Ukraine was invaded by Russian military forces in February 2022. In response, the European Mammal Foundation issued a statement unequivocally condemning Russian aggression and offering sympathy and support to Ukraine. We also suspended cooperation with our Russian colleagues and, later in 2022, extended our project for one year.

The purpose of the suspension, rather than immediate expulsion, was to allow us some time to see if the situation improved or whether some way of continuing scientific cooperation in time of war could be found. Sadly, this destructive and unnecessary war continues unabated and, despite the best efforts of the EMF, over a considerable period, to find an acceptable way forward, scientific cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in such circumstances has proved impossible. We can understand that. With great regret, therefore, the EMF, in consultation with the atlas Steering Group, has decided to abandon our original scientific objective of mapping mammal distributions across the whole of geographic Europe and will now exclude the Russian part of that area from our project.

Having excluded Russia, EMMA2 will now map the whole of the EMMA1 area plus Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine. This will allow us to extend the area mapped eastwards by about 1000km, so covering a good proportion of Europe. An atlas with a coherent border that runs down the eastern borders of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine will still be a valuable contribution to the study and conservation of mammals.


European Mammal Foundation,
March 2023

Atlas of distribution of insectivores of the Czech Republic. Miloš Anděra, Vladimír Hanzal, Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA), Prague, 2022, 124 pp.

This latest version of the atlas of distribution of insectivores living in the Czech Republic follows up the previous stages of mapping of this mammal group. The large dataset covers the period 1753–2021 and is based on several main sources (results of field efforts, extensive bibliography of different sources, museum collections etc.); almost 24,000 records limited by the end of the year 2021 were used. The assessment of the data set is based on the standard grid mapping (squares 12 km × 11.2 km in size). In the overview of particular species, 3 types of maps are used: 1) summary grid map, 2) point map of localities and 3) chronological map. The text of the atlas for the particular species consists of several sections: the vernacular and scientific names of the species (including synonyms), information about its legal protection and conservation at the national and international level, general distribution and occurrence in the Czech Republic, mapping statistics, hypsometry, habitat preferences and level of threat. In some cases, notes on taxonomy or nomenclature of the species are added. A number of photos of species and their habitats are also attached. An extensive list of references is provided at the end of the atlas. Up to now, the occurrence of 10 species from three families – shrews (7 species), moles (1 species) and hedgehogs (2 species) – has been confirmed in the Czech Republic. The text is bilingual with more comprehensive English summaries.   

The atlas can be ordered directly from the publisher – The Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA), email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; price 8 € + postage.

The European Mammal Foundation (EMF) expresses its deepest concern over the invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation. This unprovoked war against the citizens of Ukraine, which is still continuing, has resulted in thousands of deaths, enormous destruction and the displacement of millions of refugees. It is a disaster for the whole of Europe.

Our pan-European project work relies on international cooperation between scientists, regardless of the political and economic frameworks within which they work, and we believe our project is an excellent example of international cooperation. Unfortunately, that cooperation has been put under severe threat by the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

We offer our full support and sympathy to our colleagues and friends and all the people in Ukraine. While the EMF is a non-political scientific organisation, it can work effectively only when countries observe the principles of the UN Charter, and that is why we have taken the decision to suspend, for the time being, our co-operation with Russia and Belarus.  

Although Russia is becoming increasingly isolated, we know that many Russians do not support this war. We should not assume that the Russian government speaks for all Russian scientists. Many, including members of the scientific community, have been brave enough to voice their objections publicly, despite the introduction of draconian laws severely limiting free speech. We hope that people will continue to speak out against this mindless war and that, in time, scientific cooperation can resume.

 

European Mammal Foundation
April 2022

Voles and lemmings (Arvicolinae) of the Palearctic region.

Boris Kryštufek & Georgy Shenbrot

Voles and lemmings are the most numerous group of Palaearctic rodents by species, so they are often the subject of basic and applied research. Combining the advances of genomics with traditional taxonomy, the present work is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to the taxonomy of an animal group of interest to epidemiologists, biostratigraphers, zooarchaeologists, evolutionary biologists, population ecologists, biosystematists, conservation biologists, museum curators, and researchers in various other biological fields. . The text is accompanied by 331 illustrations and more than a thousand references. Morphological features and detailed distribution maps are given for each of the 128 species. The book will provide the user with an in-depth and critical interpretation of the relationships between species of voles and lemmings. It will make it easier to understand the taxonomic changes that are still common in this group of rodents.

The book is published as a pdf, which can be freely downloaded here.

 

 

WLC6 logoThe 6th World Lagomorph Conference will take place from 4-8th July 2022 in Montpellier, France.

The World Lagomorph Conference, which takes place every four years, brings together researchers and experts on rabbits, hares, and pikas from all over the world. This quadriennal meeting organised on behalf of the World Lagomorph Society is a great opportunity to share and exchange information on the natural history, ecology, evolution, behaviour, physiology, genetics, morphology, diseases, management and conservation of wild lagomorphs.

The website for the conference can be found here: https://lagomorph2022.sciencesconf.org/ and the conference is already open for the submission of abstracts.

  1. Alpine shrew (Sorex alpinus) is still living in the Pyrenees
  2. Per Ole Syvertsen
  3. Citizen Science in Ireland
  4. Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland