THE MAMMAL COLLECTION (MAMMALIA) OF THE ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF UZHHOROD NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

The mammal collection (Mammalia) of the Zoological Museum of Uzhhorod National University. — A. Kron, O. Lugovoy, V. Roshko, V. Roshko, V. Roshko. — The mammal collection of the Zoological Museum of Uzhhorod University consists of more than 4 800 specimens of 125 mammal species of world fauna. Among them, 115 mammal species are displayed in the exhibition halls. The mammal collection of the Zoological Museum is kept in scientific repositories, while a part of specimens is represented in three exhibition halls (210 exhibits). The geographic origin of specimens in the museum’s collection covers all continents but Antarctica. Most of the species represented in the exhibition (34 or 29.6 %) belong to Rodentia, followed by species of Carnivora (28 or 24.4 %) and Artiodactyla (15 or 13.0 %). The most common species in the collection are rodents (Rodentia): common vole (Microtus arvalis) and striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), a total of 1422 specimens. The general systematic representativeness of the exhibited part of the collection of mammals of the Carpathian region is 80 species, which is 77.2 % of the total number of mammals of the Ukrainian part of the Carpathians. In a systematic regard, the mammal collection of the Zoological Museum includes specimens of 125 species of 14 orders of the world fauna (41.2 %), representing 44 families and 89 genera. The collection contains 38 species listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, most of them belong to Chiroptera (9 species), Rodentia (9 species), and Carnivora (8 species). All bat species are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. There are 497 bat specimens in the Zoological Museum, 13 of which are displayed in the exhibition halls. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which covers six categories of conservation status, is additionally noted. The rarest species having endangered status (Endangered, EN) are the Russian desman (Desmana moschata), Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), tiger (Panthera tigris), Caspian seal (Phoca caspica), barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Some other species are critically endangered (CR): Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), European mink (Mustela lutreola), saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), and Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus).


Introduction
The Zoological Museum of the Uzhhorod National University (UzhNU) was founded in December 1945, two months after the University was formally established. At first, the origin and its formation were directly related to the names of the organizers and first heads of University departments of zoological profile: I. Rogal (Department of Zoology and Biology), S. Seheda (Department of Invertebrate Zoology), I. Koliushev (Department of Vertebrate Zoology) (Roshko, 2004;Shidlovsky, 2012). In 74 years of its existence, the Zoological Museum has developed into a solid scientific and educational centre of faunal diversity. It is an excellent source of zoological guidance and a laboratory for students. Initially, it was formed as a fundamental scientific collection for zoological scientists not only in Ukraine but also from abroad (Kron, Lugovoi, 2015). Information on the beginnings and development of the Zoological Museum had been repeatedly published in popular and scientific publications (Pysanets, 2009;Merzlikin, 2014;Filipenko, 2014;Kron et al., 2014).
In 2019, the museum staff revised the species identification of exhibited specimens conforming their scientific names to the currently recognised mammal nomenclature. Based on the results of recent inventory, there are about 4 825 specimens in the museum's mammal collection representing 125 species of the world's mammal fauna. Nowadays, the Zoological Museum of UzhNU is the only place in the region where visitors can get acquainted with the fauna of the world.
The aim of this publication is to describe the mammal collection of the Zoological Museum of Uzhhorod National University. Such a collection an important basis for exploration and studying the fauna of the world by students of different specialties (Bokotey et al., 2008;Zizda et al., 2012;Zagorodniuk et al., 2014;Roshko et al., 2019).

A brief history of the collection
The formation of collections at the Zoological Museum had begun long before it was established. At the beginning of the foundation of the Zoological Museum, the exhibits of biology cabinets of the Uzhhorod, Mukachevo and Berehovo high schools were handed over to the Museum of Uzhhorod University. In addition, letters were sent to leading universities and scientific zoological institutions of the former Soviet Union asking to help with the enrichment of the museum with materials. As a result, in addition to the own stuff, specimens were obtained from the following institutions: Zoological  Kizil Agach State Reserve (Azerbaijan); Whaling flotilla "Glory" (Odesa). Today, due to periodical expeditions and gifts from local nature lovers, the museum continues to expand.
Yuriy Mateleshko had been working at the Zoological Museum for more than 40 years. He was a remarkable professional taxidermist who studied the business with the best specialists of the Soviet Union at the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. He produced about 500 exhibits and more than 1 000 specimens of the scientific collection. Yuriy Mateleshko knew the secrets of working with large animals. He was even invited by the Ministry of Culture of USSR to the shooting of the Italian-Soviet movie "Battle of Waterloo" to make skin-mounts of 10 horses (Roshko, 2004).
Specimens of the plains zebra (Equus quagga) and the common eland (Taurotragus oryx) were obtained from the State Reserve "Askania Nova", the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) and goitered (Gazella subgutturosa) came from Astrakhan State Reserve, while the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and the short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) were given by the whaling flotilla "Glory" (Odesa). The Russian desman (Desmana moschata) and the mountain hare (Lepus timidus) were presented by the Zoological Museum of Gorky University, long-clawed ground squirrel (Spermophilus leptodactylus) and yellow ground squirrel (Spermophilus fulvus) came from the Zoological Museum of Samarkand State University. The Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the AS USSR (Leningrad) presented the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) and surilis (Presbytis sp.). The Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) come from the Zoological Museum of Tomsk State University. Some mammals were donated by persons who wished to remain unknown.

