The Influence of Urbanization on Mammal Diversity and their Population Patterns: A Case Study of Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Abstract

The article provides a survey of the mammalian fauna and ecology in different habitats across the city of Tashkent that vary in the degree of urbanization. The current mammalian fauna of Tashkent is represented by 32 species; during the city’s development, 9 species have disappeared from the place, either through an anthropogenic impact or having been forced out by alien species. The urban mammalian fauna has increased through arrival of five new invasive species. With the ongoing urbanization, the species diversity of small-sized mammals is decreasing, while their numbers are growing, resulting in simplification of the structure of small mammals’ urban communities and lowering of their biodiversity. The urbanization does not impact the age and sex structure of the house mouse population noticeably. The urban population shows a productivity 1.7 times higher than the wild populations, which is a compensatory response to the relatively high embryonic mortality that is almost totally absent in natural populations. Differences in the morphophysiological indicators of the house mouse synanthropic population and those of populations in the wild are an adaptive response to anthropogenic impact, which appears in the form of more rapid growth, a higher metabolism, exchange of energies, and overall stress load on the rodents in urban biocoenoses. The study showed that the skulls of urban animals grow more rapidly than those of wild mice, while their proportions change following the development pattern of juvenile mice, which suggests that individuals from the Tashkent population can be referred to as rapidly growing animals, with outdoor individuals showing greater relative cranial parameters.

Keywords

• urban ecosystems
• mammals
• synanthropic species
• morphophysiological indicators
• cranial features