One day, the Caucasus woke up filled with animals that had never set foot in Eurasia before. This “phenomenon” had a name and a nickname: Nikolai Vereshchagin, the Russian zoologist who in the 1920s toured the Azerbaijani coast of the Caspian Sea to document the silent disappearance of thousands of creatures. Convinced that nature can be reshaped like a great puzzle, He believed he had found the missing pieces in species found in South America.
His idea was as bold as it was dangerous: replace extinct animals with others capable of occupying the same niche, even if they came from the other side of the world. And so, in the name of Soviet science and progress, they arrived in the Caucasus Cuibos, cooties, agoutis, South American rabbits and various types of rodents Small exotic mammals.
Vereshchagin expressed his theories in his work “Mammals of the Caucasus”, an ambitious treatise in which he not only described the local fauna but also proposed solutions to “restore” destroyed ecosystems. His focus was on adaptation: The idea of transporting species from other continents and domesticating them So that they occupy vacant ecological niches.
What was a scientific experiment for him quickly turned into an unprecedented environmental engineering project, with unforeseen repercussions for the fauna and landscape of the Caucasus region.
The great rat invader
Among the imported animals, the most emblematic was the South American coyote or giant otter. This species was initially designed to produce fur and reproduce in the wild. It finds an ideal habitat in the wetlands and rivers of the Caspian Sea.
Although it initially brought 213 species to the region, they quickly adapted and thrived in Azerbaijan’s wetlands. This uncontrolled spread Changing rivers, crops and local ecosystemswhile the dream fur industry has never compensated for environmental damage. Other animals, such as cutis and agoutis, have also adapted. At present, The coyote is considered one of the 100 most dangerous invasive species in the world.
The presence of the coyote in the Caucasus does not only represent an economic or agricultural problem, but its expansion represents a direct threat to local ecosystems, especially to endangered birds that depend on wetlands. Types such as In these places, the white-headed duck and the Siberian crane find the food and shelter necessary to survive. But the coyote’s feeding and burrowing behavior degrades its habitat, reducing resource availability and endangering its population.