What zone does sable live in. Barguzin sable: a beautiful and predatory animal. In the wilds of coniferous taiga

Its closest relative is the pine marten. A few representatives of the animal world are able to boast of such nobility, such elegance and harmony, which the sable possesses.

Sable (animal): description

The body of males reaches 60 cm in length with a weight of 2 kg. Females are much more graceful, they are inferior to males in size. The body of the sable is slightly elongated, the legs are short, therefore, the back of the animal is arched all the time. Paws are wide, perfectly adapted to terrestrial life. The animal has a very magnificent tail, whose length reaches 20 cm.

The sable has a triangular head, quite large. The muzzle is slightly pointed, framed by triangular large ears.

The real wealth of this animal is its thick lush fur, which becomes even thicker in winter, covering the claws and paw pads. In summer, the body color of the animal is monophonic, dark brown, the paws and tail are slightly darker. In winter, his coat becomes paler. A spot stands out in a light shade often appears in the throat area, which is not observed in summer.

Due to the different color options, the animal got different names: “furry” - the lightest, “head” - black sable, “collar” - an intermediate color.

Spreading

Sable is an animal (the photo is presented in this article) that lives in the taiga region of Eurasia. The bulk lives in the Far East and Siberia. In addition, a small number of animals exist in Korea, Mongolia, in the northeastern part of China, in the north of Hokkaido (Japan).

If in this area the animal used to live in huge numbers, then at the present moment, due to intensive fishing, its range has sharply decreased. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population density was at least 10%. The coniferous taiga is the home of the sable. The animal never leaves it. It can be found in dark coniferous forests, where spruce, fir, cedar grows, where it is dark and damp. He chooses hard-to-reach, cluttered places covered with stones, moss, branches.

Lifestyle

Sable is a unique animal that leads a nomadic animal and the Beast is tied to a certain area and rarely goes beyond its borders in a lifetime. Forest fires, natural disasters, lack of food, mass can only force the animal sable, interesting facts about whose life are given in this article, to leave their habitat.

The animal on its site has a large number of temporary shelters and several permanent ones. The latter are divided into winter and brood. It is characteristic for the sable that he does not build his own houses, but uses natural voids.

He chooses crevices between stones, niches under eddies, hollows in lying logs or trees. In winter, he makes his way to his nest under the snow. The animal does not hide the hole, which means that it can be easily found by a huge number of traces that converge into a common place.

Nutrition

Sable is an almost omnivorous animal. Basically, various rodents, mice, shrews, moles, chipmunks become its food. At times he catches pikas between the rocks, sometimes he eats squirrels. Large males can even hunt hares. The food of an animal from birds can be small passerines (adults, chicks, eggs), black grouse, partridges. Although he hunts them very rarely.

Sables that live in the Far East can also feed on fish. During spawning, the animals come to the banks of the rivers, where they pick up dead fish. In the winter season, when it is more difficult to get food, the sable feeds on carrion. If a large animal dies, a huge number of these small animals feed on its carrion. Especially for this, they arrange for themselves temporary shelters nearby.

Sable will also enjoy honey. Having found a hollow of bees, he will come to him until he completely devastates it (larvae, honeycombs, as well as the bees themselves). Although its main food is berries and fruits. He often steals pine nuts from the hollows of other animals, in the winter season from under the snow he gets berries left on the branches (lingonberries, blueberries, cloudberries).

reproduction

Sable is an animal whose fertilization and reproduction have been studied by scientists for a long time. Small sables are born in spring, mainly in April, in the amount of 2-5 individuals. The birth takes place in one of the specially equipped shelters, which the female lines with moss, wool and hay. The weight of newborns is about 30 g, while they are completely helpless. In a month, they begin to distinguish various sounds, and also open their eyes.

Subspecies

There are several subspecies of animals that differ in habitat, fur and color:

• Sayan;
• West Siberian;
• Sakhalin sable;
• Yenisei;
• Kamchatka sable.

fishing

Sable is an animal valued for its very thick fur. Such wealth brought the animal many troubles. Its skin is highly valued. It became known as "soft gold". Consequently, these animals were constantly hunted. Because of this, its numbers have been significantly reduced.

Hats and coats are sewn from his fur. at the same time, they did not appreciate sable fur and upholstered skis with it from below. Local hunters tried to save the livestock of animals. It was hunted only once every 3 years in order to restore the population.

Hunting methods

Sable is an animal that is trapped or hunted with huskies. In the latter case, the animal is driven up a tree, where they are already shot. But if the sable hides in the thickets, it is almost impossible to drive it out. Then the hunters set up a net around this place, after which they begin to drive him out with a probe. This method of hunting is called obmet.

Domestication of the sable

It should be noted that sable is easily tamed. An animal at home resembles a cat in behavior. This animal very quickly gets used to the owner. At the present moment, sables are bred mainly artificially, on fur farms. In captivity, sable (a pet) can live up to 18 years.

Recovery of numbers

While maintaining the number of the animal, attempts were made to breed it in reserves, and then resettle it in other territories. This turned out to be a difficult task, since at first it was difficult to get offspring. It was necessary to study the habits of the animal, making a lot of effort for this.

When planning the reintroduction of an animal, it is necessary to carefully study the territory of its release, and also check whether it lived there before. A change of scenery (fires, deforestation) is of great importance. After reintroduction in this area, fishing should be stopped for some time.

To determine the territory for the sable, the presence of a food base, nesting sites, competitors of the animal and predators is of decisive importance.

captive

Some difficulties appear when breeding animals at home. Sable is a mobile animal, therefore, it needs a large area for life. The cage needs to be specially equipped: provide a reliable deadbolt, enough space, tighten the windows with a metal mesh. The animal is very smart, it can open the lock without difficulty. So that he is not bored, you can provide plastic toys, because the animal loves to play very much.

Sables feed on a variety of animal and plant foods. The basis of the diet is mouse-like rodents, shrews, moles. On rocky placers, animals catch pikas, like to eat chipmunks. Sable protein is rarely used, large healthy males prefer to hunt hares, they can also catch musk deer - a small taiga deer. Sometimes these predators hunt black grouse and capercaillie, partridges, small passerines, eat bird eggs.

Catch fish sables do not know how, but they will definitely feast on food thrown ashore or caught by someone else. Predatory mammals that live in the Far East come to the banks of rivers during the spawning season to pick up fish thrown out of the water.

With pleasure, sables also eat plant foods - pine nuts, fruits of mountain ash and blueberries, various berries (currants, lingonberries, blueberries, rose hips). During the years of a rich harvest of cedar, nuts serve as one of the main food for animals with valuable fur. However, these animals do not get the seeds of the cedar pine from the branches on their own, preferring to use the stocks of other animals.

A particularly tasty delicacy for sables is the honey of wild bees. If the animal finds a bee hollow, it will constantly visit there until it completely devastates it. The predator will gladly eat not only honey, but also the larvae and the bees themselves.

AT winter season when food is difficult to obtain, sables often feed on carrion. If a large animal dies, usually many animals, including sables, feed on its carrion. They even set up temporary shelters next to available food.

How do sables hunt?

Animals with valuable fur go out to search for food mainly in the dark, but often hunt during the day. In the presence of suitable food, the sable runs about 3 kilometers a day, in a lean season - up to 10 kilometers. The animal remembers well the places where food used to be and visits them again in search of food. On its way, the animal carefully examines all the holes, examines the rubble, crawls into the crevices and under the roots of fallen trees, dives under the snow. In winter, it hunts black grouse and hazel grouse, which hide from the cold in the snow.

A developed sense of smell allows the sable to smell small rodents even under snowdrifts. The predator quickly dives for prey and very rarely returns with nothing. But it is difficult to catch a sable squirrel, because it often runs away through the trees. Large individuals also track down hares, and when they come close, they try to immediately pounce on prey. If the hare runs away, it can no longer be caught.

