Population Number of the Stag Beetle Lucanus cervus (L.) of a Forest in the Voronezh Region, Calculated from Food Remains of the Shrike-Zhulan Lanius collurio (L.)

Abstract

Based on the results of counting the number of fresh body fragments of stag beetles Lucanus cervus (L.), which are food residues of the shrike-Zhulan Lanius collurio (L.) and taking into account the area of the breeding territory of the Zhulan, the approximate density and the population number of L. cervus in oak wood of 5 thousand hectares (Voronezh Region) were calculated in June 2018. On the ground, under the crown of an oak tree, 22 fused complexes of the head and thorax of L. cervus males were found. It is known that the size of the nesting area of a pair of shrikes ranges from 0.6 to 3.4 hectares, averaging about 1.6 such. Even if taken as a basis the maximum dimensions (1.6 hectares) of the nesting territory of the pair of shrikes, on which food remains were found, then the number of L. cervus males in this area of the oak forest was at least 6 individuals per 1 hectare. Extrapolating the obtained data on accounting for the number of fragments of L. cervus (only males!) caught by a shrike (or a pair of shrikes) for the whole investigated forest provides an approximate estimate of the number of the entire population of Lucanus cervus not less than 30 thousand individuals in this forest.