Modern Situation in Spotted Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus Suslicus Guldenstaedt, 1770) Populations Within the Forest Steppe of European Russiа

Biodiversity conservation is the one of essential problems now. Conservation and investigation of forest steppe ecosystems can help to solve this problem in Russia and entire Palearctic. Systematization and analysis of ecosystem components condition are important in that context. In our work rodents of forest steppe became the subject of analysis. Ground Sciurids (Sciuridae) are typical rodents of Palearctic steppe and forest steppe’s steppe component. Spotted ground squirrel (Spermophilus suslicus (Güldenstädt, 1770)) is one of them. This species inhabited range from Volga to Carpathians and achieved huge numbers. After agricultural colonization of steppe it successfully adopted to new conditions. In the second half of XX century number of spotted ground squirrel signifi cantly decreased and geographical range were fragmented. All factors of this situation are not clear. Two of them became the termination of spotted ground squirrel as an agricultural vermin and decrease of cattle pasturing in Russia at the end of XX century. Recently population of this species still decreasing. Last colonies disappear in many regions of Russia. Approximately 70 settlements exists in Privolzhskaya Upland forest steppe now with at least 7 000 individuals totally. Not more than ten settlements stay alive in Middle Russian Upland and Oksko-Donskaya plain forest steppe with 1 000–1 500 individuals totally. Spotted ground squirrel is at the edge of extinction. It extinct in Kursk oblast, Penza oblast, Republic of Mordovia in XXI century. In the Privolzhaya Upland populations is in better situation, but in western part of European Russia forest steppe spotted ground squirrel can fully exhausted in several years. Deliberately actions are necessary to this species conservation. These are an estabilishment of half-free settlements with corrals, wide reintroduction program, reserve reintroduction and new reserve creation. Settlements creations in Vorobyov district of Voronezh oblast (in Lomy landscape park) and in Voroninsky zapovednik in 2021–2023 years are an examples of these actions.