Vol 102, No 4 (2023)

The history of the creation of the Theriological Society at the Russian Academy of Sciences and its activities for 50 years are considered.

An overview of the studies on the sets of chromosomes in Palaearctic mammals is presented, conducted by Russian karyologists who have made important contributions to the improvement of mammalian taxonomy. As for many mammalian species the process of speciation could have been associated with variability in the number and morphology of chromosomes, karyotypes are often used as diagnostic features of morphologically similar cryptic species (twin species). The prospects of cytogenetic research in the field of speciation are discussed, in particular, the selection-based reinforcement of reproductive isolation initiated by chromosomal rearrangements.

An analysis of faunistic studies on mammals has been carried out over the past two and a half centuries. Historical changes in faunistics and their link to arealogical concepts are traced. The main factors that hindered the development of arealogy, despite the constant growth of faunistic information, are identified. Recently, the problems of storing and searching for faunistic information have been solved due to the technological and theoretical changes that have taken place over the last decades, approaches to the use of amateur data have been developed, the necessary structure of the collected faunistic information has been formulated, and the problem of planning the collection of material has been solved. Actively using the faunistic data in species distribution modelling has made it possible to understand their necessary spatial distribution for a species range description.

In this review, using our own and published data, we discuss the processes that occur in populations of small mammals when they adapt to and master the urban environment, using the common hamster as an example. Originally, the common hamster was apparently associated with the forest-steppe zone, but with the development of agriculture, it became an agrophile, populating the outskirts of fields, which provided it with a good food base throughout the year. Changes in farming culture (fragmentary fields replaced with vast areas of arable land occupied by monocultures, the use of poisons and fertilizers) led to a shift in the ecological optimum of the species to areas occupied by gardens, kitchen gardens and urban ecosystems. This led to changes in the genetic structure of populations, a greater (compared to suburbs) diversity of alleles of the major histocompatibility complex responsible for resistance to pathogens, a reduced hibernation period up to its complete abandonment, and a reduced aggressiveness to conspecifics which allows for more burrows to be arranged in a limited space and for general food storages to be shared and consumed. The use of food wastes as an additional food resource by this species may have led to changes in its digestive and other systems. All of this has allowed the common hamster to successfully exist in an urbanized environment, despite the reduction in life expectancy due to many stressors (parasitic load, pollution etc.). It is assumed that not all of the above traits have been formed in the process of synurbization. Many adaptations acquired earlier, before urbanization, proved to be effective in its development of the urban environment. Obviously, the path taken by the common hamster from a non-commensal species to an agrophile, and finally a synurbist is not unique; many other species of mammals and birds have passed or are on this evolutionary path at the present time.

Information on theriologists’ contributions to the development of the theory of natural plague foci is reviewed. Ecological and epizootological monitoring is one of the main aspects for surveying this dangerous infection. Zoologists participating in research on the infectious pathology of zoonoses have allowed for a breakthrough to be achieved in the study of enzootic factors, epizootology, focal paleogenesis and the evolution of parasitic systems, the patterns of the functioning of natural and anthropurgic foci, their biocenotic and spatial structure, the development of methods for evaluating the state of pathogen host and vector populations, host population control and other measures of preventing the human diseases. As a result of long-term research, a new conceptual apparatus and methods of medical mammalogy have been developed, and criteria and protocols of research and prevention activities in zoonosеs foci have been defined. New digital and geoinformation technologies, as well as Earth remote sensing are presently being implemented, all this providing epidemiological prosperity of human populations for plague and other natural focal diseases in enzootical territories.

Using scanning electron microscopy (REM), we studied the architecture (external and internal design) of the hairs of an adult Pleistocene Don hare, a frozen mummy of which was first found in Yakutia. The architecture of the guard hairs of the Don hare, like that of other representatives of the genera Lepus and Oryctolagus, is shown to be unique (a furrowed shaft, a kind of columnar medulla and a chevron cuticle ornament). This varies in different areas of the pelage and is adapted to the habitation of this species in the extreme conditions of the Arctic (long fur, strongly developed hair medulla and its corrugated septum, peculiar hair on the soles of paws). A comparative morphological analysis of the hair of the (1) Don hare and Mountain hare (Holocene, Chukotka) has been performed, revealing a great similarity between these two species, (2) extinct and Recent species of hares, (3) hares and pikas, (4) hares and a number of other mammalian species. The features of hair architectonics in the hares and some other mammals are discussed in terms of species identification and adaptive traits.

14–18 марта 2022 г. в Москве, в Институте проблем экологии и эволюции им. А.Н. Северцова РАН прошла научная конференция “Млекопитающие в меняющемся мире: актуальные проблемы териологии” в рамках XI Съезда Териологического общества при РАН, посвященная 300-летию Российской академии наук и 50-летию организации Териологического общества при РАН. Более 300 ученых, аспирантов и студентов представляли 120 научных, учебных, природоохранных и эпидемиологических организаций из 35 регионов России, Украины, Беларуси, Таджикистана, Узбекистана. География исследований охватывала большинство регионов России, Беларусь, Украину, Таджикистан, Узбекистан, Вьетнам, Эфиопию, Китай, Монголию. Организаторами мероприятия выступили Институт проблем экологии и эволюции им. А.Н. Северцова и Териологическое общество при поддержке АНО “Общество сохранения и изучения дикой природы и содействия развитию социальных программ”, Московского зоопарка, АНО “Эс-Пас”, CLS (Франция), Международного экологического фонда “Чистые моря”. В статье обсуждаются основные наиболее значимые достижения териологов России и стран СНГ, а также перспективы развития териологии с учетом современных вызовов, в первую очередь касающихся охраны редких и исчезающих видов, медицинской териологии, флуктуаций ареалов под действием изменений климата и антропогенного фактора.