The fauna of the steppes is significantly different fromforest fauna. Many steppe animals are forced to live in burrows, ungulates develop the ability to move quickly, and a tendency to herdness appears. Particularly characteristic of the steppe fauna is the diversity of rodents. Here live marmots, jerboas, ground squirrels, mice and other animals of this most numerous in the steppe group.
Among the steppe animals of Eurasia,90 species of various mammals, a third of them can not exist in another habitat. One of the main characteristics of ungulate animals is herding. Steppe animals gather in flocks, making it easier to protect themselves from predators. The main means of protecting ungulates is high speed. In the steppes where there is no shelter, they must run faster than their enemies in order to survive. Saigak can develop a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour, kulan up to 70, and gazelle to 65. Steppe inhabitants can not do without good endurance-they have to make long transitions and stay without food for a long time.
Small animals of the steppe find shelter in theirburrows. Here they hide from the winter cold and summer heat, store food reserves and raise their offspring. In burrows there is always a normal temperature and humidity, rodents can spend in their shelters most of the time, rarely going out into the light. Numerous ways are crammed with earth plugs, the exit from the burrow is sheltered by sparse grass.
Birds, living only in the steppes, preserved completelyLittle. The appearance of people in this habitat, plowed fields and deadly harvesters - all this contributed to the disappearance of many species of steppe birds. Drofa, the crane-belladonna, the snake, the gray partridge are the most common birds of the Russian steppes. Unfortunately, not all steppe animals in Russia were able to adapt to the new conditions. However, many daytime steppe predators inhabit our lands till now: the eagle-burial ground, the burial mound, the steppe eagle, the buzzard, the kestrel and the falcon-falcon-represent a serious danger for small rodents. Often you can meet and peaceful birds: larks, wagtails, chibis, avdotok, red ducks and many forest-steppe inhabitants.
You can not do without reptiles in the steppes.Steppe viper prefers to hunt at night, and in the daytime it peacefully basks in the sun. When a person meets a man, the viper tries to escape, however, if it comes, it will instantly bite with poisonous teeth. Yellow-bellied skid, on the other hand, is very aggressive and likes to attack first, but his bite is completely harmless to humans. Such steppe animals, like lizards, can have a wide variety of colors. This reptile is distributed throughout Eurasia, outrunning snakes in numbers.
The steppe inhabits an incredible number of insects.Wet summer here fly annoying mosquitoes, horseflies and some kinds of gadflies. In the dry steppe, weeds live - insects capable of defeating bees, wasps and beetles. This habitat is full of grasshoppers and ants.
The animals of the steppe have adapted to the dry climate.Eastern Eurasia is famous for its cold winter and hot summer. The average annual temperature of central Eurasia is from 3 to 7 degrees Celsius, in the south it is up to 10. The average July temperature is 20 to 24 degrees Celsius, air humidity is about 56-67 percent, in the driest month this figure drops to 35-49% . Here falls about 300-500 millimeters of precipitation a year, for the summer - 160-180. In spring and late in the summer there is a drought in the steppes. In July, droughts often alternate with major thunderstorms.
Despite the external modesty, the world of the steppesis extremely diverse, and a person must take care of it, not allowing the extinction of many species. Interference of man in the animal world adversely affects the flora and fauna of this habitat. Many living creatures exist only in the steppes, not meeting elsewhere on the globe.
