Ukraine, the land and its people

by Stepan Rudnytskyi

The third plant formation of the Carpathians are their mountain meadows (polonini). They lie above the forest limit and begin to appear at the source of the San. Toward the southeast they become constantly more luxuriant and more frequent. The grass and herb growth of the polonini is very varied and rich, especially in the so-called zarinki, that is, parts of the mountain meadows where hay is made. The polonini are of great importance to the inhabitants of the mountains. Great herds of horses, cattle and sheep remain here all summer. The polonini are peopled, and a life of great privation—a hard life but free—develops in primitive dairy huts, with never dying camp-fires.

In the mountains of Crimea we find, in the main, the same arrangement of plant zones. At some height above sea-level the forest zone begins. White and red beech, oak, and two species of pine appear here in forests. Only on the broad peak surfaces we find poor mountain meadows with thick but short grasses. The name of these mountain pastures (yaila) has been transferred to the entire mountain chain.

In the Caucasus we find, within Ukrainian territory, only the forest zone of this mountain system. The forests often attain a height of 2500 m., and consist of various kinds of oak, beech, elms, linden, maple and ash. Above the forest limit we meet with a low shrub formation and the beautiful, wonderfully rich grass and herb growth which cover the mountain meadows of the Caucasus, rising, at a height of 2900–3500 m., to the snow border.

The animal-geographical conditions of the Ukraine are much simpler than the plant-geographical. The Ukraine, like the rest of Europe, belongs to the holarctic region, and despite the extent of the land, only slight differences in the fauna are found, these being due to [[111]]the floral and morphological differences of the mountains, forests and steppes of the Ukraine.

Since the ice age, the animal world of the Ukraine has experienced no lesser changes than the plant world. In the ice period many mighty beasts of prey (cave bear, cave lion, cave hyena, etc.) lived here, besides thick-skinned animals (mammoth, rhinoceros), together with the ancestors of the present animal world and various polar forms. All these animals are either altogether extinct, or they followed the receding glacier to the north. On the other hand, together with the post glacial steppe, a steppe-fauna spread out from south and east, which then gradually had to make way for the forest fauna advancing southward with the forests.

From this time on, the Ukrainian fauna suffered only very slight natural changes. On the other hand, the artificial changes produced by the hand of man have been all the greater. Many species which were dangerous as beasts of prey or useful for food or skins, have either been entirely exterminated by man or greatly limited in their spread. In destroying the forests and putting cultivated steppes and fields in their place, he has, to a great extent, beaten the way to the heart of Central Europe for the animals of the steppe. But his activity has been rather to exterminate than to change, and he has destroyed the once wonderful animal life of the Ukraine.

Of the higher animal life of the Ukraine on the middle and lower Dnieper, we are told, in a historical source, almost incredible facts prevailing about the middle of the 16th Century. “The Ukraine is so rich in game that bisons, wild horses and deer are hunted merely for the sake of their skins. Of their meat only the choicest cuts of chine and loin are used, all other parts thrown away. Hinds and young boars are not hunted at all. Roes and wild boars wander in great herds from the steppes into the woods [[112]]in winter, returning to the steppes in summer. During this season they are killed by the thousands. On all the rivers, streamlets, brooks, live innumerable beaver colonies. The bird world is so remarkably rich that enormous quantities of wild goose, wild duck, crane and swan eggs and young ones are gathered. In the rivers, such great shoals of fish swarm in the spring that the fishing spear thrown in stands upright.” Another chronicler, of the 17th Century, tells that he was present when a single throw of the net at the mouth of the Orel brought 2000 fish to light, of which the smallest was one foot long.

Of the cat family, the lynx and the wildcat have become very rare and are met with only in the Carpathians and the Caucasus; the lynx also in the Polissye country. The bear, formerly very frequent thruout the Ukraine, is now also confined to these three regions. On the other hand, wolves, foxes, badgers, martens, polecats and all sorts of small animals of prey have survived, altho in very much smaller numbers. Of the large plant-eating animals the bison (thanks only to the unusual care on the part of the government) has survived in the primeval forest of Biloveza, the moose-deer only in the Polissye, the stag only in the Carpathians and the Caucasus. On the other hand, there are still a great many roes and wild boars in the woods. Of the rodents the hare is still common everywhere, while the beaver, which at one time inhabited all the rivers of the Ukraine, is now confined to the most inaccessible swamps of the Polissye and the Caucasian tributaries of the Kuban. The bird kingdom, too, has become much poorer in species. Large birds of prey, like eagles and hawks, nest only in the Carpathians and in the Caucasus—very seldom in the woods of the plain. The heath fowl and grouse seek the most inaccessible thickets, and even the number of small insect and grain-feeders has been greatly reduced. Of the waterfowl, wild ducks, wild geese, coot, [[113]]diving birds, etc., are still very numerous. Cranes and herons are rare. The former wealth of fish is ruined and no one takes care of the artificial raising of fish. To be sure, much fish is still caught, especially in the Dnieper and Don systems, mainly pike, tench, carp, crucian, shad, etc., and trout in the mountain streams; but of the abundance of even the comparatively recent past, there is no trace. Sturgeon, sterlet and other sea fish, which formerly came in great swarms up the Dniester, Boh and Dnieper, are only seldom found today.

The steppe region has lost even more of its animal wealth. Above all, the rich higher animal life of the transition zones, which as late as the 18th Century provided food for the populous Zaporog Sich, has quite disappeared. The tarpani (wild horses), which still inhabited the steppe in great herds in the 17th Century, are now completely exterminated. Saiga antelopes (saihaki), once generally distributed thruout the steppe region of the Ukraine, have retreated to the Caspian steppe. The smaller game and the bird world have suffered far less, but the activity of man, who has changed the steppes into fields and pastures, has been fatal to them too. The bustard, sandpiper, partridge and grouse, which formerly inhabited the steppe brush in great numbers have become rare. The same may be said of the bird-world of the watercourses and swamps which once inhabited the river districts of the steppe in immense swarms. The insectivorous birds, too, have decreased, and the harmful insects are increasing at a terrible rate. Only the locust pest, which formerly caused great damage in agriculture, is now almost gone.

But, in spite of the war of extermination which man is waging against the animal world of the steppe, animal species are found which were well able to adapt themselves to the new circumstances, have become accustomed to man and have found plenty of food in the fields of the cultivated [[114]]steppe (field-mice, marmot, ground squirrels, etc.). They have increased greatly and have migrated toward the west and north, causing great damage to farming.