Protected areas are a cornerstone of conservation, designed to preserve ecosystems such as forests. While their effectiveness to stem forest loss is well understood, preventing forest degradation is less clear, although selective logging can alter forest structure and affect biodiversity. It is also unclear how effectiveness varies among forest types. We assessed whether strictly protected areas established before the collapse of the Soviet Union were effective in preventing forest loss and degradation in coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests across the Caucasus, a biodiversity hotspot. We used an available land-cover classification dataset from 1987 to 2015 to assess forest loss, and mapped degradation using spectral mixture analysis of Landsat imagery from 1988 to 2019 specifically for this study. To assess effectiveness, we applied propensity score matching and panel regressions. We found that protected areas in Armenia and Azerbaijan were effective in preventing forest loss but largely ineffective in preventing degradation. Protected areas in Georgia and Russia were ineffective in preventing forest loss and degradation. Among forest types, degradation was only lower in mixed forests in protected areas across the Caucasus. Our results suggest that (a) including forest degradation in assessments provides important insights into forest threats, and (b) the level of effectiveness varies among forest types. Rare forest types with economically valuable tree species may be disproportionately affected, and their threats can only be detected when looking beyond forest loss. Information on degraded forests can support both monitoring and future restoration, highlighting the need for various indictors when assessing protection outcomes.

Empty but suitable habitat exists for many of the world's terrestrial large carnivores, yet reintroductions are often considered difficult. In the Russian Far East, orphaned Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) cubs were brought into captivity but prepared for re-release into the wild. We addressed 2 questions after reintroduction: 1) were individuals raised in captivity capable of killing prey at a rate sufficient to survive, and 2) did individuals avoid use of domestic animals as a primary source of food? We collected data on hunting behavior of 6 orphaned tigers re-released into their indigenous range, and compared kill composition, kill rate, and consumption rate to individuals studied within the existing range (Sikhote-Alin) of Amur tigers. Prey composition of rehabilitated tigers varied from that of the Sikhote-Alin tigers, but composition of major food groups was nearly identical. Kill rate of rehabilitated tigers was higher and prey size was smaller than that of Sikhote-Alin tigers, but consumption rates were nearly identical. One young male tiger depredated domestic animals, but other individuals only rarely preyed on dogs or cattle they encountered in forests. We documented high survival, reproduction, and recruitment of re-released individuals. These results indicate that tigers held in captivity during the majority of their early lives can survive in the wild, so long as exposure to humans is kept to a minimum and individuals learn to hunt wild prey before release. Results provide a potential framework for reintroductions of tigers and other large felids across the globe.

AimPredicting biodiversity responses to global changes requires good models of species distributions. Both environmental conditions and human activities determine population density patterns. However, quantifying the relationship between wildlife population densities and their underlying environmental conditions across large geographical scales has remained challenging. Our goal was to explain the abundances of mammal species based on their response to several remotely sensed indices including the Dynamic Habitat Indices (DHIs) and the novel Winter Habitat Indices (WHIs). LocationRussia, the majority of regions. TaxonEight mammal species. MethodsWe estimated average population densities for each species across Russia from 1981 to 2010 from winter track counts. The DHIs measure vegetative productivity, a proxy for food availability. Our WHIs included the duration of snow-free ground, duration of snow-covered ground and the start, end and length of frozen season. In models, we included elevation, climate conditions, human footprint index. We parameterized multiple linear regression and applied best-subset model selection to determine the main factors influencing population density. ResultsThe DHIs were included in some of the top-twelve models of every species, and in the top model for moose, wild boar, red fox and wolf, so they were important for species at all trophic levels. The WHIs were included in top models for all species except roe deer, demonstrating the importance of winter conditions. The duration of frozen ground without snow and the end of frozen season were particularly important. Our top models performed well for all the species (R-adj(2) 0.43-0.87). Main ConclusionsThe combination of the DHIs and the WHIs with climate and human-related variables resulted in high explanatory power. We show that vegetation productivity and winter conditions are key drivers of variation in population density of eight species across Russia.

