METHOD OF ESTIMATION OF ABUNDANCE OF MATURE FEMALES OF CASPIAN SEAL INVOLVED IN REPRODUCTION Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC A01K67/02 

FIELD: agriculture.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the field of ecology of marine animals and is designed to estimate the abundance of mature females of Caspian seal involved in reproduction. The method comprises the organizational, technical, methodological support of specialised ship expedition and account of biological characteristics of the object of its research, the Caspian seal. The expedition is carried out in a certain time period after disintegration of ice in the month of April in all the water area of the North Caspian. The route of the ship is plotted along the parallel transects at a distance of 10 to 20 km from each other. In the registration and identification of the object of research the specific biological features of seals are associatedly used: curiosity, breathing the atmospheric air, skin colour of two-month puppies. The extrapolational abundance of seals in the survey area is counted. At the same time on the rookery islands and the sand islands located in the North Caspian water area, the abundance of individuals of mixed rookeries on the islands is counted. The number of females without offspring is determined. The proportion of lactating females on mixed rookeries is determined. After that the total number of mature females involved in reproduction is calculated, taking into account the extrapolational abundance.

EFFECT: method enables to estimate quickly and accurately the abundance of mature females involved in reproduction.

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