While hunting, the sable can use different tricks to catch the prey. A cunning animal can sit in ambush for a long time and wait for a careless victim or sneak up on her unnoticed. Sometimes, in pursuit, a predator pursues a prey until it loses its last strength.

In the dense taiga forests, a beautiful wild animal lives - sable. There are many subspecies of this animal, which differ depending on the size, color and quality of the fur, as well as the habitat.

The names of the subspecies are given precisely according to their habitat, for example: Angara, Yenisei, Kamchatka. The Barguzin sable differs from its counterparts in its relatively small size and dark skin color.

Barguzin - the owner of valuable fur

predatory an animal belonging to the weasel family. Nature endowed him with beautiful fur. Very soft and light, silky to the touch, the fur has good strength. Due to its characteristics, it is valued higher than the skins of other sable subspecies.

The color palette of fur varies from very dark to light brown. There is a light spot on the neck. The darker the color of the skin, the higher its price at fur auctions.

Sable hunting

Excellent quality and beauty fur made Barguzin sable object ruthless extermination since ancient times. Sable was hunted everywhere in Siberia, despite the declining number of individuals, therefore, in the first half of the 20th century, this valuable animal was almost gone in some taiga areas.

The situation has now changed. Implemented security activities, the fight against poaching is carried out, strict control and frequency of hunting is introduced. All these measures contribute to the fact that the disappearance of the Barguzin is no longer threatened.

Before the establishment of deep snow cover, fur-bearing animals are hunted with the help of dogs likes. After the snow falls, they switch to traps. During the season, workers of commercial farms produce 40–50 animals.

Lifestyle of the Barguzin sable

This beast is pretty strong for their small size. Agile and nimble, it moves in jumps up to 70 cm long.

The paws of the animal are wide and covered with thick fur, so it is convenient for him to wade through the snow without falling through. Sable has excellent hearing and smell. He is most active in the morning and evening.

habitats

The Barguzin sable got its name from its habitat - on Barguzinsky ridge off the coast of Lake Baikal. Now its range has expanded significantly, the animal can be found both in the Siberian taiga and in the Far East.

Barguzin prefers impassable coniferous forests, especially cedar. It settles in cluttered places where there are stone placers, dense shrubs, and fallen trees.

Under the roots of twisted trees or in their hollows, most often the beast arranges its lair. The animal keeps a cozy mink clean.

Basically, the sable moves along the ground, sometimes climbs along the trunks into the crowns of trees. He limits marks, lays its own paths there and tries to get rid of other small predators. The animal lives on the chosen site for 2–3 years, then leaves and chooses a new habitat.

reproduction

The animals are ready for mating from the age of two or three years and acquire offspring up to about 15 years. After mating, the male is close to the female and brings her prey so that she can maintain strength during pregnancy.

Cubs are born in the spring blind and helpless, 3-4 pieces per litter. The female touchingly takes care of her offspring. She desperately rushes at any enemy if the kids are in danger. Sable cubs stay in the den for up to a month and a half, then they begin to go out and explore the world around them. In the middle of summer, the grown up young growth starts an independent life.

What does the animal barguzin eat

Barguzin sable can be attributed to omnivorous mammals, although the basis of its diet is small animals:

• mice-voles;
• pika rodents;
• young hares;
• chipmunks;
• proteins.

Sometimes sable can even get wood grouse or black grouse, which spend the night in a hole under the snow. He can also taste carrion, as well as fish washed up on the shore.

Despite the predatory nature, the sable is not averse to eating pine nuts and taiga berries: lingonberries, cloudberries, blueberries. On occasion, the beast will not refuse the honey of wild bees.

But the sable itself can be caught by large owls, martens, and bears as food.

Breeding on fur farms

There are many difficulties in breeding and raising a predator in captivity. Despite compliance with all maintenance requirements, only a fourth of the females are capable of conception. The stress state of animals caused by being in cages leads to more late puberty. It is not always possible to maintain a temperature regime in enclosures close to natural weather conditions.

