Kuban River - Fauna

Fauna

The wide delta of Kuban, with its abundant estuaries, is especially rich in plankton and benthos. There are about 400 species of zooplankton, including rotifers, copepods, cladocerans, mollusks, worms, etc., providing abundant food for fish. The fish fauna of the Kuban differs from that of the nearby Don and Volga rivers and contains more than 65 species from 16 families. They are dominated by the genera Gobio, Romanogobio, Squalius and Chondrostoma and contain such species as carp, Prussian carp, roach, bream, Silver Bream, pike, perch, ruffe, chalcalburnus, Sprattus, Mugil and others. Some species such as silver carp and Grass Carp were acclimatized in the last decade.

Endemic species include the Kuban barbel (Barbus kubanicus), Gobio kubanicus, Little Kuban gudgeon (Romanogobio parvus), Kuban long-barbelled gudgeon (R. pentatrichus), Kuban nase (Chondrostoma Kubanicum), Sabanejewia kubanica, Oxynoemacheilus merga and Aphips chub.

Kuban barbel and Kuban nase are the only species of their genera within the Kuban basin. They prefer mountainous streams with a rapid flow and sandy or rocky bottom on which they spawn. After the construction of the Krasnodar Dam in the 1980s, the Kuban barbel became rare in the lower Kuban. On the contrary, Kuban nase moves downstream to lower sections or larger tributaries in winter. It is rather sensitive to the water quality, especially turbidity. Its population also declined after the construction of the Krasnodar Dam, but is still large in the middle and upper parts of the Kuban and its tributaries.

The Kuban gudgeon and Little Kuban gudgeon are restricted to the sections with moderately fast flow and gravel or sandy bottoms; they are abundant in the middle part of the river. The Kuban gudgeon is unusual by having five anal branched rays. Aphips chub (Squalius aphipsi) occurs in southern tributaries of Kuban and is hiding in small pools in the summer. It spawns in rapid and shallow streams (10–20 cm) with a pebble or rocky bottom. It does not migrate much, but it moves downstream in winter to find deeper pools and returns upstream in summer. This species is abundant throughout the whole river.

Before the construction of dams, the River had migratory stocks of sturgeons (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, A. stellatus, Huso huso) and cyprinids (Alburnus mento, vimba). These species have low presence nowadays.

The delta of the Kuban River and its estuaries are a popular resting ground for various migratory birds, especially waterfowl such as wild geese, ducks, cormorants, pelicans, swans and gray herons. Also abundant are birds of prey, such as falcons, as well as foxes and wild cats. Muskrats were brought to the watershed in the 20th century for commercial fur production.