Collection analysis and discussion
The Zoological Museum of Uzhhorod University has about 5 000 displayed specimens. Above species taxa of Carpathian mammals are fully represented in the collection. However, only 80 species (64.6 %) are represented in the exhibition and 77.2 % in among the stock material, which is due to the absence of rare species of bats and small mammals. Nevertheless, this allows to reflect the full diversity of mammals in the Ukrainian Carpathians (Tables 1, 2). The Zoological Museum mostly represents the fauna of the Transcarpathian region and it is the only source in the region where visitors can get acquainted with mammal species of both the local and global fauna (Bashta, Potish, 2007;Zatushevskyy et al., 2016). There are 210 species of mammals in the exhibition halls of the Zoological Museum, 37 of which are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine (Red Data Book…, 2009). The most represented species are rodents (Rodentia), bats (Chiroptera) and carnivores (Carnivora), which have the largest part (79 %). Such distribution is connected with a large number of field practices for students of UzhNU and educational activity of the population, regarding the conservation of bats. (Zizda et al., 2012). In the Zoological Museum, there is also a collection of horns and antlers of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) consisting of 29 specimens.  Рис. 1. Фрагмент колекції ссавців ряду Chiroptera в наукових фондах музею.   There are 93 species of least concern (LC) and 2 species with insufficient information (DD). Species that are listed by IUCN as extinct (EX) and extinct in the Wild (EW) are absent in the museum collection.
The most abundant species in the Zoological Museum is the common vole (Microtus arvalis) and the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), the number of which in the collection reaches 756 and 666 specimens, respectively.
The most represented taxa in the mammal collection of the Zoological Museum are rodents (Rodentia) (36 species, of which 59 units are displayed in the exposition and 3 457 are in the funds) and bats (Chiroptera) (497 units, 14 species) ( Table 2).

Superorder Monotremata (s. str.)
Order Monotremes (Monotremata) is represented by 2 families (Tachyglossidae, Ornithorhynchidae), 2 genera Tachyglossus and Ornithorhynchus, and 2 species: short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) and platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). The species presented are at the lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at-risk category (Least Concern, LC) and likely to become endangered in the near future (Near Threatened, NT).

Superorder Australidelphia
Order Diprotodontia (Diprotodontia) is represented by family Macropodidae, genus Macropus and species: the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus). The only species in this order that is represented in the Zoological Museum. The species is of the lowest risk (LC).

Superorder Paenungulata
Order Proboscidea (Proboscidea) is represented by family Elephantidae, genus Elephas and species: Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which has a high risk of extinction in the wild (Endangered, EN).

Superorder Ungulata
Order Cetaceans (Cetacea) is represented by 2 families Balaenopteridae and Delphinidae, 2 genera Megaptera, Delphinus, and 2 species: embryos of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), which are the least concern (LC). In particular, Delphinus delphis is listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
Order Rodents (Rodentia) is represented by 13 families, 28 genera, and 36 species. Their description is given in two parts according to the proposed division into mouse-like and non-muroid rodents (Zagorodniuk, 2009).

Conclusions
1. The mammal collection of the Zoological Museum of Uzhhorod University includes 125 species of the world's mammal fauna. The Museum's exhibition displays 115 mammal species of which 38 species are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, mainly bats (9 species), rodents (9 species), and carnivores (8 species).
2. The total number of mammal specimens displayed in the exhibition is 210, while the scientific collection consists of 4 825 specimens of the class Mammalia 3. Most of the species displayed, namely 34 (29.6 %) are representatives of Rodentia, 28 (24.4 %) belong to Carnivora, and 15 (13.0 %) to Artiodactyla.