SMALL MAMMALS OF THE NSC FOREST-PARK ZONE, ABUNDANCE AND ROLE IN FEEDING OF THE PREIMAGINAL STAGES OF THE TICKS
The article is devoted to the analysis of 37-year observations of different groups of small mammals in the vicinity of the Novosibirsk Scientific Center (NSC). 27088 animals were examined, and 77999 hp were tested. In the study area, 10 species of insectivorous and 23 rodents live, but the number is estimated only in 9 and 15 species, respectively. Species: Erinaceous roumanicus Martin, 1838, Pteromys volans L., 1758, Sciurus vulgaris L., 1758, Tamias sibiricus Laxm., 1769, Marmota kastschenkoi Kastschenko, 1899, Castor fiber L., 1758, Ondatra zibetica L.,1766 are not considered as small mammals, but they also participate in the feeding of larval stages of ticks. According to the results of the surveys, insectivores predominate in the study area, their total numbers were inferior to those of rodents and, as a rule, insignificantly, in only 18.9 % of the seasons. In the remaining years the number of insectivores was higher than the number of rodents, and, in 32.4 % of years, it was 2 or more times higher. The absolute dominant in numbers among all small mammals is the common shrew. Among the rodents there is no explicit dominant, four species (forest mouse, field mouse, red and bank voles) can be referred to as background ones. The largest numbers of ticks in the hedgehog, hamster and chipmunk, however, due to the low number of these species, their role in feeding larvae and nymphs of ticks is secondary. The main feeders of larvae and nymphs of ticks are an ordinary shrew, a forest mouse, a red voles and a field mouse.