Food Selectivity of Large Herbivores in Eastern Mongolia
I. S. SHEREMETYEV1, E. A. PETRUNENKO2, D. E. KISLOV2, S. B. ROZENFELD3, I. A. DMITRIEV3, L. ZHARGALSAIKHAN4, S. ENKH-AMGALAN5
1Institute of Biology and Soil Science, Far Eastern Branch, RAS, 690022, Vladivostok, Stoletiya ave., 159
2Botanical Garden-Institute, Far Eastern Branch, RAS, 690024, Vladivostok, Makovskogo str., 142
3Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RAS, 119071, Moscow, Leninskii ave., 33
4Institute of Common and Experimental Biology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, 190070, Ulaanbaatar, Zhukov str., 77
5Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, P.O. 210620, Ulaanbaatar, Box 361
Keywords: травоядные, избирательность, соперничество, Procapra gutturosa, Восточная Монголия, herbivores, food selectivity, competition, Procapra gutturosa, Eastern Mongolia
Abstract
The present paper deals with food selectivity of the large herbivores of Eastern Mongolia, governing factors and role in formation of herbivores’ community structure. It was established that due to vegetation degradation a high level of selectivity was characteristic of all herbivores under study, it was conditioned by their morphophysiological features and spatial distribution. Selectivity may provide competitive advantages, but not food niche differentiation. We suppose that the herbivore communities of Eastern Mongolia, both under inspection and in the wild, experience under pasture degradation an increase of the portion of small browsers, which in turn raise the rate of degradation. This interrelationship shows a likely mechanism of formation of intrinsic crises in herbivore communities and may explain extinction processes of big steppe herbivores of the “Mammoth fauna”.
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