THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF NATURE AND ANIMAL POPULATION IN THE PRE-CAUCASUS IN THE XIX - THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURIES

Abstract

The article highlights the problem of studying the animal population and the nature of Ciscaucasia in the 19th - early 20th centuries. The study is an example of interdisciplinary interaction of natural and human sciences, which fully corresponds to the current trends in the development of scientific knowledge. The paper gives an overview of the works to some extent containing zoogeographical information about Ciscaucasia. The authors divides the indicated chronological period into two stages. A peculiar feature of the irst period was the activation of the state in the comprehensive study of the Caucasus region and the compilation of predominantly military topographical descriptions, in the context of which information on zoogeographic features was placed. The content of the second stage was determined by the end of the Caucasian war and the beginning of "people's colonization". Active plowing of land has become a factor of scientists' close attention to the plant world of natural cenoses. The pressing needs of economic development revealed the scarcity of the available zoogeo-graphical information, the military motivation for the study of the Ciscaucasia was replaced by an economic one. From the middle of the XIX century different elements of nature began to be studied. The differentiation of scientiic knowledge in combination with practical needs provoked the interest to Ciscaucasia not only on the part of the state, but also on the part of geographers, botanists, and zoologists. The works became more specified in specialization, thoughtful-ness and fundamental basis.