Abstract Red-crowned Grus japonensis (IUCN status: Endangered) and White-naped Antigone vipio (IUCN status: Vulnerable) cranes are both rare, with wild populations of ∼3,000 and ∼6,000 individuals, respectively. Since 1991, the Rare Bird Reintroduction Station at the Khingansky State Nature Reserve, Russia, has been rearing and reintroducing chicks of both species to bolster wild populations. The station uses two different chick-rearing methods: (1) the “parent-reared” method, in which chicks are raised in enclosures by natural parents and stay with them until their release into the wild, and (2) the “semi-wild” method, a modification of hand-rearing, in which cohorts of 2–7 chicks spend most of their time together in an enclosure but are guided on daily excursions outside the enclosure, under supervision of a keeper from a distance of 30–50 m. We have assessed and compared apparent survival of crane chicks reared under these methods. Of the 165 juveniles released into the wild from 1991–2019 (104 Red-crowned; 61 White-naped), no difference was found between apparent survival of parent-reared and semi-wild chicks. Six-month apparent survival of Red-crowned Cranes was 84.2% (95% confidence interval: 75.3–90.3%); for White-naped Cranes –89.5% (95% CI: 83.9–93.3%). Both parent-reared and semi-wild chicks were later observed in mated pairs with their own offspring (17 chicks in total), coupling with either other reintroduced birds or with wild individuals. We conclude that both the parent-reared and semi-wild methods had similar outcomes with respect to apparent survival. However, since the semi-wild method is less costly with respect to time (i.e., more juveniles can be released annually using this method) we recommend that it be used whenever possible to bolster these Endangered and Vulnerable populations.

Public support is a necessary component of large carnivore conservation. We analysed public opinion on Amur tigers, Panthera tigris altaica, in Russia's Far East, the northernmost stronghold of the world's rarest big cat. We surveyed 1035 people in 5 settlements at increasing distances to tiger habitat. Overall support for tiger conservation was high (95.4%), although lower in more rural communities—especially among hunters—with limited socio-economic opportunities, and where tigers pose a higher perceived threat to livelihoods. Nearly 20% of respondents supported lethal removal of individual problem tigers that posed a threat to humans. Non-hunters, higher-income earners, and people who rated their communities' pre-college education positively showed less support for even such restricted killing of tigers. Hunters were more likely to support the idea of legalising tiger hunting (hunting tigers is a felony in Russia), and less likely to attribute tiger decline primarily to poaching. Despite strong support for tiger conservation in both urban and rural settings, a subset of the local populace is still engaged in poaching and trading of tigers, making improved situational crime prevention a needed focus of future efforts, alongside behaviour change campaigns promoting active resistance to poaching among tiger supporters. Abstract in Russian: https://bit.ly/3KBDU1A Supplementary material: https://bit.ly/37B3cPj

This paper provides an overview of wolf research in Russia at the beginning of the 21st century. Wolf research covered various directions, including population density estimation, management methods and minimization of human-wildlife conflicts, general and behavioral ecology, behavior, wolf population genetics and morphology, paleontology, dog domestication, helminthology and the wolves’ role in the rabies transmission. Some studies are performed with state-of-art methodology using molecular genetics, mathematical modeling, camera traps, and GPS telemetry.

In populations of wild felids, social status is one of the most important factors shaping home range size and spacing patterns. For female Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), we documented significant changes to the structure of home ranges and core areas during cub-rearing. We used VHF telemetry data collected over 18 years in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, Russia, to assess the following: (1) home range and core area size and (2) spatial shifts with and without cubs and (3) spatial shifts associated with philopatry. Home range and core area sizes of females collapsed by 60% after birthing, with recovery requiring 18 months. We hypothesized that usurpation of temporarily abandoned territory by other females during cub-rearing was a possibility, but aside from philopatry, we did not observe a loss of territory or evidence of competition for space. Home range boundaries changed little during cub-rearing but shifting core areas revealed that females were using different segments of their home range while rearing cubs, contradicting the notion of a single, most important core area for breeding females. Our results support two hypotheses of space use by large carnivores: that adult breeding females achieve higher reproductive success by maintaining a home range just big enough to feed herself and her offspring, and a second hypothesis that females expand home range size when space is available to allocate land to daughters. We suggest that these hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but explain patterns of space use by female felids under different demographic conditions.

