Russian Desman
From Freepedia
| Desmana moschata</br>Conservation status: Endangered | ||||||||||||||||
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| Image:Russian desman.jpg Russian desman | ||||||||||||||||
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| Desmana moschata (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Russian desman (Russian: выхухоль) is a small half-aquatic mammal endemic to the Volga basin in Russia. It inhabits ponds and rivers, but prefers small, overgrown ponds with abundance of insects and amphibians.
Russian desman lives in holes on the banks. It often lives in relatively large families of up to 15 animals. Animals of different generations often live together. In winter, desmah goes into hybernation.
Russian desman is a protected species under Russian law, all hunting is illegal. Unfortunately, the species continue to extinct: in mid-1970es, there were an estimate of 70 thousand desmans in the wild. The figure went down to 35 thousand as of 2004. Desmans suffer a lot from illegal fishing nets. However, at least in some Russian regions the number of desmans increased.
Desman fur used to be highly valuable.
