ABUNDANCE OF ROE DEER (CAPREOLUS PYGARGUS PALL., 1771) IN CENTRAL YAKUTIA

Abstract

Data on the population size, density and spatial pattern of Siberian roe deer in Central Yakutia are given, including the chronology of population cycles since 1960s. Central Yakutia is the northernmost periphery of the species area in North-Eastern Asia. More than 5 thousand individuals were counted there in 1963, but the number of roe deer was reduced to only 0.8 thousand by the early 1970s. This dramatic decline resulted from: 1) unfavorable wintering conditions through several sequential years and 2) poaching. Roe deer was included into the Red Book of Yakutia with the status of a ‘rare species with restricted area’. Decrease of the Central-Yakutian roe deer population coincided with the general trend of the species decline in the most territories over Russia. In the early 1990s, the population of roe deer in Central Yakutia began to restore rapidly, and soon exceeded the number from the late 1960s. In 2002 the species was excluded from Yakutian Red Book. By the data of aerial count in 2009, Central Yakutia has roe deer population of about 10 thousand individuals. Most of animals inhabit the Lena-Amga interstream area, lesser part of population occupies the Lena-Vilyui interfluve.