On October 26, 2020, the event took place in a series of events dedicated to the Year of Scientific and Technical Cooperation between China and Russia in the field of innovation. The seminar was devoted to the assessment of the suitability of habitats in the territory of the Lesser Khingan mountain range (Heilongjiang province, China) for the Amur tiger. The fifth meeting of the joint Russia-China Environmental Innovation and Research Center was successfully held via remote video communication in Harbin, China, and Moscow, Russia. More than 20 Chinese and Russian experts took part in the meeting, including Academician V.V. Rozhnov, Director of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS; A.V. Tiunov, deputy director of the Institute, Wu Yuehui, vice president of the Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences; Liu Zhizhong, Director of the International Cooperation Department, Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences; Zeng Zhaoven, Director of the Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences.

Within the Baikal seal research program, developed by the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as a part of the Agreement on Scientific Cooperation between IEE RAS and VNIRO, from October 14 to October 22, an expedition was carried out for comprehensive research of the endemic seal of Lake Baikal. The base of the expedition was located in the village of Kurbulik, on the shore of the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula in the Chivyrkuisky Bay. We were delivered here by a car allocated by V.A. Peterfeld, director of the Baikal branch of VNIRO. Of the two settlements located in the bay, this one is the largest. In the past, the village was engaged in fishing, mainly of Baikal omul, which has become problematic to the decrease in its number. Approximately 30 people live permanently in the village, there is no electricity, and Baikal itself is used as a source of water. But in summer, life and business in these places flourish due to the number of tourists. The thermal springs of the Zmeyova Bay are located 13 km from Kurbulik, fishing and boat excursions are organized on the lake. The coastline of the peninsula is rich in small bays, where the water warms in summer. The location in the Chivyrkuisky Bay protects from the harsh Baikal winds - southwestern Kultuk, northeastern Barguzin, northeastern Sarma and southeastern Shelonnik.

As a result of analyzing the data from a specially installed matrix of camera traps in the Caucasian Reserve, unique shots of leopards in nature were obtained. The happiest news was receiving footage of a leopard named Kodor - says Alim Pkhitikov, senior researcher at the Institute of Ecology of Mountain Territories of RAS, a member of the leopard field monitoring group - after all, this confirms that he is alive, and throughout the period after his release he successfully hunted and adapted to the natural environment. Kodor’s tracking collar stopped working almost immediately, not even 10 days after release. All this time, absolutely nothing was known about him and about how he adapts to life in the wild, how he hunts – whether everything is alright with him. This is the only leopard out of the four released in 2020 about whom no information was received at all at the Center of Remote Methods for Monitoring Animals in Nature. Judging by the photographs, Kodor is faring well, has acquired a more athletic form, looks healthy, has no external damage. This is important and joyful news for all project participants. The camera also captured a female named Laba released with Kodor in the wild landscape. She is also in good shape and, judging by the photo, is adapting well to the conditions of the Caucasian Reserve.

A satellite collar previously belonging to the female leopard Volna who got rid of two years after release has been found. The self-resetting system has operated on the device. The collar is suitable for future use. However, for a start, the data from two years of the leopard's life will be documented and decrypted. Volna was released in North Ossetia on the territory of the Alania National Park in 2018 as part of the Leopard Restoration (Reintroduction) Program in the Caucasus, developed by experts from the World Fund for Nature and the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (IEE RAS) in 2005. Thanks to the satellite collar, which is put on each leopard before being released into nature, scientists were able to observe the movement of the predator and record cases of successful hunting. According to the monitoring results, it can be said that the female has adapted to life in the wild perfectly.   The satellite collar was found on October 7, 2020 in the Urvan region of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic by the inspector of the Hunting Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the KBR Amirkhan Mazikhov and promptly transferred through the head of the Department, Marat Chechnov, to World Fund for Nature Russia.

Released animals are increasingly mastering the territory, and increasing the area of their habitat and hunting grounds. As such, in the Caucasian reserve, Laba has covered 138 km since the release, 56 km over the past month. However, she is very careful and since August 20 has never moved more than 6.5 km from the place where she was released. She has not claimed more territory than 25 square kilometers. The maximum height that the young leopardess conquered in the Caucasian Reserve is 2,761 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, the collar of the male Kodor released with her stopped transmitting information a month ago. There is a hope that everything is in order with the animal, either a malfunction of the collar or the data transmission unit being damaged in a fight with prey. In the near future, a specially equipped field team is moving out to search for the leopard or its collar in the region where the signal of its radio beacon was last heard. The animals released in North Ossetia spent most of the past month in the vast forest area where the Turmon reserve is located. Since the release, Agura has covered a distance of 168 km, of which 121 km over the past month. Like Laba, she is very careful and does not tend to move too far from the place of release - the maximum distance she moved away from it is 20.5 km. Agura made no attempts to conquer the peaks - she preferred to stay no higher than 1100 meters above sea level, mastering a vast area in the valley green zone, the area of which is currently 224 sq km. Baksan is much more active than Agura in his craving for knowledge of unknown lands, since the release he covered 263 km, 190 km of which in September. The area that Baksan mastered after release is 314.6 sq km.

