THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUALS IN BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH AND THE FORMATION OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OF UKRAINE: THE CONTRIBUTION OF OLEKSANDR PEKLO (1952–2023)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/1998-6475.2026.60.14Keywords:
Vertebrates, biodiversity research, natural history collections, Oleksandr PekloAbstract
The article presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of the collection materials gathered by the Ukrainian researcher and curator of the ornithological collection of the National Museum of Natural History of Ukraine, Oleksandr Peklo. The collection was formed over many years of field research covering eleven bioregions and a wide range of ecosystems–from the forests and steppes of Ukraine to the deserts of Central Asia, the taiga regions of the Russian Far East, as well as the Antarctic and South American bioregions. The aim of the study was to determine the taxonomic structure, geographic coverage, and scientific informativeness of the collected materials, as well as to assess their significance for contemporary faunistic, biogeographical, and conservation research. The study material comprised 2,367 specimens, including 1,816 bird specimens, 417 fish specimens, and 134 mammal specimens. The ornithological part of the collection includes a number of species listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, among them Limosa limosa, Tetrastes bonasia, Aquila chrysaetos, Branta ruficollis, Glareola pratincola, and Recurvirostra avosetta, among others. The ichthyological materials supplement the collection with protected species such as Anguilla anguilla, Chondrostoma nasus, Gymnocephalus acerina, G. baloni, and Lota lota. The mammalogical collection includes Red Data Book species such as Rhinolophus hipposideros, Cnephaeus serotinus, Myotis daubentonii, and Pipistrellus nathusii, highlighting the importance of the collection for the study of rare fauna representatives. Due to its scale, broad geographic scope, and taxonomic diversity, the collection represents a unique resource for biodiversity research. The analysis demonstrated its high taxonomic completeness, a significant proportion of rare and protected species, and the representativeness of materials from poorly accessible regions. The results confirm that O. M. Peklo’s collection is an important source for the study of morphological variability and taxonomy.
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