Baikal, the animal world. Lake Baikal, Russia

Baikal together with its surroundings is a very beautiful place, you can tell about amazing landscapes and wonders for a very long time. This is a land with a very picturesque nature: fabulous landscapes, bizarre capes, magnificent cliffs, and other beauties found here at every step.

The fauna of Lake Baikal is extremely diverse, as the nature here is preserved almost in its original form, and the native population lives by the traditional way of life. Thanks to this, this place attracts annually ecotourists from the whole planet.

Fauna of Lake Baikal

Here lives a huge number of animals, some of which can be found only in this place. For example, a seal - a nice little animal, which has long been a symbol of this lake. Or fish-golomyanka - completely transparent! In Lake Baikal, the animal world is represented by a huge number of different fish, seals, etc. On the shore live squirrels, sables, deer, wild boars, foxes, which tourists meet very often. Wolves, bears and lynx keep away from the trails of tourists. Day after night birds sing here. And if we talk about fish, sturgeon, grayling, whitefish and omul are typical inhabitants of local waters.

The Baikal seal

Here the only representative of mammals is the seal Baikal (or seal). And if we consider the problems of Lake Baikal, then it can be noted just that this animal is on the verge of extinction.

There are several hypotheses about how the seal was found here. There is a version that it penetrated here from the Arctic Ocean during the ice age on the rivers, springs.

This amazing animal almost all life is in the water, every 20 minutes surfacing for a portion of fresh air. In winter, it breathes through special air vents - small gasses, which creates by raking the ice from below with the claws of the front paws. Nerpa hibernates in lairs, arranging them in the hummocky parts of the lake under the snow. There are more than 10 different auxiliary products around the lair. They can be up to tens of meters from the main one. It has been proven that the ability to make a purge is an innate instinct.

The main food of the seal is golomyanka-goby fish. In a day she eats 3-5 kg of fresh fish. Adult seal for a year eats up to a ton of fish.

About 4 years the female becomes sexually mature. 1-2 years later, maturity is reached. At a seal the pregnancy lasts 11 months. Up to the age of forty she is capable of producing offspring.

In February-April, puppies are born. They appear in a snowy den on the ice, fed by mother's milk. In general, the seal gives birth to the 1st, sometimes two toddlers, whose weight is up to 4 kilograms. The young have white fur, which allows them to remain almost unnoticeable in the snow.

The average weight of the seal is 50 kg, the maximum weight is 150 kg. The speed of the swimming animal is up to 20 kilometers per hour.

The Big Golomyanka

In Baikal there are 2 species of goyamyanka - small and large. These 2 species occur at considerable depths. They keep the day at a depth of 500 m, rising at night to 50 m. Since the water of Lake Baikal is very clean, you can see these beautiful pink fishes that shimmer with all the shades of a rainbow about 20 centimeters in size. The golomyanka has a translucent body due to the huge fat content (about 45%).

She is a viviparous fish. At the same time, in a large individual, the larvae are born in the autumn, while the small one already in June. In a large golomyanka, the number of larvae is about 4000, in the small golomyanka it is 2500.

Fishes live up to 5 years. In food eat young fish and crustaceans.

Baikal omul

Omul is the main commercial fish. The pure water of Lake Baikal allows you to live in it four races of omul: Chivyrkuy, Selenga, Severobaikalsk, embassy.

In autumn, during the spawning period, all races are sent to their own river. The course for spawning in the river begins when the water temperature is equalized in August-September. In October spawning occurs at a water temperature of not more than 5 ° C. Development of eggs lasts 8 months, and the slope of young larvae ends by the end of May. Molody omul, hitting the estuary areas, in the lower reaches of rivers, in litter, bays, is delayed here for 1.5 months, since in May-June these areas are characterized by the best warm-up of the water.

The juveniles in the warm shallow water zone feed heavily on small larvae of chironomids, plankton, etc. The larvae become fry, and as soon as the waters of the coastal parts of the lake warm up to 11 ° C or more, the omuloids gradually scatter along Lake Baikal, the animal world of which is so rich and diverse.

Adult omul becomes the 5th year of his life.

The sizes of fish of different races differ. The largest is the Selenga race. In summer catches, the average body weight reaches 404 grams with a body length of 35 centimeters. The smallest size is the North Baikal race, in which the average weight reaches 255 grams in summer catches.