The quality and beauty of the skins are directly dependent on lighting, so it is necessary that all cells are illuminated by the sun, which in a large farm can be problematic. Animals should be provided with a varied balanced diet:

• meat products;
• milk;
• vegetables;
• fruits;
• vitamin supplements.

Despite the difficulties of breeding sable in captivity, this business is successfully developing and producing tangible results. In addition, there are farms that raise animals specifically for further resettlement in nature and replenishment of the population, if necessary. This measure is intended protect wild animal from complete extermination.

Belongs to the number of the most valuable fur-bearing animals, occupying a prominent place in the composition of the commercial fauna of Russia. The average length of his body is about 50 cm, weight - 1-1.5 kg. The main habitat is a deaf and dark taiga with a predominance of cedar, spruce and fir. It also settles in mountain forests of the taiga type. Everywhere he leads a sedentary lifestyle, adhering to a certain individual area, which he leaves in the most extreme case: in case of a forest fire, increased felling of a forest, lack of food.

Sable is a plant-toed animal with wide paws, the soles of which are densely covered with coarse hair (especially in winter). In the daytime, the sable sees poorly and behaves uncertainly, but at night it shows great dexterity. If necessary, it can dive into the snow and move in its thickness.

Going hunting, the sable necessarily runs along each trunk of a fallen tree lying in its path, examining upturned roots, snags, blockages, potholes, where it finds holes of mouse-like rodents that make up its main food. In addition, sable attacks various ground birds and animals (for example, upland game, chipmunks, hares), and also does not disdain lizards, frogs, insects, mollusks and even carrion. In summer, he eats various berries (blueberries, mountain ash, bird cherry, wild rose). A large place in the diet of sable is occupied by pine nuts. Having found a chipmunk with a stock of nuts in winter, the sable eats the owner of these stocks and his food. According to prof. P. A. Manteuffel, he first eats out the brain and liver of his victim, and then the muscles. The sable has almost no enemies, except for the large marten-marten, large birds of prey, bear, wolverine.

Sables breed in spring. They arrange nests for the birth of offspring in the hollows of fallen trees, in old stumps, in voids among stony placers, sometimes in earthen burrows. The bottom of the shelter is lined with moss, dry leaves, wool. In April - May, the sable bears from 2 to 7 cubs, blind and whitish, which darken after a few days. Sables are 5 times smaller than their mother. Babies grow quickly and begin to see clearly in a month. At first, the mother feeds the sable cubs with milk, later she brings them small animals and birds, and takes the grown ones with her, accustoming them to getting food.

Sables are very graceful in their movements, they frolic like kittens, and purr loudly in a fight. At the age of two months, they switch to adult food. In August - September, the broods break up and lead an independent life.

Sable has excellent fur, which is highly valued. Its color depends on the climatic conditions of different habitats and is subject to fluctuations. The best sables with dark and silky fur live in the center of Siberia, Transbaikalia and the Ussuri region. In the distant past, sables inhabited the entire taiga of tsarist Russia and were the gold fund of the treasury, but then, due to predatory extermination, the stocks of sable fell catastrophically and it was threatened with complete extinction in nature. In the first years of Soviet power, a number of effective measures were taken to restore the livestock of this valuable fur-bearing animal.

In 1929, the first offspring of sables was obtained in the Moscow Zoo, and after the scientific development of the conditions for care and maintenance, they began to be bred on fur farms, as a result of which sables became an object of industrial fur farming. In addition, sables were released into the wild in suitable regions of Siberia, Transbaikalia and the Far East, where they took root well. Their numbers have increased so much that in many places they have become higher than 100 years ago. Temporary hunting bans and the creation of state sable reserves played an important role. The Barguzinsky and Kondo-Sosvinsky reserves and a number of other institutions have done a lot to restore the sable. Sables live in captivity for 15-18 years.

area: Russia (Siberia, Far East, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin), Korea, China, Mongolia, Japan (Hokkaido),

Description: sable is a slender and graceful predator. The body is flexible and elongated. The head is wedge-shaped with a pointed muzzle, the ears are triangular in shape. Paws are small. The tail is short, covered with fluffy fur.
Sable fur is soft and fluffy. In winter, the coat closes the paw pads and claws. Animals shed once a year. Males are larger than females (about 5-10%).

