| The Russian Desman Desmana moschata (Linnaeus, 1758) is a highly endangered semiaquatic mammal, confined to disjunct areas. Between 1983 and 1992 several specimens were kept and investigated, firstly in the zoological garden of Moscow (4 ♀ ♀, 1 ♂), and afterwards in the field station of the former Soviet-Russian Academy of Sciences at Cernogolovka (1 ♀, 4 ♂ ♂). Parallel to this, numerous extended field trips to the huge wetlands of the Oka Reserve allowed the verification of the results obtained in captivity. An unexpectedly rich repertoire of acoustic signals was recorded and transferred to sonagrams in Vienna/Austria. After tentative interpretation, the acoustic signals were correlated with simultaneous behaviour patterns. Not only the essential... |
