Abundance of the Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax L. 1758 (Otididae, Aves) in Saratov Oblast

Abstract

Abstract—Based on the count data obtained by various methods and their statistical processing, the abundance of the fall population of the little bustard in the Saratov Trans-Volga region was estimated from the late 1990s until the present. From 2012 to 2016 it averaged about 30 000 individuals, whereas in the Volga right bank region it was one or two orders lower and the species distribution there was sporadic. When studying the T. tetrax abundance dynamics, an increase in its population in the studied territory in the first half of the 2000s was established. The necessity of carrying out census work in the future for monitoring the population is substantiated.