State inspectors of the Russian Arctic National Park Vadim Zakharyin, Vladimir Alsufiev and Oleg Valkov spoke about the unusual story of the Umka polar bear cub, which they witnessed. Let us remind you that the inspectors of the Russian Arctic are now completing the field season in the southern cluster of the national park, at Cape Zhelaniya. It is planned that in the second half of October the polar explorers will return to the mainland. The story of a bear cub, who was lost and was looking for his family, was told by the head of the Cape Zhelaniya field base, senior state inspector Vadim Zakharyin. “It all started in early September, an adolescent bear started coming to our house. At that time, biologists of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution were still working with us on Novaya Zemlya - says Vadim Zakharyin, - Scientists immediately determined the age of the adolescent bear, and were sure that he was lost: at this age bears do not wander alone. The inspectors had seen this cub before, along with a female bear and another adolescent bear, much further south, at Cape Serebryanikov, while patrolling the area. Why Umka, as the polar explorers called the lost bear, left the family, they do not know. The inspectors went to take the cub under their protection, because adult males constantly tried to attack the young bear. “Not far from our base, a dead beluga whale was thrown ashore, and the bear cub was feeding on it,” says the head of the polar station. “However, several adult bears attempted to feed on it along with Umka. Once we even had to run to save the cub, to scare away the other bears from Umka, who began to attack him." Umka's story was concluded with a happy reunion with his mother.

In the summer of last year, employees of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS took part in a ten-day expedition to study the Baikal seal, organized by the Lake Baikal Foundation. 15 wild seals were tagged with satellite transmitters to observe what areas of the lake are used by seals during different seasons and calculate their migration routes. Additionally, scientists collected 174 samples of biological material from wild seals for further research. Toxicological and virological studies have already been completed, and at the moment, complex genetic analyzes are being conducted, which will make it possible to understand how the endemic adapts to changes in the ecological environment, and whether there are different subspecies of the same population of the Baikal seal. In total, the genetic research requires 1.5 million rubles. Now the Fund "Help is needed" helps to partially solve this problem. A fundraiser has been launched for the purchase of reagents and supplies required for conducting laboratory tests. If you, too, would like to help the Baikal seal, and help us learn more about it in order to properly approach its protection, you can contribute to this complex research by following the link: https://takiedela.ru/topics/pomoshh-izucheniyu-baykalskoy-nerpy/  

The expedition of the Arctic Scientific Center of the Rosneft Company together with the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Center for Marine Research of Moscow State University returned to Arkhangelsk. The scientists worked from August to September on the protected archipelagos of Franz Josef Land (North cluster of the Park) and Novaya Zemlya (South cluster of the Park) in order to continue the study of marine mammals living in the Russian Arctic. The tasks of the expedition included clarification of the current state of the species, as well as the introduction of new methods for studying animals in the protected areas. According to the head of the expedition, leading engineer of the IEE RAS, Svetlana Artemyeva, the work was divided into two thematic sections: the study of the Atlantic subspecies of the walrus and the study of the polar bear. “To assess the state of the species in protected areas, we surveyed 26 islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the Oranskie Islands of Novaya Zemlya. In preparation for the expedition, our group gathered information about approximately twenty potential locations of large walrus rookeries. Not all locations were confirmed. Thus, we did not find walruses at Cape Ostantsovoy on Hayes Island, although walruses usually lay there; we did not find walruses at Cape Frankfurt on Gall Island or on Adelaide Island. But we managed to find a new burrow on Jackson Island, where our colleagues set up a camera trap to watch the animals,” said Svetlana Artemyeva.

On September 24, a press conference dedicated to the largest expedition in the last decade to study Arctic animal species was held in Moscow. The expedition was organized by the specialists of the Arctic Scientific Center LLC together with the A.N. Severtsov IEE RAS and the Center for Marine Research of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The participants of the press conference talked about the expedition and presented the atlas “Russian Arctic. Space. Time. Resource.", which is a collection of valuable scientific data on physical geography, ecology and the history of research in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The expedition lasted a little over a month. The research vessel left the port of Arkhangelsk and headed for the northern part of the Arctic Ocean. The expedition members were divided into two main groups: some studied polar bears, others - the Atlantic walrus. The first group was based at the Cape Zhelaniya station of the Russian Arctic National Park. The second group was based on the research vessel "Ivan Petrov" in the area of the island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, as well as the Oran Islands and Victoria Island.

