Current state of terrestrial theriofauna in the agro­ landscape of the Ingulets-Dnieper interfluve on the example of the national nature park «Kamyanska Sich»

The paper presents the results of a generalized analysis of the species structure and the current state of the theriofauna of Kamyanska Sich National Park, considered against the background of the destruction of the Kakhovka reservoir and the latest change in environmental conditions. A detailed list of the species composition of theriofauna for the period 2019–2024, which combines 47 species, demonstrates the latest situational structure of modern faunal communities of the Park. The latter combine the native components of the zonal-steppe core, inhabitants of wetland-floodplain biotopes of the Dnieper valley and representatives of the adventitious group of species. This theoretical complex was formed and has been functioning for a long time in conditions of power­ ful agrogenic and man-made pressure, complicated in recent years by military destruction. At the same time, the existing species composition of terrestrial theriofauna is representative of the current state of faunal complexes of the territory of the Ingulets–Dnieper interfluve, focusing on the threat of losses of highly specialized steppe aborigines. Traditionally, for the Steppe, the greatest species diversity is charac­teristic of representatives of Muriformes (7 families, 15 genera, 21 species) and Caniformes (2 families, 8 genera, 14 species). Among them, the purely steppe stenotopes are the steppe ferret (Eversman’s), the common mole rat, the Podolsk mole rat, the steppe mouse, the gray hamster and the large tushkan, a total of 6 species of 6 genera of 5 families. At the end of the twentieth century, the right-bank-steppe species core of the Lower Dnieper, due to the speckled ground squirrel S. suslicus, which existed at that time, was represented by 7 species of 7 genera of 6 families. Of the extinct species over the past 70 years, it is possible to confidently indicate only two species — this is the ferret-banded V. peregusna and the speckled ground squirrel S. suslicus. At the beginning of 2025, only a small proportion of native species of the steppe (5) and near-water complex (3) retain their presence, se­veral species have disappeared (2–5) and 8 spe­cies new to this territory have appeared. At the same time, in the conditions of deep transformations of the environment and economic activity, almost all components of the local theriofauna have undergone significant quantitative changes. Consideration of retrospective factual material demonstrates that the structure of the local terrestrial theriofauna under­went the most significant changes in the mid-late XVIII century, early to mid-XIX century, in the 50s of the twentieth century. and in the period 2012–2024. Their main reasons were socio-economic factors that initiated agrarian and man-made transformations of the natural environment. The latest changes in recent years regarding the species composition of mammals of the right-bank steppes and the adjacent valley of the Dnieper are due to the complex influence of natural and climatic factors and man-made factors, including military origin.