Amphibians of the Orenburg State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Abstract

Literary information about the batrachofauna of the Orenburg nature reserve is incomplete and contradictory. Data on the specific composition and abundance of amphibians in the Orenburg Nature State Reserve at its five cluster territories by the results of our 2015–2020 inventory are presented. The previously published materials about amphibians on the cluster territories “Talovskaya Steppe”, “Burtinskaya Steppe” and “Aytuarskaya Steppe” have been supplemented. Data on amphibians of the cluster territories “Predural'skaya Steppe” and “Ashchisayskaya Steppe” are published for the first time. The batrachofauna of the reserve included five species, namely: Bombina bombina, Pelobates vespertinus, Bufotes sitibundus, Pelophylax ridibundus, and Rana arvalis. All these species are represented on the cluster territories “Talovskaya Steppe” and “Predural'skaya Steppe”, as well as on the cluster territory “Burtinskaya Steppe” in 2015–2017, where B. bombina disappeared in 2018. B. sitibundus and P. ridibundus were found in the cluster territory “Aituarskaya Steppe”. B. bombina and B. sitibundus were found in the cluster territory “Ashchisayskaya steppe”. B. sitibundus was found in all cluster territories as a common or small species. The abundance of P. vespertinus, P. ridibundus, and R. arvalis decreased in the reserve from the western cluster territories to the eastern ones. These three species have not been found in the easternmost cluster area of the reserve (“Ashchisayskaya steppe”). Our findings of B. bombina in the cluster territory “Ashchisayskaya steppe” (between 50.933651°N and 51.043583°N, 61.138383°E and 61.269867°E; Svetlinsky district of the Orenburg region) expand the previously known range of the species.