Moose ( Alces alces ) may be among one of the most susceptible big game species to climate change. Development of long-term circumpolar databases of this species’ densities and distributions, combined with biological, ecological, and management-related metrics, can help guide research and future international management strategies. We emulated methodology previously used to summarize North American moose population and harvest densities for Eurasian countries with free-ranging moose populations. From these data, we created a GIS layer that summarized the circumpolar distribution and density of moose. The following summary analysis of these data indicates that moose have both expanded and contracted along their southern range boundary in recent decades – with losses along the southern range in eastern Asia, particularly China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. In contrast, we documented distributional gains along the western and southwestern range in Europe (Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia). In total, 21 countries have free-ranging moose populations; 8 with sustainable populations and hunting seasons, 5 with sustainable populations but no hunting season, and 8 with vagrant individuals occasionally sighted. A region of high-density moose populations spans from the Scandinavian and Baltic countries into the Russian oblasts of Perm and Sverdlovsk. Distributions ca. 2010 indicated that moose occupied an area of about 16,712,600 km 2 in Eurasia. Primary range (management units with ≥0.11 moose per km 2 ) composed only 18% of the occupied range while supporting more than 66% of the estimated 1.2 million moose in Eurasia. Additionally, 47% (149,860) of the moose harvested were taken on 10% (1,722,660 km 2 ) of the range. The 2010 circumpolar moose population was estimated to be more than 2.2 million and occupied a range of 26,205,000 km 2 . Time-series analyses can offer a simple and cost-effective approach to monitor the status of moose populations across large geographical regions and might be particularly insightful given the current and predicted future influences of climate change on moose. Other analyses might address population dynamics, habitat, environmental constraints, and harvest management, among other issues. We encourage jurisdictions to cooperate strategically in implementing and coordinating GIS analyses to monitor, assess, and manage moose populations around the world. We believe these maps can serve as a useful tool for educating the public and policy makers about the importance of habitat and land use practices with respect to maintaining sustainable populations of moose and other species that are dependent upon boreal, temperate broadleaf, and mixed forests.

European Russia rapidly transitioned after the collapse of the Soviet Union from state socialism to a market economy. How did this political and economic transformation interact with ecological conditions to determine forest loss and gain? We explore this question with a study of European Russia in the two decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union. We identify three sets of potential determinants of forest-cover change-supply-side (environmental), demand-side (economic), and political/administrative factors. Using new satellite data for three distinct types of forest-cover change-logging, forest fires, and forest gain-we quantify the relative importance of these variables in province-level regression models during periods of a) state collapse (1990s), and b) state growth (2000s). The three sets of covariates jointly explain considerable variation in the outcomes we examine, with size of forest bureaucracy, autonomous status of the region, and prevalence of evergreen forests emerging as robust predictors of forest-cover change. Overall, economic and administrative variables are significantly associated with rates of logging and reforestation, while environmental variables have high explanatory power for patterns of forest fire loss.

Identifying the factors that determine habitat suitability and hence patterns of wildlife abundances over broad spatial scales is important for conservation. Ecosystem productivity is a key aspect of habitat suitability, especially for large mammals. Our goals were to a) explain patterns of moose ( Alces alces ) abundance across Russia based on remotely sensed measures of vegetation productivity using Dynamic Habitat Indices (DHIs), and b) examine if patterns of moose abundance and productivity differed before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We evaluated the utility of the DHIs using multiple regression models predicting moose abundance by administrative regions. Univariate models of the individual DHIs had lower predictive power than all three combined. The three DHIs together with environmental variables, explained 79% of variation in moose abundance. Interestingly, the predictive power of the models was highest for the 1980s, and decreased for the two subsequent decades. We speculate that the lower predictive power of our environmental variables in the later decades may be due to increasing human influence on moose densities. Overall, we were able to explain patterns in moose abundance in Russia well, which can inform wildlife managers on the long-term patterns of habitat use of the species.

ABSTRACTThe expansion or recovery of predators can affect local prey populations. Since the 1940s, coyotes (Canis latrans) have expanded into eastern North America where they are now the largest predator and prey on white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). However, their effect on deer populations remains controversial. We tested the hypothesis that coyotes, as a novel predator, would affect deer population dynamics across large spatial scales, and the strongest effects would occur after a time lag following initial coyote colonization that allows for the predator populations to grow. We evaluated deer population trends from 1981 to 2014 in 384 counties of 6 eastern states in the United States with linear mixed models. We included deer harvest data as a proxy for deer relative abundance, years since coyote arrival in a county as a proxy of coyote abundance, and landscape and climate covariates to account for environmental effects. Overall, deer populations in all states experienced positive population growth following coyote arrival. Time since coyote arrival was not a significant predictor in any deer population models and our results indicate that coyotes are not controlling deer populations at a large spatial scale in eastern North America. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

We stand by our conclusion that there have not been large‐scale declines in white‐tailed deer populations following coyote colonization of the eastern United States. However, we agree that coyote predation can affect deer populations locally and therefore and should be considered in deer harvest planning in the region.

