Livestock and arable farming as key factors of number fluctuations of Marmota bobak bobak [Élevage et culture, facteurs clés des fluctuations du nombre de Marmota Bobak bobak].

Résumé

The most characteristic habitats for the steppe marmot in all the parts of the range in the past were steppes used by nomads as pasture. From the late XVII century, steppes have been converted to arable land. In the beginning of the XX century the European subspecies of the steppe marmot (Marmota bobak bobak Muller (1776)) was under threat of full disappearance. Then, in early sixties, its rapid “revival” had happened. The number of the steppe marmot was increasing till the beginning of the eighties. After the short period of the stabilization (to the end of the eighties), the decrease of its number begins. The aim of this report is to trace the impact on the marmot population of the changes in land use resulting from the development of peasant economy (livestock husbandry and arable farming) instead of nomadic pastoralism. Dynamic of the steppe marmot number in Velikoburluk district (Kharkov region, Ukraine) during XIX-XX centuries has been traced. The process of progressive increasing of pasturable pressure of livestock on potential habitats of the steppe marmots has been represented. To our mind, this process caused the restoration of pasturable ecosystems with the steppe marmot as one of basic components. The key role of the anthropogenous factor in dynamics of number fluctuation of Marmota bobak has been shown on the example of the Velikoburluk (Kharkov) steppe marmot population.