "migration" of this industry from the North Atlantic states to the South Atlantic, closer to areas of cheaper labor, cotton and synthetic fiber production areas, and sales markets. ...
Volcanism
One violent volcanic eruption can affect the climate, causing a cold snap lasting several years. For example, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 had a significant impact on the climate. Giant eruptions that form the largest magmatic ...
The largest poisonous snake, the king cobra, which reaches 5.5 m, also lives in the tropical forests of Asia. The female builds a nest from dry leaves, where she lays about 20 eggs and protects them until the offspring hatch. The masonry is also guarded by an ordinary spectacled snake, or Indian cobra, which is widespread in India and Sri Lanka. Of other poisonous and dangerous snakes with their bite, the closest relatives of cobras are characteristic - bungars, or steal, chain vipers, some shitomordniki and keffiys.
The composition and ratio of biological groups of birds and animals in the evergreen forests of Asia is quite consistent with the picture already known to us, characteristic of other continents. Let us dwell on some species and groups characteristic only of this land area.
Of the parrots typical of all tropical latitudes, in the Asian Gilea, as in Australia, species of the subfamily lorises are characteristic. They have a brush or special outgrowths at the end of the tongue, with the help of which these medium-sized and very brightly colored parrots collect the nectar of flowers and the juice of soft fruits. Of the hornbills, let's name the kalao, which is close in lifestyle to its African relatives. As in other areas, typical different kinds woodpeckers, beards, and from the order of passerines - pittas, larvaeaters, bul'byuli, thymelia, blackbirds, flycatchers, warblers, white-eyed, sunbirds. The family of leaflets is characteristic of the bul-bullet. They are small, often beautifully colored and well-singing birds with a brush on their tongue to collect nectar and fruit juice. The family of weed chickens is in common with the fauna of Australia.
The mammalian fauna of the rain and seasonal evergreen forests of Eurasia includes many ancient species and groups that are absent on other continents. At the same time, there are known examples of systematic (phylogenetic) similarities not only with Africa, but also with South America. An endemic group of animals are related to hedgehogs hymnuric. The most common is a large, almost 1.5 m, ordinary hymn. Its body is covered with a stiff dark-colored bristle, its long tail is scaly and hairless. The animal feeds on various small animals and fruits that have fallen to the ground, and reproduces at any time of the year. Among the fruit bats so characteristic of the tropics of the Old World, both the largest species, the Kalong, almost half a meter long, and the dwarf fruit bat, with a body length of 6-7 cm, live here. Kalong feeds on fruits and lives in large flocks. The pygmy fruit bat has adapted to the consumption of nectar. He has a very long tongue, so the animal can feed on the fly, hovering in the air in front of the flower. Of the other bats, it is possible to mention, completely devoid of hair. This species is common in Indonesia, Malacca and the Philippines, spends the day in caves, where many thousands of animals can gather.
Of the rodents, we note the small primitive long-tailed porcupines, brush-tailed porcupines, and landacs. Among the numerous and varied wood rodents, there are large, up to 3 kg ratufa squirrels, small crumb squirrels with a body length of 7-10 cm, excellent squirrels with very attractive color. Flying squirrels are also varied in appearance and size, possessing the ability to glide with the help of a woolly leathery membrane between the front and hind legs. The largest species (body length 60 cm), the taguan, is capable of covering a distance of 60 m. It is common in the forests of Burma, Sri Lanka and Eastern India.
Many predators also lead an arboreal way of life. First, as in Africa, various groups of viverrids are characteristic. Some of them eat fruits, in addition to small animals. Let us mention the Asian palm civet. Particularly characteristic of evergreen forests is the arboreal clouded leopard. The tigers and leopards that live here are also found in many other areas. In India and Indochina, you can often come across "brunettes" leopards (individuals of melanists, who are called black panthers).
Inhabiting the forests of Southeast Asia, the black-backed tapir has long become a classic example for faunists. His closest relatives live in Central and South America. The range of the tapir family is relict, in the Paleogene and Neogene these animals were widespread in most of Eurasia and North America. Several species of Asian rhinoceros are now threatened with extinction. For evergreen forests, a bearded pig, similar to our boar, is very typical. In many places, the number of these animals is still high. As in other continents, very small forest species of ungulates live in the Gilea of Eurasia. Asian deer are close to African species, the smallest species weighs only 2.5 kg. Among the deer, there are also small forest species, of which the muntjak weighing about 25 kg is widely known. Larger representatives of real deer, such as the Indian sambar, inhabit both humid lowland and dry or mountainous forests of tropical latitudes. Several species of deer that are characteristic of rainforests are now very rare. Also rare are many species of bulls (gaur, banteng, cuprey) and the wild Asian buffalo.