The first stage of filming of the unique documentary "Edge Of The World" in the Russian Arctic National Park has been finished. The film depicts the work of Russian scientists in the Arctic and the long-term study of the Red Book polar bear in the protected archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. The documentary is being filmed on a grant from the Russian Geographical Society. The first phase of filming took place at the field station of Cape Zhelaniya Park of Novaya Zemlya. The documentary cinematographer and editing director Maxim Pervakov filmed for two months the work on monitoring the polar bear population of the scientific group of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The head of the Russian Arctic stressed that in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, logistics in the protected areas were complicated by the lack of tourist flights on Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. “It was only possible to carry out the expedition to the Park in the planned volume, in addition to taking pictures, thanks to the financial support of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia,” Kirilov emphasized. The central characters of the film "Edge Of The World", a group of biologists led by a senior researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, Ph.D. Ilya Mordvintsev working on Novaya Zemlya for the third time in 2020. Scientists have studied six bears. The footage of the installation of a bait on a bear and direct monitoring (weighing, taking samples of blood, fur, etc.) will be included in a future documentary.

Leopards released in August are slowly settling into the nature of the Caucasus. So far, their collars have sent quite a lot of signals via satellite, some of which have already been checked on site by the field monitoring teams. During the first days, all released animals moved near the places of release, since they were not used to the fact that their movement was not limited by the boundaries of the enclosure. Both in the Caucasian reserve (Krasnodar region / Adygea) and in the Turmon reserve (North Ossetia), the males, first of all, chose the direction up the slope and climbed the nearest mountain. This is what Kodor did in the Caucasus Nature Reserve - he climbed up to 2500 msl, while Baksan in North Ossetia traveled from the place of release up to 1400 msl. Females prefer the path with less resistance, they went lower or kept to the same heights where they were released. Laba preferred altitudes of 2000-2400 msl in the Caucasian reserve, Agura - 600-800 msl in Ossetia. To date, all leopards keep to the specially protected natural areas where they were released. During the period after the release of all the animals, Baksan alone once left the Turmon reserve, but moved no further than 1.5 km, after which he returned. In the Caucasian nature reserve Laba has already covered about 56 km, the Kodor - about 50 km. At the same time, the paths of the released leopards never crossed, because they initially chose different directions. Now there are about 4 km between them. Neither went far from the place of release - in a straight line, this distance is no more than 6 km.

A group of researchers from IEE RAS, Mari and Penza State Universities, the Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Privolzhskaya Forest-Steppe State Nature Reserve and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris discovered a new variant of limb deformation in amphibians under the influence of trematodes. Previously, only two reliably proven cases of morphological anomalies in amphibians under the influence of trematodes were known: in North America, the trematode Ribeiroia ondatrae causes the development of extra limbs and various limb deformities in amphibians, while Acanthostomum burminis leads to different variants of amelia, i.e. lack of limbs.

Congratulations to Sergei Oganesovich Movsesyan, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Scientific Director of the Joint Scientific and Experimental Center of the Institute of Zoology, National Center for Ecology and Geology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of Russian Academy of Sciences, with the awarding of the medal of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland of the second degree for his great contribution to the development of science and long-term conscientious work by decree of the President of the Russian Federation N177 on issuing state awards of the Russian Federation. Award video enclosed

The updated Program for the restoration (reintroduction) of the Persian leopard in the Caucasus part of its range was developed by the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) and WWF-Russia in accordance with the Working Group protocol instructions given for the implementation of that Program by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russian Federation. Program document takes into account all comments and recommendations received from members of Working group. During work on the Program The A.K. Tembotov Institute of Mountain Ecology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and The Caspian Institute of Biological Resources of the Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences were involved. The Attachment to the updated Program for the restoration (reintroduction) of the Persian leopard in the Caucasus part of its range (Guideline for the leopard breeding center (keeping animals and monitoring and training them before release) was developed by the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) and WWF-Russia in accordance with the Working Group protocol instructions given for the implementation of that Program by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russian Federation. The protocol document takes into account all comments and recommendations received from members of Working group. Experts from the Moscow Zoo and ‘Leopard Land’ National Park were involved. Authors: Rozhnov V.V., Yachmennikova A.A., Dronova N.A., Phitikov A.B.,Magomedov M.-R.D., Chestin I.E., Mnatsekanov R.A., Blidchenko E.Yu., Voshchanova I.P., Alshinetski M.V., Alibekov A.B

