Page 57 - Proceedings of the State Natural History Museum. Issue 37 (Lviv, 2021)

56 Загороднюк І., Болотіна І., Улюра Є.

Mammals from Belarus in the collections of natural history museums of Ukraine
A review of collection samples of mammals received from the territory of Belarus (within
its modern borders) and stored in natural museums of Ukraine is given. Information on the
materials of 5 museums is summarized – Dybowski Zoological Museum at Lviv National
University (ZMD), Zoological Museum of Kyiv National University (ZMKU), Museum of
Nature at the Kharkiv University (MNKU), State Natural History Museum of NASU (Lviv,
SNHM) and National Museum of Natural History of NAS of Ukraine (Kyiv, NMNH). Within
the latter, two (out of three available) collections were studied – the collections of the
Department of Zoology (NNPM-z) and the Department of Museology (NNPM-m). Samples
from Belarus were found in the collections of ZMD (5 specimens), SMNH (2 sp.), NMNH-z
(68 sp.), NMNH-p (36 sp.), NMNH-m (7 sp.), MNKU (3 sp.). In total, there are 121 specimens
of 13 mammal species in the collections. The number of samples is dominated by rodents, in
particular Spermophilus suslicus (61 sp.), Sus scrofa (31 sp.) and Sylvaemus tauricus (7 sp.).
Ancient specimens predominate (1885–1915), among which specimens from the collection of
O. Brauner (NNPM) dominate. Certain groups of mammals appear in collections only in the
last period of accumulation of collections, in particular murine rodents (collections of the
1990s). The largest number of samples was collected in the southern and western regions of
Belarus within the Brest, Minsk, Grodno and Gomel oblasts. The most diverse are the
collections from the vicinities of Mozyr in the Gomel oblast, mostly samples from the
Brauner's collections of 1900–1915, which are now stored in the NNPM. The oldest are the
samples of the black rat (Rattus rattus) from the collections of Benedykt Dybowski in 1885
in the family estates of Vojnov and Niankov of the Novogrudok district of the Grodno oblast.
The most valuable is a sample of 61 skulls of ground squirrels Spermophilus odessanus
(suslicus s. lato), collected during 1947–1954 in different districts of Brest, Grodno and
Minsk oblasts. The series Sylvaemus tauricus from Central Polissia (7 sp.), collected in the
1990-1995 and transferred to the NNPM, is also significant.
Key words: zoological collections, mammals, fauna of Belarus, natural museums of
Ukraine.