The order of primates in tropical Eurasia has a special primitive family of tupai. These are small arboreal animals, usually about the size of a squirrel, quite unlike their ape cousins. They feed on insects and other small animals, as well as fruits. The family, as it were, connects the rest of the primates with the order of insectivores, with which they have a lot common features in the building. Of the lemurs, thin and thick lorises live in the Asian gilea. All six species of the gibbon family and the orangutan, endemic to Eurasia, are the most adapted to life in trees among the great apes. Unfortunately, many gibbons and orangutans are rare endangered animals. The place of monkeys, characteristic of the forests of Africa, in Eurasia is occupied by a variety of different types macaques. In many areas, macaques are the most numerous of the monkeys. They live in herds, often descend to the ground, and often raid fields and plantations.
Within the zone of the equatorial forests of Eurasia, and even more so in the area of distribution of humid monsoon forests, very large areas are occupied by secondary communities that have arisen under the influence of human activities (felling and burning with the use of the vacated land for crops and pastures). Within the Malay Archipelago and Malacca, the secondary forests are called belukars. As in other areas, such groups are often difficult-to-pass thickets with the participation of thorny plants. In many places, regressive successions lead to the appearance of thickets of shrubs and patches of cereal tall grasses dominated by the impera, called ylang-ylang in Indonesia. The lanthanum bush is also very typical. On the Malacca Peninsula, the Brazilian rubber-producing hevea is now extremely widespread. Hevea is by far the most characteristic sight in most of the cultural landscapes of the area. In secondary communities, several species of bananas, bamboo, some palms, ferns, and numerous herbaceous vines are also typical.
With all the similarities between the secondary forests of the equatorial latitudes of Asia, as well as New Guinea, with the corresponding forests of Africa, the Asian ones are more diverse in terms of the set of species and the number of their groups. This is due to the general floristic and plant richness of Eurasia, as well as to the more complex geographic conditions of the southern edge of the continent (mountainousness, the presence of islands). In a more or less long time after human intervention, a forest close to climax zonal types is gradually formed again in the place of secondary communities. Interestingly, the forest on the site of the ancient Cambodian town of Anko Bat, destroyed about 600 years ago, is outwardly indistinguishable from the primary wet forest of this area, but upon closer examination, some differences can still be detected.
The production characteristics and biomass of the vegetation cover of humid monsoon and equatorial forests of Eurasia are the same as for similar zonal ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia.
The composition and participation in the biocenosis of various functional (mainly tropical) groups of organisms are also very similar for similar groups of different continents, although the species, genera, and even families of plants and animals can be completely different.
Red fox
The fox belongs to the genus of wolves. She is a very cunning and skillful hunter who can find a victim in her footsteps. Most often, rabbits or mice become its prey. Seeing them, the fox begins to chase and quickly catches up with its prey. The red fox has a well-developed hearing.
The fox also has a warm, beautiful skin and a beautiful tail. They live in burrows. An important object of the fur trade.
Facts
Name: Vulpes.
Dimensions: Body 45-85 cm in length; tail 30-50 cm in length.
Wednesday a habitat: forests, dry open area; increasingly cities and towns in Eurasia, North Africa, Asia, North America, Australia.
Reproduction: the female gives birth to four or five cubs; the gestation period is seven to nine weeks.
Food: rodents, rabbits, worms, insects, fruits, carrion, garbage.
Harvest mouse
Despite their small size, these rodents are busy eating almost all day. The field mouse lives in open areas, usually among cereal plants, the grains of which it feeds on. But this mouse also climbs trees well in search of leaves and fruits. Mice arrange their nests under tree roots and underground.
Facts
Name: Clethrionomys glareolus.
Sizes: up to 10 cm in length.
Wednesday a habitat: shrubs and forests in Eurasia, southern Scandinavia, western Russia.
Reproduction: The female gives birth two or three times, three to five cubs at a time, from spring to autumn; the gestation period is 18-20 days.