The polar bears are the largest land-based predators on the planet. They have been living in the Arctic ice for centuries. However, it becomes more and more difficult each year for them to survive in their natural habitat due to ice melting, poaching, anthropogenic factors, etc. To keep the Master of the Arctic safe, the Federal service for supervision of natural resources of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), the International Environmental Fund "Clean seas" and the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization "Arctic Initiatives" signed a tripartite agreement on conducting air count tests. They are going to take place from August 1 to August 20, 2020 in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. PROJECT PLAN A.N.Severtsov Institute's of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences specialists in polar bears and marine mammals are to fly over the total of 10 thousand kilometers from Amderma and Sabetta. Their task is to study the distribution and calculate the number of polar bears (the population of Barents and Kara Seas area) on land and islands in the ice-free period for the first time. The scientists are also collecting detailed information on the sea mammals living in the same area as the polar bear and how they interact with each other. Another mission of the specialists is to assess the overall environmental situation in the studied area of the Arctic. During the expedition they are assisted by experienced pilots and the LA-8 amphibious aircraft which represents the Russian small aircraft. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

The current state of the polar bear population and its distribution in the Arctic is an issue that has been of concern to the specialists studying this region for decades. The polar bear is the largest representative of the family Ursidae and the order Carnivora. This bear is protected by the Russian and International Red Data Book. It is the top of the food chain in its habitat and an important indicator of the entire Arctic ecosystem. Today the world, especially the circumpolar countries, Canada, the US, Norway and Denmark, is drawn to polar bears. In the 1970s, Russia counted these predators every year, but in recent decades only expert estimates of the state of the polar bear population have been published based mostly on lair count: how many lairs, where they are and how many cubs. However, it is impossible to see the full picture with this method. "We have to know how many bears there are in different parts of the Arctic to see which processes the population is undergoing, how far the bears migrate, the structure of various groups, and the threats the bears are exposed to considering human activity and environmental processes. We need to create this kind of comprehensive monitoring," noted academician Vyacheslav Rozhnov, director of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences.  

On July 9, 2020 the updates of the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) were published. Among others, these changes affected the common hamster (Cricetus cricetus), a species that 50 years ago was very numerous both in Western Europe and in Russia, being both a pest of agriculture and a commercial species. However, afterwards its number throughout the entire range began to decline sharply, and in a number of European countries it disappeared completely. The common hamster status, according to the IUCN classification, has risen from LC (Least Concern) to CR (Critically Endangered). Thus, the common hamster has passed 4 stages of conservation status in a row, which is an unprecedented case. Previously, it was as common as the gray rat (Rattus norvegicus) or the common squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), but now its status is the same as that of the saiga (Saiga tatarica) or black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)! This, however, does not mean that hamsters are now as few as rhinos: the IUCN estimate takes into account not so much the total number of the species, but rather its trends and the risk of extinction. In European countries, the situation with the common hamster is the most dramatic. In Russia and Kazakhstan, their numbers are decreasing as well, but in many regions this species is not only numerous, but even causes harm to property. It is felt specifically by villagers and summer residents.

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of Russian Academy of Sciences within the framework of the Ministry of Education and Science project "Updating the instrument base of the leading organizations performing research and development in the academic sector of science" has acquired new equipment for the electron microscopy room: - Scanning electron microscope TESCAN MIRA 3 LMH - is equipped with a Schottky cathode, a detector for studying samples "in the light" and an energy dispersive microanalysis system AZtecOneX-act. (SEM TESCAN MIRA 3 LMH is one of the most modern hi-tech devices - a universal analytical complex for studying the morphology and ultrastructure of biological and industrial objects with an ultrahigh spatial resolution based on a scanning electron microscope and conducting a semi-quantitative microanalysis of biological samples. The Schottky auto-emission cathode provides resolution - 1.2 nm at 30 kV, magnification range without distortion of the field of view from 2 X to 1 000 000 X, scanning speed 20 ns / pixel, image saving up to 16 384 X 6 384 pixels and high performance. Energy dispersive microanalysis system AZtecOneX-act allows obtaining SEM images in secondary or reflected electrons, building maps of the distribution of elements in a certain area and obtaining color representations of several elements in one summary image with the possibility of overlaying them on an electronic image). - Sputtering installation Q150R ES Plus (Quorum Technologies)