The maximum weight of fish is 5 kilograms.

Baikal sturgeon

The animal world of Lake Baikal is very rich. In short, it should be told about the Baikal sturgeon. It constantly lives here and is connected with rivers mainly during breeding, which occurs in V. Angara, Barguzin and Selenga. Although in rivers he can live permanently, especially in the first 3 years. Young in the future slides into the lake. Within its limits, the sturgeon is distributed on a huge water area. Shallow water zone, he mastered up to 200 m. During the spawning period, the fish migrate along rivers almost 100 km from the mouth.

The Baikal sturgeon grows relatively long. Males of sexual maturity reach 15 years, while females only reach 20 years of age.

Once upon a time fish were caught, weight of which reached 200 kg; At the moment, there is rarely a representative weighing up to 90 kg. In females, the average body weight is 22.5 kilograms with a length of 160 centimeters, in males about 13.5 kilograms with a length of about 130 centimeters. The average fecundity of the fish is 420,000 eggs.

The composition of fish food is varied, which is due to the wealth of Lake Baikal. Animal world, which attracts sturgeon, is worms, mollusks, larvae of spring-trees, chironomids, amphipods, broad-browed, periodically young fish of carp and perch.

Black Baikal grayling

Endemic variety of Siberian grayling. Fish is distributed throughout Lake Baikal (Russia), especially near the mouth of rivers, where it reproduces. Lives at shallow depths (up to 15 m) near the coast, where there are stony soils.

In warmer times, migrates to the largest tributaries of Lake Baikal. At this time the males acquire a motley, bright outfit. Black grayling occurs in May. After that, the fish slides into the lake, and the fry and the grayling larvae stay there for a long time. By fall, they also slip into the Baikal and the riverbeds of large rivers.

In black grayling, puberty sets in at four years.

Food: larvae of caddis flies, chironomids, gammarids, podenki and insects.

The average size is 250 mm with a body weight of 300 grams. The maximum length of a black grayling is 530 mm with a weight of 1.2 kg.

White Baikal grayling

Endemic species of Siberian grayling from black is distinguished by a lighter color and some biological features.

It lives throughout the lake, while gravitating toward the spaces in the mouths of large tributaries, mainly in the northeastern and eastern parts of the lake.

White is more black. Its maximum weight is about 2 kg and more with a body length of about 600 mm. The average size of the fish is 300 mm with a weight of 500 g.

The fish maturity comes to seven years. The average fertility of the white species is 5 times that of the black one.

Spawning occurs in May, when the water temperature is 14 ° C. At this time, caviar is deposited on sandy coastal shallows at a depth of about 50 cm. Rolling of fry and fish occurs in the same way as in black grayling.

Food is served by a rich fauna of Baikal: larvae of octopods, caddis flies, chironomids, podoken, dragonflies.

Moose moose

Los is the largest beast of the Baikal region. Its average weight is 400 kilograms, individual males weigh 0.5 tons. The body length reaches 3 meters with a height at the withers of about 2.3 meters. Moreover, the males from females are large in size and also have shovel-shaped, yearly alternating Horns. The most powerful antlers appear in males for 15 years. In January the horns fall, the growth of new ones begins in March.

Gong happens in late September. In May, the fauna of Baikal is enriched - calves appear in females.

Losi keep groups of 4-6 individuals or one by one.

In winter they feed on bark and shoots of trees, in summer - with various herbs.

Kabarga

Kabarga is the smallest deer that lives on the shores of Lake Baikal. The animal world of these places is very diverse. Kabarga is of particular interest to many. The body length is 1 meter with a mass of about 17 kilograms. Hind legs are much longer than the forelegs. There are no horns, although males have curved, long fangs.

Lives in the taiga, eats terrestrial and wood lichens.

The gon occurs in November, the pregnancy lasts about 190 days. One is born, sometimes two cubs.

Assessing the problems of Lake Baikal, it should be noted also the rapid disappearance of this species. This is mainly due to the fact that he is actively hunting. This is due to the musk gland located in the males on the abdomen. Musk is a gelatinous, dense substance with a very strong odor, which is used in perfumery and medicine.