Food: seeds, fruits, buds.
Cormorant
Cormorant is a family of pelicans. They are large birds that feed on fish, They can dive to a depth of 23 meters and remain in the water for a full minute. Great cormorant is the most numerous species. The wings are relatively short, the tail is long and hard. Flocking birds, nest in colonies. The flight is fast, but not maneuverable.
Facts
Name: Phalacrocorax carbo.
Sizes: up to 95 cm in length; weighs up to 2.3 kg.
Wednesday a habitat: rocky shores; and lakes and rivers in North America, Eurasia, Africa and Australia.
Reproduction: the female lays 3-4 eggs in a nest usually made in the rocks and lined with seaweed.
Food: fish.
Weasel
Weasel is the smallest of the canine mammals. When hunting, weasels often attack a prey that is much larger than themselves, such as a rabbit. But mostly field mice become prey for weasel. Tracking mice, it rises on its hind legs in order to further see its prey. Weasels have clawed paws, a small tail, an elongated body and a bright white chest.
Facts
Name: Mustela nivalis.
Dimensions: 20-25 cm in length.
Wednesday a habitat: deciduous forests in Eurasia, North America, North Africa.
Reproduction: the female gives birth to one or two cubs annually; weasel nests are located underground between tree roots, in wall holes, between heaps of stones.
Food: small rodents, rabbits.
Tit
This energetic songbird is a close relative of the North American tit. She flies around trees and very often hangs on branches with her head down, looking for caterpillars and other insects. For a bird nesting in trees, the titmouse lays a lot of eggs - up to 16 in one nest. The tit has a blue spot on its head and also has blue wings and a tail.
Facts
Name: Parus caeruleus.
Sizes: up to 12 cm in length; weighing up to 10 grams.
Wednesday a habitat: forests in Eurasia, in northern Africa.
Reproduction: nests in hollows, female lays 6-12 eggs.
Food: small insects such as caterpillars and aphids; as well as seeds.
Sparrowhawk
Sparrowhawk hunts small birds. Like many birds of prey, it attacks its prey from the sky at a very high speed. The sparrowhawk's wings are wide and speckled, allowing it to turn with very high precision. It also has long, sharp claws. The hawk, catching its prey in the air, kills it only on the ground.
Facts
Name: Accipiter nisus.
Sizes: the male reaches 40 cm in length; female - 30 cm.
Wednesday a habitat: forests, steppes in Eurasia, in the northwest of Africa.
Reproduction: the female lays up to 5 eggs in a nest from branches and incubates them for about 5 weeks.
Food: birds, small mammals.
Deer
This beautiful forest deer belongs to nocturnal animals that stay awake at night and rest during the day. In the summer, his skin takes on a variegated color. Like all ruminants, the antlers of the male stag are much larger than those of the females. With the help of antlers, the deer scares away enemies.
Facts
Name: Dama.
Dimensions: 1.2-1.5 m in length.
Wednesday a habitat: deciduous forests in Eurasia
Reproduction: the female gives birth to one cub in June or July; soon he can run.
The belt of alpine vegetation - low-growing meadow grasses, turf grasses, sedges - is highly developed on the high ridges of Eurasia above the forest belt. For the Alps, the Caucasus and the Carpathians, as well as for the western and northern Tien Shan, subalpine and alpine colorful meadows are characteristic. Subalpine meadows are similar to plain ones: their herbage reaches 50-60 cm in height; there are many moisture-loving perennials. These meadows are subdivided into cereals, sedges, and herbs. In alpine meadows, there is a lower grass stand (10-15 cm) and the species composition of grasses is less diverse. Precipitation brings moist winds from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea to the high mountains. The snow accumulated over the winter gradually melts with the onset of a cool summer. At the very edge of the snow, on the soil constantly moistened by melt water, succulent squat perennial alpine grasses grow. They are distinguished by large flowers of bright color: yellow and orange - in buttercups, primroses, cinquefoil, poppy, blue - in gentian, pink and white - in mytniks, saxifrage, starlet, red and pink - in onions, blue - in forget-me-not, purple - in violets, alpine asters and many others. Alpine plants are cold-resistant, but cannot stand dryness.
