[Organisation of scientific and research work of Navy medical service].

The main issues of organization of scientific and research work of medical service in the North Fleet are considered in the present article. Analysis of some paragraphs of documents, regulating this work at army level is given. The authors give an example of successful experience of such work in the North Fleet, table some suggestions which allow to improve the administration of scientific and research work in the navy and also on the district scale.

[Recent fauna of ground-nesting birds in Transvolga steppes and its dynamics in the 20th century].

It is shown that the structure of the ground-nesting bird fauna in Transvolga steppes has changed during the 20th century. The complex of lark species characteristic of true and dry steppe has disappeared because of climate change and impact of economic activity (the establishment of windbreak and roadside forest strips), which has provided for a sharp increase in the abundance of corvid birds.

[African wild cat (Felis lybica Forster, 1780) in the Saratov Transvolga Region].

Analysis of the area limits where African wild cat was found as well as of published data on its distribution in the Saratov Transvolga Region demonstrated that the local range of this species extended and its northwestern limit advanced almost 1000 km to the Volga zoogeographical boundary.

[Abundance of Trans-Volga population of the great bustard (Otis tarda L.)].

We studied the abundance, spatial structure, and democratic parameters of the Trans-Volga population of great bustard as well as this species connection to the habitats during premigratory movements. The data were obtained by monitoring a test area of 1,200,000 hectares in 1998-2000. Time-related changes in the structure of great bustard habitats in Saratov Trans-Volga Region during the 20th century are described and the mechanisms underlying the changes in this species connection to the habitats under the influence of anthropogenic factors are proposed.