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The wildlife of Russia inhabits terrain that extends across 12 time zones and from the tundra region in the far north to the Caucasus Mountains and prairies in the south, including temperate forests which cover 70% of the country. Russia's forests comprise 22% of the forest in the world [1] as well as 33% of all temperate forest. [2]
Tundra vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs, sedges, grasses, mosses, and lichens. Scattered trees grow in some tundra regions. The ecotone (or ecological boundary region) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline. The tundra soil is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. [2]
Reindeer also travel, feed, and rest together in the wild, sometimes forming super-herds of up to 500,000 animals. Tundra reindeer migrate between forest and tundra in these massive groups in an ...
At higher altitudes, the terrain is arctic tundra. Svalbard has permafrost and tundra, with both low, middle and high Arctic vegetation. 165 species of plants have been found on the archipelago. [9] Only those areas which defrost in the summer have vegetation cover and this accounts for about 10% of the island group.
Animal species that are endangered in the tundra include the Arctic fox, caribou, and polar bears. These animals have been endangered due to overhunting, an infestation of disease, loss of diet and habitat due to climate change, and human destructive activities, such as searches for natural gas and oil, mining, and road building. [10]
The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is the national animal of Russia. This is a list of the mammal species recorded in Russia. There are 266 mammal species in Russia, of which five are critically endangered, thirteen are endangered, twenty-six are vulnerable, and six are near threatened.
The tundra wolf (Canis lupus albus), also known as the Turukhan wolf, [3] is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Eurasia's tundra and forest-tundra zones from Finland to the Kamchatka Peninsula. [3] It was first described in 1792 by Robert Kerr, who described it as living around the Yenisei, and of having a highly valued pelt. [4]
[1]: 333 in the forest-tundra and taiga from the river Taz in the west and to the Anabar in the east. [ 1 ] : 336 "In the 1960s up to 80% of reindeer wintered in the Putoran Mountains, but in the late 1970s most animals moved to the mountain taiga of the northern Evenkia and the western region of Yakutia.