Alpine monotonous green kobresia dense sod meadows in Altai, Pamir-Alai, Tien Shan, Tibet and the Himalayas strongly differ from typical alpine meadows. Here, the soil is almost entirely covered by various types of rhizome plants, mainly from the genus Kobresia (sedge family). They are mixed with low grains, some species of plants in alpine meadows. Cobresia meadows live on moisture from melting snow that fell during the winter and scant spring-summer precipitation. These are valuable summer pastures. In autumn, the vegetation on them dries up and turns yellow.
Below a strip of alpine meadows, at a distance from the snow line, especially in Altai, in the Dzhungarskiy Alatau, in the Northern Tien Shan and in the Caucasus, the highlands are covered with subalpine cereal-forb meadows. Plants develop here due to summer rainfall. These are very valuable alpine pastures and hayfields.
Where the climate of the highlands is more arid, at altitudes of 3000-3500 m on the syrts of the Central Tien Shan, in the ridges and uplands of the Pamir-Alai, Pamir, Tibet, Karakorum, Himalayas, with their cool summers, peculiar high-mountainous steppes, semi-deserts and desert. In the high-mountainous steppe expanses, the plant cover is dominated by the dense sod grass fescue, feather grass, wormwood, teresken, etc.
The Central Tien Shan and especially the Pamirs are characterized by high-mountainous deserts, stretching at an altitude of 3500-4900 m. Conditions here are extremely harsh. There is very little precipitation. The snow cover is negligible. The soil freezes deeply, and permafrost is formed. In winter, the temperature drops to -45 ° (on the soil surface), and in August rises to + 56 °. The vegetation cover is sparse. It is mainly composed of semi-shrubs, reaching only 20-25 cm in height: wormwood, cushion teresken, leafless shrub ephedra (Kuzmich-va grass), etc. In the highlands of the south of Central Asia and the Caucasus, in sharply continental conditions, a special type of vegetation is common - mountain xerophytes. They are highly drought-resistant, usually cushion-shaped thorny plants.
Herbaceous plants of the Alpine zone of the Caucasus: primrose, hazel grouse, gentian (from left to right). Herbaceous plants
Vegetation is different in the highlands of Siberia and the Far East. Extremely cold winters here have little or almost no snow. Permafrost is almost everywhere, so the vegetation has the character of tundra. Among the continuous cover of mosses and lichens, 3-8 cm thick, small dwarf shrubs and dwarf shrubs huddle: round-leaved birch, creeping myrtle willow, etc. From a distance these highlands seem bare, therefore they are called char.
Subalpine zone of the Caucasus: colchicum, saffron, large-cup primrose (from left to right).
In the lower part of the alpine belt stretches a strip of dwarf vegetation, transitional to the forest zone. In Siberia and the Far East, cedar, Siberian pine, Daurian and Ayan larch, Siberian fir take the dwarf form. In southern Altai, Central Asia and the Eastern Caucasus, juniper dwarf trees are widespread, in the Urals - shrub alder, in the Carpathians - green alder and mountain pine. In the Caucasus, dense dwarf thickets are formed by the evergreen Caucasian rhododendron shrub. Even lower, the high-mountain belt is replaced by the forests of the middle-mountain stage. In the Khibiny, in the Urals, in the mountains of Eastern Siberia, in the Carpathians, they are the same forest species that grow in abundance on the adjacent plains.
Mountain rainforest in the Himalayas. Fir with rhododendron undergrowth.
In the forest belt of the mountains of Central Asia and the Caucasus, forest species are peculiar, often found only here. Siberian fir is found only in the Dzhungarskiy Alatau. Farther south, in the Western Tien Shan, the Semyonov fir, which is close to it, grows. Siberian spruce is replaced by the Tien Shan spruce, which is widespread at altitudes of 1500-2850 m from the Dzhungarskiy Alatau to the Zaalayskiy ridge. A juniper with thornless needles, or juniper, forming a sparse forest is characteristic. In the Kopetdag, sparse forests of Turkmen juniper are combined with mountain steppe. In the mountains of Central Asia, many types of broadleaf trees grow: maple, ash, sycamore, walnut, etc .; shrubs - honeysuckle, rose hips, barberry, euonymus, cherry. Along the valleys of mountain rivers - willow, birch, poplar, alder, elm, sea buckthorn. The forest flora of the mountains of Central Asia is rich in fruit plants; walnut, pistachio, apple, cherry plum, pear, almond, cherry, apricot, wild grapes, hawthorn and many others are found in abundance here. The mountains of Central Asia are famous for many ornamental plants: tulips, irises, onions.