Color: highly variable - from dark brown to yellow-fawn, a light spot on the throat (gray, white or pale yellow). The tail and paws are dark, the head is light, the underfur is from yellowish-red to dark gray.

The size: body length 35-56 cm, tail 10-17 cm.

The weight: males 0.88-1.8 kg, females 0.7-1.56 kg.

Lifespan: in captivity up to 15 years, in nature up to 8.

Habitat: mountain and lowland taiga (cedar, deciduous and pine forests), thickets of cedar and birch elfin, stony placers, windbreaks, forest tundra, upper reaches of mountain rivers, subalpine woodlands - 1200-1500 m above sea level. Avoids barren mountain peaks.

Food: small mammals (voles, mice, pikas, squirrels, hares, chipmunks, moles, shrews), birds and their eggs (grouse, white partridges, hazel grouses, passerines), insects (bees and their larvae), nuts (cedar), berries (rowan, blueberry, lingonberry, blueberry, bird cherry, currant, dog rose, cloudberry) and plants (ledum), carrion and bee honey.

Behavior: sable is a mobile and fast animal. It goes hunting at night, sometimes (with a shortage of food) and during daylight hours. Hearing and sense of smell are well developed.
It robs stocks of rodents and birds by eating nuts. Mostly hunts on the ground. Adult (experienced) animals spend less time searching for food than young ones.
It climbs trees well, but it can only jump from tree to tree if the branches of the trees are tightly closed.
For rest, it uses a nest that arranges in various voids: under fallen trees, in low hollows of trees or under stones. Lines the bottom with wood dust, hay, feathers and moss. Stays in the nest during bad weather. Inside the nest, the temperature is kept within 15-23 "C. Not far from the hole, they arrange a latrine.
If the nest is on the ground, then in winter the sable digs a tunnel to it in the snow (up to 2-3 m long). Once every 2-3 years, it changes the old nest to a new one.
Swims badly, because. fur gets wet quickly.

social structure: apart from the breeding season, it leads a solitary territorial way of life. Individual plot from 150 to 2000 ha. The owner of the site actively protects it from strangers.

reproduction: the female arranges a nest in hollows or under the roots of trees. The nest is lined with hay, moss or the hair of eaten rodents.
Males fight among themselves for a female, sometimes such fights are very cruel.
The female protects her cubs, boldly attacking even the dog if it is too close to the nest. If the litter is disturbed, the female moves the pups to another nest.

Season/breeding period: false estrus begins in February-March, and true in June-July.

Puberty: 2-3 years, reproductive age (in captivity) up to 8-9 years, although there are females that bring offspring at 13-15 years.

Pregnancy: with a long latent stage of development - 9-10 months.

Offspring: the female gives birth to 3-7 blind puppies, weighing about 30 g, up to 11.5 cm long. Ears open per month, and eyes for 30-35 days. They start leaving the nest at 1.5 months. age. In August, the sables become completely independent and leave their mother.

Population/conservation status: early 20th century sable, as a species, was practically exterminated.
But thanks to the protection in 1940-60. the population began to increase. In 1970, the population numbered about 200 thousand individuals. The species is included in International Red List of the IUCN.
Sable creates sterile hybrids with pine martens, which are called - kindus.
There are several subspecies: West Siberian sable ( Martes zibellina zibellina), Yenisei sable ( M. z. yenisejensis), Sayan sable ( M. z. sajanensis), Barguzin sable ( M. z. princeps), Kamchatka sable ( M. z. camtshadalica), Sakhalin sable ( M. z. sahalinensis).

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