The brief historical information of development of methodology of the account of animals from justification of mathematical calculations of the account of animals on routes and improving the methodology of the account for hunting resources to the existing methodology is given. The analysis of application of various formulas of calculation when carrying out the winter route accounting of animals on traces on snow is carried out and their multifunctionality is shown. The new modification of winter tracing methodology for the implementation of state monitoring of hunting resources and their habitat was approved in Russia in 2012. Immediately some disadvantages of this new variant were found out. Most important are the inconsistencies to the requirements of reliability and comparability of the accounting results. The possibilities to match of all previously collected data arrays is lose, accordingly the predictable force of monitoring is blocked. Use of the introduced in the method stative coefficient for population density calculation lead to strong aberrations in results. The duty to tracing is assigned to the employees of game husbandries objectively interested to overestimation the data obtained. Current absence of control accounts makes it impossible to evaluate the reliability of data reported. We conclude that the currently used method of winter tracing is not objective and needs a serious revision. The use of data on calculated after hunting season population number obtained by the method could lead to an overhunting and, in the worst case-scenarios, to dramatic population size decline.

Kondratov Aleksandr Vladimirovich, Candidate of Science (Biology), Associate Professor, A. A. Ezhevsky Irkutsk State Agricultural University, 1/1, Molodyozhny settl., Irkutsk Region, 664038, Russian Federation; Irkutsk State University, 1, K. Marx st., Irkutsk, 664003, Russian Federation, e-mail: lena-kirensk@mail.ru

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