Caucasian rhododendron.
The most diverse in terms of tree species composition is the forest belt of the Caucasus in its western, humid part. In the upper strip (1200-1900 m), coniferous forests grow from hooked pine, eastern spruce, and Caucasian fir. Deciduous forests of beech, several types of oak, maple, hornbeam, birch prevail below. There are many evergreen shrubs here - cherry laurel, holly, Pontic rhododendron. Some of the once widespread tree species have now survived only in some places in the Caucasus. These are such relics of the Caucasian flora as real chestnut, dzelkva, yew, Eldar pine, Pitsunda pine, boxwood.
The forest belt of the Ukrainian, or Wooded, Carpathians, reaching 2663 m in height, is developed from the very foothills to heights of about 1800 m.There grow spruce forests with an admixture of fir, European cedar (cedar pine) and beech, mixed forests of oak, hornbeam, beech, European fir, maple, linden, occasionally yew, hooked pine.
The upper border of the forest in the Caucasus (Teberda).
The rich vegetation cover of the high mountains occupies an important place in the national economy of the USSR. Mountain forests and valuable mountain pastures are widely used. The water-protective, anti-erosion role of the vegetation cover of the mountains is invaluable. The flora of the high mountains is a treasure trove of useful, especially medicinal and ornamental, plants. Of the high mountains of Eurasia outside the USSR, the European Alps and the Himalayas are the most interesting in terms of the characteristics of the vegetation cover.
Tundra in the northern mountains.
The European Alps is a vast alpine country with the highest point Western Europe the top of Mont Blanc. Here falls from 600 to 3000 mm of precipitation per year. The border of eternal snows passes at an altitude of 2500-3200 m. Alpine meadows turn green in the high-mountainous zone, and subalpine tall-grass meadows below. Even lower, the forest belt begins with a predominance of conifers (spruce, fir, larch, cedar pine), and behind them are broad-leaved forests, mainly oak and beech.
On the northern slopes, the main ridge of the highest Himalayan mountains faces Central Asia with its sharply continental desert-steppe climate. The vegetation here is similar to the vegetation of the Pamirs and the highlands of Tibet, raised to a height of 4-5 thousand meters. The southern slopes of the Himalayas are already under the influence of the tropical monsoon climate. Up to 1000 m, they are covered with a tropical forest of giant trees braided with lianas. Ficuses and palms are characteristic. Bananas, bamboos, tree ferns also grow here. This part of the Himalayas is very humid. For example, in Sikkim, up to 12 m of precipitation falls per year! Above, the tropical forest gives way to subtropical, with evergreen magnolias, oaks, long-coniferous pines. Above 2 thousand m, there are hardwood forests - oak, chestnut, walnut and conifers - mainly silver fir, pine and Himalayan cedar. The high-mountain belt with alpine steppes stretches even higher. The snow line starts at an altitude of 3500 m.
In the Caucasian reserve
The largest mountain reserve in the USSR - Caucasian - is located on the western slopes of the Main Caucasian ridge. Most of the reserve is covered with virgin forest of Caucasian fir, oriental beech, hornbeam and oriental spruce. There are thickets of rhododendrons, subalpine and alpine meadows. The grass in the meadows is taller than a person.
A small number of specimens of the evergreen coniferous tree, the yew, have survived in the Caucasian Reserve. Some trees have a venerable age of 1,500 years. The trunk diameter of such a tree reaches 1.5 m. But this age for a yew tree is far from the limit, it can live 3-4 thousand years. Yew wood is dense, heavy, with a beautiful yellowish or brownish-red grain pattern. It is highly regarded in the industry and is known as mahogany. Yew is very resistant to diseases, it is not for nothing that the people call it a nasty tree. A fallen tree can lie on the ground for hundreds of years and not rot. Another interesting tree is preserved in the Caucasian Reserve - boxwood. Boxwood is a small evergreen tree or shrub with beautiful dense wood that is very good for a variety of crafts. Previously, large boxwood trees were found in the Caucasus, but before the revolution they were mercilessly cut down, and now large specimens have survived only in the reserve. Boxwood is widely used in horticulture - those who have been to the south have seen dense boxwood bushes, which have been skillfully cut into balls, pyramids and even the figures of various animals.