Unlike the northern forests of the taiga, the climate is milder in the broad-leaved forests of Russia. The rich world of plants and diverse forest animals are distinguished by dense broad-leaved forests.
The forest animals living here are affected by the plant world of these forests. For example, capercaillie, an ordinary resident of the northern part of forests and taiga, no longer occurs in deciduous forests, as it feeds on needles. But grouse already appears. The farther south it becomes, the more foxes and hares appear, and agricultural fields add food to them. Foxes feed on mice with voles, and hares feed on winter shoots of wheat.
In deciduous forests, unlike conifers, there are much more species of shrubs and trees, as a result of which the animal world is richer and more diverse than the animal world of northern forests. Most of all in deciduous forests, there are insectivorous and granivorous species of birds. Numerous squirrels and wild boars feed on acorns and nuts, their favorite food.
The most common forest animals of Russia in deciduous forests are brown bear, marten, lynx, mink, squirrel, black ferret and weasel. To the south are more common hare, gray partridge and hamster, which from the steppes fall into broad-leaved forests.
Trees and shrubs provide reliable protection from bad weather and enemies, also in the forest a large number of different natural shelters, diverse and large stocks of animal and vegetable feed. Many mammal forest animals are able to climb trees. These are sony, martens, squirrels, etc. They are characterized by moving limbs with sharp claws on them. Some of these animals, for example, dormouse and squirrels, have special pads on their feet, and on the foot there are extensions that serve them to firmly grasp the branches on the trees.
Some of the climbing animals can only climb a tree trunk, while others can use thin branches that move from tree to tree while moving, while others climb long straight or up while climbing. There are also flying squirrels with leather membranes on their sides, using them for planning flights. You can even find bats in the forest world - the situation in the forest is very favorable for their lifestyle.
Some forest animals also obtain food on trees, and escape from enemies, and also create shelter for themselves and for posterity. Mammals such as flying squirrel, squirrel, bat, marten and others use to shelter tree hollows, natural or created by woodpeckers. Even a black bear uses the hollows of huge trees growing in the Far East for its winter sleep. Some animals, for example, dormouse and squirrels, build spherical nests on trees themselves or use bird ones. The variety of birds and animals that can climb trees has led to the appearance of predators that can hunt trees. In the fauna of Russia, these include harza and pine marten.
Forest animals are also represented by a small number of excavators: badgers can be named among the predators, while the rest are mainly moles, underground voles and mohirs.
Some ungulates also live in the forest zone: reindeer, sika and red deer, roe deer, elk, wild boar and bison. Forest ungulates are much heavier and slower than desert-steppe ones. Forest ungulates have a much worse herd development. Mostly they walk alone, in pairs and in small herds. Only in winter do they gather in larger herds because of the limited places suitable for wintering and because of difficulties in moving in deep snow.
Animals of the forest zone feed on the vegetative parts of shrubs and trees, especially their seeds and fruits, which are high-calorie foods, the second is not found in any other landscapes, with the exception of crops.
