Zoological Natural Monuments: Protecting Endangered Species and Rare Animals

Zoological nature monuments exist to protect, safeguard, and preserve many animal species. Within biogeocenoses, animals are vital for maintaining nature's balance, and they are also an adornment of the landscape.

How do animals help humans?

Many representatives of the animal world have become models for designing modern machines and instruments, helping people solve complex problems of scientific and technological progress. Living locators, barometers, hygrometers, seismographs, and many other unrivalled "instruments" are built into the bodies of animals and plants.

The echolocation of bats is a striking example. Each bat sends up to 250 signals per second, and its "receiver" has the most ideal sensitivity. In practice, the bat's locating apparatus is 100 times more effective than any locator created by humans.

The sonar systems of dolphins surpass all existing sonar devices in both accuracy and range. Swallows, sandpipers, guinea pigs, mice, and other animals also provide rich material for specialists. And how many more secrets remain in the animal world. For this reason, every species deserves protection, regardless of whether it holds great economic importance or not.

Why are so many species of fauna disappearing?

The disappearance of many species of fauna is a source of acute concern in our time. Over the past four centuries, nature has lost about 140 animal species. Such losses deeply trouble the global community. Many animals can now be seen only in zoos and reserves — among them Przewalski's horse, Père David's deer, the white-tailed gnu, the Addo elephant, the Asiatic lion, and others.

To keep the list of "tomorrow's fossils" from growing endlessly, and to strengthen attention to the protection of rare species, such animals are entered into the Red Book, and the register of endangered animals continues to grow.

How are rare animal species protected in Ukraine?

The protection of rare animal species is also extremely relevant in Ukraine. In recent times, populations of beaver, fur seal, deer, roe deer, and many other species have reached industrial densities. Most species of flora and fauna listed in the Red Book are protected here in state reserves, sanctuaries, and protected hunting estates.

The protected regime has produced tangible results. On Ukrainian territory in the post-war years, the number of marmots grew twelvefold, while elk, deer, roe deer, and wild boar reached game-hunting densities. In certain places the numbers of beavers, squirrels, grey partridge, and other species increased considerably. Some of this credit belongs to the zoological nature monuments.

How are beavers protected?

• Beavers are protected as zoological nature monuments in the Cherkasy region. The hunt for beaver fur reduced the animal to rarity by the end of the 19th century. Sturdy beaver families could be counted on one's fingers; a small number survived in the impassable bogs of Polesia and in two or three other locations. The preservation of the Dnipro beaver population is therefore of great importance.

It is worth noting that the fur colour of these animals varies even within a single locality — ranging from reddish-chestnut to blackish-brown. The beaver settlements that form these zoological nature monuments lie in the Dnipro floodplain within the Zolotonosha district of the Cherkasy region. The low-lying floodplain of the Dnipro creates optimal conditions for the growth of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous vegetation.

Thickets of black alder and willow supply food for these rodents. Beavers are excellent builders. The small dams and dam systems they create regulate the water level in their settlements, providing safe routes for movement, transport of building material, and food stores. A stable water level is needed to keep the exits from beaver lodges submerged.

Water-covered entrances to the dwelling protect the beaver family from predators, since reaching the nesting chambers of beaver burrows from land is almost impossible. Building dams on small rivers and streams is an important biological adaptation that arose in beavers through many centuries of evolution. Beaver lodges and bank lodges make a strong impression.

These are cone-shaped structures made of branches firmly bound together with clumps of silt mixed with plant roots, stems, and various small fragments of vegetation. Beaver constructions are so solid that they can only be broken apart with a crowbar. A lodge reliably protects the nesting chamber, while a bank lodge protects the burrow from damage. Beavers can fell quite large trees.

A beaver gnaws the trunk from all sides, forming a deep ring-shaped notch on the tree. With a slight gust of wind, the trunk snaps and falls. The thinner parts of the trunk and the branches are gnawed by beavers into small pieces and eaten. Stripped branches and sections of trunk are used to build or repair dams and lodges. Beavers sink part of the branches near their burrows, creating a winter food store.

