First attempt to check the animal diversity in the Republic of Bashkortostan

Abstract

“The Catalogue of Animals of Bashkortostan” was initially published in 2015. It was the first attempt to create a complete list of all the animal species found on the territory of the republic (South Urals, Russia) — that is over 8000 species. This paper discusses several key points of this project’s creation. The authors emphasise the significance of publishing the regional faunal list as it reflects the current achievements and shortcomings of regional faunistic research. Such catalogues provide essential information for national inventories and allow researchers to trace species abundance and occurrence. In addition, they are helpful for conservation and rational environmental management and may also be applied in epidemiology and agriculture. The sources for the catalogue included both published and previously unpublished data, museum collections and depositories, and open-access data bases. The catalogue is organised following the classification of the Fauna Europa site (www.faunaeur.org) and covers sinanthropic and acclimatised species, but not occasionally encountered exotic ones. Revisions are carried out annually in order to update the content of the catalogue.