Armed conflicts are globally widespread and can strongly influence societies and the environment. However, where and how armed conflicts affect agricultural land-use is not well-understood. The Caucasus is a multiethnic region that experienced several conflicts shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, most notably the two Chechen Wars, raising the question how agricultural lands were changed. Here, we investigated how the distance to conflicts and conflict intensity, measured as the number of conflicts and the number of casualties, affected agricultural land abandonment and subsequent re-cultivation, by combining social, environmental and economic variables with remotely-sensed maps of agricultural change. We applied logistic and panel regression analyses for both the First Chechen War (1994-1996) and the Second Chechen War (1999-2009) and interacted conflict distance with conflict intensity measures. We found that agricultural lands closer to conflicts were more likely to be abandoned and less likely to be re-cultivated, with stronger effects for the First Chechen War. Conflict intensity was positively correlated with agricultural land abandonment, but the effects differed based on distance to conflicts and the intensity measure. We found little re-cultivation after the wars, despite abundant subsidies, indicating the potentially long-lasting effects of armed conflicts on land-use. Overall, we found a clear relationship between the Chechen Wars and agricultural land abandonment and re-cultivation, illustrating the strong effects of armed conflicts on agriculture.

The persistence of wildlife populations largely depends on females successfully rearing young through the earliest, most vulnerable period. During this period, mothers must balance the costs of home range maintenance, food acquisition, and protection of cubs. We monitored a GPS-collared Amur tigress Panthera tigris altaica for 4 months prior to and 4 months after giving birth to assess how home range size, activity budget, movements, and hunting behavior changed between these periods. After birth, home range size collapsed as activities were centered around the den site. With cubs, the tigress spent slightly less time moving, but greatly increased the rate at which she traveled. Kill rate, handling time, and daily consumption rates did not change significantly, but there was an indication that larger prey were killed during the natal denning period than in other periods. When cubs left the den site and started travelling with their mother, the female was able to increase time spent with cubs, reducing risk of predation. We hypothesize that some of the behaviors of this tigress, which appeared likely to increase cub survival, may be universal across the species, but others will be dependent on ecological parameters specific to the site.

When political regimes fall, economic conditions change and wildlife protection can be undermined. Eastern European countries experienced turmoil following the collapse of socialism in the early 1990s, raising the question of how wildlife was affected. We show that the aftermath of the collapse changed the population growth rates of various wildlife taxa. We analyzed populations of moose (Alces alces), wild boar (Sus scrofa), red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), and gray wolf (Canis lupus) in nine countries. Population growth rates changed in 32 out of 49 time series. In the countries that reformed slowly, many species exhibited rapid population declines, and population growth rates changed in 83% of the time series. In contrast, in countries with fast post-socialism reforms, many populations increased rapidly, and growth rates changed in only 48% of time series. Our results suggest that the direction and frequency of the changes were associated with socioeconomic conditions, and that wildlife populations can be greatly affected by socioeconomic upheavals.

Maintenance of biodiversity in a rapidly changing climate will depend on the efficacy of evolutionary rescue, whereby population declines due to abrupt environmental change are reversed by shifts in genetically driven adaptive traits. However, a lack of traits known to be under direct selection by anthropogenic climate change has limited the incorporation of evolutionary processes into global conservation efforts. In 21 vertebrate species, some individuals undergo a seasonal color molt from summer brown to winter white as camouflage against snow, whereas other individuals remain brown. Seasonal snow duration is decreasing globally, and fitness is lower for winter white animals on snowless backgrounds. Based on 2713 georeferenced samples of known winter coat color—from eight species across trophic levels—we identify environmentally driven clinal gradients in winter coat color, including polymorphic zones where winter brown and white morphs co-occur. These polymorphic zones, underrepresented by existing global protected area networks, indicate hot spots for evolutionary rescue in a changing climate.