Many other animals live near beaver settlements. Here one finds hares, foxes, and even wild boar. There are also many ducks, teals, gulls, penduline tits, various species of sandpipers, and birds of prey as well.

• Another protected beaver settlement lies on the right bank of the Kremenchuk Reservoir, near the village of Polstvyn in the Kaniv district on the Rosava River. The beavers live in a ditch about 0.5 metres deep and in long burrows dug into peat bogs. There are both families and solitary beavers here. All of them have very dark colouring, and some zoologists call them black beavers.

This population was preserved thanks to the persistent care of local schoolchildren. The school organised a patrol service of senior pupils and petitioned to have the beaver colony placed under state protection. The pupils regularly supplement the diet of their charges with branch fodder. Each year they plant fast-growing tree species: aspen and willow.

This maintains the conditions necessary for beaver life. The school community also cares for animals on the adjacent territories. The area of this zoological nature monument is only 5 hectares.

How are birds protected?

• Among the ornithological landmarks, Lake Klymivske in the Volyn region is especially valuable. A rare nesting site of the loon has survived here, thanks to the lake's impassable shores overgrown with willow and reeds. Loons are large birds, sometimes weighing up to 4.5 kilograms. They swim and dive well, but move on land only by crawling. They build their nest on the bank by the water. The eggs in a clutch (1–3) are incubated in turn by the male and the female. This bird often winters on the Black and Azov Seas or on ice-free stretches of rivers.
• On the picturesque bank of the Snyvoda River — a tributary of the Southern Buh — near the village of Rybchyntsi (Khmilnyk district, Vinnytsia region), a rare colony of red-footed falcons nests in individual spruce plantings and alders. Red-footed falcons feed on insects, mice and other rodents, and lizards. Like its steppe relative, the kestrel, the red-footed falcon belongs to a group of especially beneficial small falcons. Over the course of a year it destroys a great many mice, voles, and ground squirrels — dangerous enemies of the harvest. Red-footed falcons and kestrels watch for prey mostly while perched on a height.
• In three ornithological monuments in the Rivne and Sumy regions, colonies of the grey heron are protected. This bird feeds on insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and sometimes small mammals. All the heronries are located in oak groves.

The most interesting and valuable of these landmarks is the Boromlia tract (Konotop district, Sumy region). Every year during the spring flood the tract is inundated by the waters of the Seim River. After the water recedes, several lakes remain in the tract, ranging from 0.3 to 3.3 hectares in area. On its southern side it is washed by an oxbow of the Seim. This wealth of water creates ideal conditions for the grey heron.

Where are the zoological nature monuments of local significance?

• Several zoological nature monuments of local significance are found in the Chernihiv region — in the Repky district, in the interfluve of the Dnipro and the Sozh. Six monuments protect colonies of the European beaver. The Babytskyi Island tract is especially valuable: besides beavers, it hosts several families of otter and ermine. The remaining zoological monuments of the region preserve beaver settlements and heronries.
• The zoological monuments of the Cherkasy region, in the Zolotonosha and Kaniv districts, protect beaver settlements.
• In the Chyhyryn district there is a heronry.
• In Volyn, zoological nature monuments protect beaver colonies and heronries.
• In the Vinnytsia region there are two interesting landmarks — a beaver settlement in the Kalynivka district and a colony of swifts in the Vinnytsia district near the village of Sosenky on the steep left bank of the Desenka River (here there are more than 100 nests of these useful birds).
• In the Chortkiv district of the Ternopil region, the region's only colony of grey heron is protected. In the Ternopil district there is a nesting site of marsh birds, and in the Zboriv district a colony of gulls.
• Two ornithological landmarks in the Dnipropetrovsk region protect the settlement sites of marsh birds.
• In the Mykolaiv region a heronry and swift nesting sites are protected on the cliffs of the Buh sand quarry.
• In the Kherson region there is an interesting colony of wild rabbits in old stone quarries, where they were brought back in 1894. This is the only location of wild rabbits in Ukraine.

Zoological nature monuments hold not only great scientific and economic value but aesthetic significance as well. The creation of zoological nature monuments is an important measure for protecting and preserving rare representatives of the animal world and their habitats.