Ecological Semiotics: A Set of Problems and Some Biosemiotic Traditions

The biological stability of natural groups (populations) of mammals under natural conditions is maintained by behavioral mechanisms based on the information-communicative interactions of individuals. Small predator mammals leading a lonely life, such as the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and the marten family representatives – pine marten (Martes martes), ermine or short-tailed weasel (Mustela erminea) and least weasel (Mustela nivalis), rarely initiate direct contact with each other; they exchange their sign information via the environment. The present paper is based on the empirical material collected during many years of observations under natural conditions (Mozgovoy and Rozenberg, 1992). Species studied include Vulpes vulpes, Martes martes, Mustela erminea and Mustela nivalis living near the city of Samara and near the southern part of the Urals. Some material on the environmental information exchange of animal populations of these species and co-adaptive complexes have been accumulated in the course of ecological research conducted by Zoology Department of Samara State University. We applied the conceptual themes developed in biosemiotics to process this empirical material to create a taxonomy (Mozgovoy and Rozenberg, 1992; Mozgovoy, Rozenberg and Vladimirova, 1998; Vladimirova, 2001).