Faunistics

a branch of zoogeography that studies the animal species of the world and specific geographical regions. Scholars in faunistics compile lists of species constituting specific faunas. The lists are analyzed, and the faunistic elements characterized by a common distribution or origin are identified. Thus, faunistics collects the factual material needed to establish the zoogeographie regions of different ranks (region, subregion, province) and to determine the ranges of individual animal species. Faunistics is sometimes called descriptive zoogeography. This designation is inexact because one of the objects of the discipline is an analysis of faunas.