What is endemics and "what do they eat?"

The answer to the question of what an endemic is, in geography, for example, it will be very easy to find, but it would be better to turn to biology and consider this concept from the biological side.

Definition, description of endemics

Endemic are called biological species - representatives of both flora and fauna, living in isolated or limited areas of the terrain. Often such territories are those that are separated from the rest of the world by ecological or geographical factors. In addition, these areas are characterized by conserved habitats, that is, where conditions for the existence of endemics have not changed for a long period of time.

Due to extensive human activities, many modern plant and animal species are gradually moving to the rare or endemic section, which encourages people to form national parks and reserves in order to preserve and increase the population of the remaining individuals. It is difficult for mankind to understand what endemics are for our future. The more species are introduced into the endemic section, the more we restrict their habitats, arranging for the animals and plants the similarity of colonies.

Classification of endemics

It is worth noting that endemic species that live on the territory of only one desert (velvichia is amazing, growing exclusively in the Namib desert), one island or one mountain range (there is a hummingbird subspecies that lives on the only mountain of Chimborazo, located in South America), called narrow endemic. In order to finally understand what endemics are, you should familiarize yourself with the main classification, according to which such species are divided into neo-endemic (progressive endemics) and paleoendemic (relic endemics).

Neo-endemics are such biological taxa (species) that developed parallel to their "kin", but in isolated terrain, for example, on islands remote from continents. Thus, in Madagascar, 65% of all vegetation is endemic, in Hawaii their numbers increase to 90%. Also, these include some species that live in the Crimea, Baikal, Seychelles, St. Helena, the British Isles, etc. And, of course, how to talk about what endemics are, if you do not mention the most famous of their representatives: Kangaroos and koalas. They are part of an infraclass that lives exclusively in Australia.

Paleoendemic species are the species that appeared as a result of their almost complete extinction in large areas of their former areals. The remnants of these ancient representatives survived, mainly because of their thorough isolation from the more developed ones. Relict endemics are often called living fossils, since they are mainly representatives of older groups that lived many years ago. These include brushpiper fish (coelacanth), beak-headed reptiles (hatteria), crocodiles, horseshoe, lungfish (protopter), single-pass (echidna, platypus), etc.

Endemics of America

North America in its variety of endemic species is quite worthy of attention. One of the most recognizable plant species, belonging to such and located on the territory of the United States, is a giant Sequoia tree, some representatives of which the locals called even their own names. Endemic species of plants also include Balfour pine, tansy hurons, pahikormus colored, obogoniya de Negri, etc. From the fauna of the endemic world of North America, one can distinguish a forest bison, puma, Baribal, a Mississippian alligator, and also a bull frog (reaches a length In 20 cm) and the Californian condor.

Baikal - the pearl of Siberia

To understand what is the endemic of Lake Baikal, it is only worth noting that the flora and fauna of this lake is 65% composed of endemic species. Thus, of the 2,600 species and subspecies that live here, just over 1,000 taxa, about 95 genera, about 10 families are representatives of the endemic world. One of the most famous endemics of Lake Baikal can safely be called the Baikal seal (seal), one of the only freshwater species of seals in the world. The following species and families are also endemic to Lake Baikal: golomyanka, yellow-winged (deep-sea fish), Baikal omul (Salmonidae family), Baikal epishura (crustaceans reaching an average size of about 1.5-2 mm) and, as mentioned above, Baikal seal.