sable
| sable | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg)
Climbing sable |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Martes zibellina | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Zobel ( Martes zibellina ) is a predatory species of the genus Real Marder ( Martes ) closely with the domestic also in Central Europe Baummarder is used. It is mainly native to the Asian taiga . It is best known for its valuable sable fur .
features
As with many martens, the body structure of the sable is characterized by its elongated, slim trunk and rather short limbs. Morphologically, the sable is similar to the pine marten , but is slightly larger and shorter-tailed, and the fur is silky and soft.
The color of the fur varies from light brown to black. The head is usually a little lighter than the trunk. The chest and throat are often, but not always, covered by a noticeable orange patch. Sometimes there are individual whitish or yellow hairs in the fur. The winter coat is extremely long and silky, while in summer it becomes shorter, rougher and darker. The coat changes between March and May and between August and November.
Sables reach a head body length of 32 to 53 cm (males) or 30 to 48 centimeters (females). The bushy tail becomes 12 to 18 cm long. On average, males are 9% larger than females. The weight of the males is 1150 to 1850 g, that of the females 650 to 1600 g. In winter, the weight increases by 7 to 10%.
distribution and habitat
The original distribution area of the sable covered large parts of northern Eurasia and also included Scandinavia . They have disappeared in parts of their range; today they no longer occur west of the Ural Mountains . The current distribution area includes parts of the following states:
- Russia : almost all of Siberia east of the Urals, including the Sakhalin Island .
- Kazakhstan : in the extreme northeast on the rivers of Buchtarma and Uba .
-
China : three separate areas of distribution:
- on the edge of the Altai in Xinjiang
- in the Great Hinggan Mountains and maybe also in the Small Hinggan Mountains
- in the Changbai Mountains
- Mongolia : in the Altai and in the forests around the Chöwsgöl Nuur .
- North Korea : in the Changbai Mountains and south of the mountains.
- Japan : on the island of Hokkaido .
The typical habitat is dense coniferous forest. The plains as well as the mountains are inhabited equally.
Way of life
activity
.jpg)
Sables mostly stay on the ground, but can climb well. They build several nests in their territory, mostly in hollow tree trunks, in crevices or under tree roots, which they pad with dry plants or hair.
The action area of a sable covers 4 to 30 km². The size of the action area depends on the habitat and thus on the abundance of food, but also on the age of an animal. Every day a sable covers between 6.5 and 12 km within its range of action. Overall, it hardly ever moves further than 30 km from a place, but in exceptional cases hikes of 300 km have also been recorded.
Sables are mainly twilight-active, but can also be out at night and rarely during the day. In very cold weather they often stay in their nest for several days. The locomotion takes place with small jumps of 40 to 70 cm width. In theory, Zobeln can jump up to 4 m.
nutrition
Small rodents make up the majority of the diet . In Siberia, polar bank voles make up more than 50% of the sable's diet. Other mammals on the menu can include croissants , pikas , muskrats , marmots , rabbits and young musk deer . Birds, fish and insects are also eaten in animal food. Honey is also licked from bees' nests.
Plants also make up a considerable proportion of food. In the middle of the Yenisei it was found that 20% of the sables there feed on pine seeds and blueberries.
Reproduction
The mating season is between mid-June and early August. Due to dormancy , however, implantation is delayed for months, so that the gestation period is a total of 245 to 298 days. Births take place between late March and early May. A litter consists of one to seven, on average three young. Newborn sables are naked and blind and 11 to 12 cm tall, they open their eyes after around a month, shortly afterwards leave the nest for the first time and are weaned at seven weeks. They reach sexual maturity at the beginning of their second year of life.
The probability of reaching the first year of life is only 20%. Very few sables live to be more than nine years old, but a maximum age of eighteen has been recorded in the wild. In captivity, the maximum lifespan was 22 years.
Systematics and names
Carl von Linné described the sable in his Systema Naturae in 1758 under the name Mustela zibellina . The classification in the genus of real marten ( Martes ) made Sergei Ognev in 1925.
Various authors have denied the status of an independent species to the sable and see it as con-specific with the pine marten , the spruce marten and / or the Japanese marten . The Japanese marten in particular is sometimes classified as a subspecies of the sable.
Various authors have tried to divide the sable into subspecies . Between two and thirty subspecies are named. The undertaking of a classification is made more difficult by the fact that sables were often released for resettlement in arbitrary areas. In addition, sables are so variable within a population that it is difficult to find common characteristics that differentiate them from other sable populations. What can be established, however, is that the largest sables are found in Kamchatka , the Altai and the Urals , the smallest on average in the Ussuri and Amur region ; In addition, in the Lake Baikal region, in Yakutia and on the Amur there are often particularly dark sables, and in the Transural a particularly light sable.
The German name "Zobel" was borrowed from Slavic languages through the fur trade. The Russian Соболь (sobol) is related .
Sable and human
Sable fur, which has been traded as one of the most valuable pelts for centuries, is often better known than the animal that is hidden behind the name. Sable skins were already used in the 3rd century BC. Acquired by Scythian peoples and shipped over the Black Sea to the Greek world. Later, sable hides became a status symbol, especially in Russia. So-called crown sobels had to be delivered to the state as a tribute; the crown of the Russian tsars was a jeweled sable fur hat until the 17th century. Subjugated peoples of Siberia used to pay tribute in sable skins.
Excessive hunting made the sable rare in the early 20th century. In the Soviet Union , hunting and trapping were completely banned between 1940 and 1960, during which time 20,000 sables were released from farms in the wild. These measures mean that there are between 1.1 and 1.3 million sables in the wild again today and that the sable is listed as not endangered by the IUCN .
The price of sables in 2010 was at 167 dollars for furs from Zobelfarmen and 138 US dollars for hunted in the wild. This year, 11,000 furs came from the farms, 366,000 from wild sables.
In 2005 the asteroid 13351 was named Zibeline after the sable ( Martes zibellina ).
literature
- Vladimir G. Monakhov: Martes zibellina . In: Mammalian Species 2011 , No. 43, pp. 75-86.
- Ronald M. Nowak (Ed.): Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (Eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 1: Carnivores . Lynx Edicions, 2009. ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1 .
- Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference . Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
- Bernhard Grzimek (ed.): Grzimeks animal life. Volume 12: Mammals 3 . dtv Verlag, 1979. ISBN 3-423-03207-3 .
Web links
- Martes zibellina in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: A. Abramov, C. Wozencraft, 2008. Accessed January 6 of 2009.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Monakhov 2011, p. 77.
- ↑ a b Monakhov 2011, p. 79.
- ↑ a b Monakhov 2011, p. 78.
- ↑ a b Monakhov 2011, p. 80.
- ↑ a b c Nowak 1999, p. 717.
- ↑ a b c d e Monakhov 2011, p. 81.
- ^ A b Wilson & Reeder 2005.
- ↑ a b c Monakhov 2011, p. 82.
- ^ A b Wilson & Mittermeier 2009, p. 632.
- ↑ Monakhov 2011, p. 76.
- ^ Günther Drosdowski: Duden - Etymology. Dictionary of origin of the German language . Dudenverlag, 1989.
- ↑ Grzimek 1979, p. 59.
- ↑ Monakhov 2011, p. 83.