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 The
small size of the peninsula, its isolation from the continent have
caused some scarcity of the Crimean fauna. It is observed mainly
not in small variety of species, but in small quantity of individuals
of each species.
Some species are endemic (for example, the Crimean
carabus); others are met only in limited territories (e.g. the lizard
- the Crimean gecko, that belongs to extinct species, lives only
on the Southern coast at not more than 300 m above the sea level
between Sevastopol and Alushta). There are animals-relicts - witnesses
of ancient epochs (the leopard runner, the crest triton.)
The Crimean red deer, the roe deer, the fallow
deer, the wild boar, foxes, the stone marten, the badger live in
woods of mountain Crimea.
Birds of mountain woods are: jays, woodpeckers,
ouzels, owls, a small amount of woodcocks, and also a black-headed
griffon.
The fauna of underground cavities is very specific.
Bats, worms, bugs, mollusks live there. Colonies of bats (six or
more species) nestle in cracks of rocks, in caves, and sometimes
in attics of houses.
Rodents (gophers, hamsters, field mice, jerboas)
are found in steppes of peninsula and they are the food for foxes,
polecats, and weasels.
The brown hare (remaining grey in winter, as
in the Crimea winters are not snowy) is widely spread.
Larks, partridges, quails represent the world
of birds in the flat part of the Crimea. Northern part of peninsula
where there are numerous shallow armlets of Sivash, Karkinit Bay
of the Black Sea, lakes and puddling of rice checks, - is a paradise
for waterfowl: different kinds of ducks, seagulls. Herons made their
nests in the reed-beds.
Thousands of swans gather together during the
moulting and hibernation on the well-known Lebjazh'iye islands.
Owing to these birds, that have a wonderful ability to cause in
all people, without exception, only light and kind feelings, small
and ordinary islands of Sara-Bulat were declared as a reservation
long ago and are known all over the world. There are also big colonies
of herring gulls, terns, etc.
There are many kinds of lizards - quick, rocky,
multi-coloured, Crimean lizards and apodal lizard with yellow belly.
The latter is frequently taken for the snake and is killed. In fact,
it is the ancient relict.
In Crimea there is only one kind of poisonous
snakes - a steppe adder (cases of stings are very rare), all others
- harmless and they never attack the person (different kinds of
grass snakes, yellow and leopard runners.)
Some insects in the Crimea are of great interest:
stag beetles, rhino beetles, ground beetles, capricorn beetles,
and cicadas. You can find different vermin of woods, gardens and
kitchen gardens there: gipsy moths, codling moths, armoured scales,
Colorado beetles.
Various kinds of animals are found in fresh water
of the Crimea. They are representatives of cancroids: the fresh-water
crab, the daphnia, the amphipoda, and the crayfish. Many of them
are the food for fishes: carps, crucians, ruffs etc. The creek trout,
the chub, the Crimean barbell are the natives of the mountain rivers.
Settlements with the complex architecture, parks,
and ponds became an inhabitancy of many representatives of fauna.
Among such animal there are a lot of insects, rodents and birds
(the turtledove, the rock pigeon, the raven, the rook, the daw,
swallows, sparrows.
The fauna was not always the same as it is now.
Materials of the excavation, the petrifactions found - testify to
it. It is known, that some millions years ago, when the climate
was more damp and warmer, giraffes, antelopes, hornless rhinoceroses
lived in the Crimea. After their extinction, camels, southern elephants,
cave bears occupied the peninsula. In the epoch of quaternary cold
snap, the lepus, the glutton, the lynx, the reindeer, the black
grouse, the willow grouse and moor game were spread in the Crimea,
and in the outskirts of Simferopol (Chokurchinsky grotto) the remains
of the mammoth were found. In river basin of the Zuya (Kiik-Koba
grotto) the bones of the following species were found: the saiga,
the bison, the mammoth, the brown bear, the brown fox... All these
species except for the extinct mammoth, live now far to the north
of the Crimea.
In different times, there were some animals living
on the peninsula that now are extinct: the gopher of Biruli the
hamster of Eversmann, the cave bear, hyena and lion; the wild European
donkey, the giant deer. Some other animals do not live in the Crimea
now: the red gopher, the marmot, beavers, nearly all kinds of jerboas,
two kinds of lemmings, several kinds of field vole, the brown bear,
the wild cat, koulan, saiga, the wild boar, the bison, rams.
In the beginning of the 20th century the acclimatization
of animals was started in the Crimea. From the island of Corsica
and from Askania-Nova reservation the moufflon was delivered; jaal-goat
was delivered from Kirghizia, some kinds of squirrel - from Altai,
wild boars - from the southern Far East, wild rabbits -from Odessa
region. Pheasants, mountain partridges - kekliks were settled in
the Crimea. In the Sea of Azov acclimatization of the fish pilengas
took place successfully.
Many kinds of wild animals on the peninsula (196
species, or more than 50 % of all Crimean fauna) are already brought
in the Red Data Book of Ukraine and are under protection of the
state. Among them are: the black stork, some kinds of dolphins,
the bustard, the little bustard, the crane - "krasavka",
the sea eagle, the cicada, the pink starling and many others.
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