SUMMARYWhen timber harvesting is an important source of local income and forest resources are declining, even forests that are designated as protected areas may become vulnerable. Therefore, regular monitoring of forest disturbance is necessary to enforce the protection of forest ecosystems. However, mapping forest disturbance with satellite imagery can be complicated if the majority of the harvesting is selective logging and not clearcuts. Our goal was to map both selective logging and clearcuts within and outside of protected areas in Western Siberia, a region with a highly developed timber industry. Combining summer and winter imagery allowed us to accurately estimate not only clearcuts, but also selective logging. Winter Landsat images substantially improved our classification and resulted in a highly accurate forest disturbance map (97.5% overall accuracy and 86% user accuracy for the rarest class, clearcuts). Selective logging and stripcuts were the dominant disturbance types, accounting for 96.3% of all forest disturbances, versus 3.7% for clearcuts. The total annual forest disturbance rate (i.e. disturbance rate for clearcuts, stripcuts and selective logging together) was 0.53%, but total forest disturbance within protected areas was greater than in non-protected forest (0.66% versus 0.50%, respectively), and so was the annual rate of selective logging (i.e. without clearcuts, 0.37% versus 0.25%, respectively). Our results highlight that monitoring only clearcuts without assessing selective logging might result in significant underestimation of forest disturbance. Also, when timber harvesting is important for the local economy and when protected areas have valuable timber resources that have already been depleted elsewhere, then additional protection may be necessary in order to maintain natural forests within protected areas. We suggest that this is the situation in our study area in Western Siberia right now and is likely the situation in many other parts of the globe as well.

The relative importance of geography, history, and policy in driving forest cover change at broad scales remains poorly understood. We examine variation in forest cover dynamics over the period 1985-2012 across 19 countries in Eastern Europe and European Russia in Order to shed light on the role of these in driving forest cover change after the collapse of socialism. Using a combination of cross-section and panel regression methods, we find that privatization of forest lands increased forest cover loss due to logging, as did increases in agricultural land between 1850 and 1900. Land quality has no power to explain variation in forest loss between countries, nor does trade and price liberalization policy. None of our covariates explain forest regrowth on non-forested land over the period. We conclude that history and land privatization drove important cross-country variation in forest dynamics in the region, but that the majority of forest cover change over the period results from shocks, both political and economic, shared by all countries in the sample. This highlights the importance of broad-scale shocks as drivers of forest change, relative to geographic and policy variability across individual countries. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vocal individuality provides a method of personalization for multiple avian species. However, expression of individual vocal features depends on necessity of recognition. Here we focused on chick vocalizations of demoiselle, Siberian and red-crowned cranes that differ by their body size, developmental rates and some ecological traits. Cranes are territorial during summer, but gather in large flocks during autumn and winter. Nevertheless, parents keep feeding their chicks, even on winter grounds, despite the potential of confusing their own and alien chicks. Here we aimed to compare expression of individuality and sex in calls of three crane species between solitary and gregarious periods of a chick’s life, and between species. We found significant individual patterns of acoustic variables in the calls of all three species both before and after fledging. However, only red-crowned crane chicks increased expression of individuality significantly after the fledging. Also, we found that chicks of all three species significantly increased occurrence of non-linear phenomena, i.e., irregular oscillations of sound-producing membranes (biphonations, sidebands, and deterministic chaos), in their calls after fledging. Non-linear phenomena can be a way of increasing the potential for individual recognition as well as avoiding habituation of parents to their chicks’ calls. The older chicks are, the less their parents feed them, and chicks benefit from keeping the permanent attention of their parents in the course of early ontogeny.

Economic and social transition periods can have strong negative effects for the environment and for wildlife. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 provides a striking example of social turmoil and transition to a new society. It is unclear, however, how humans affected the environment in the course of the collapse, and if institutions designed to safeguard the environment continued to fulfill their intended role. Our goal was to assess the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union on forest canopy removal rates in protected areas, and how these rates varied by protected area status and over time. We monitored forest canopy removal within and outside of protected areas using a 1985-2010 time series of Landsat satellite images from the Western Caucasus. On average, we found surprisingly low annual forest canopy removal rates of only 0.03%. The highest canopy removal inside of protected areas of all types occurred after 2000. Among the protected areas, we found the highest canopy removal rates within Sochi National Park, attributable to construction for the Olympic Games and in spite of the Park's protected status. Overall, it is encouraging that forest canopy removal rates in protected areas in the Western Caucasus are far lower than in other Russian regions. Because many local endemic plant and animal species are found in the Caucasus region, clear cuts are prohibited, and this regulation appears to be effective. However, forest canopy removal within protected areas caused by major social and political events such as the Olympic Games is of concern. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.