Head – G.V. Tarasova
The Chernogolovka Research and Experimental Base is located in the Noginsk district of Moscow Region (60 km northeast of Moscow), on the territory of the Chernogolovka Scientific Center RAS, 4 km from the town of Chernogolovka, in a forest, on two plots with a total area of 40 ha. The base was established in 1975 (Order of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences No. 125000-1018 of 25 June 1975) on the initiative of Academician V.E. Sokolov for the comparative study of the behavior and chemical communication of wild mammals under conditions as close to natural as possible. Staff of the Laboratory of Behavior and Behavioral Ecology of Mammals, headed by the base's scientific director, Dr. Sci. (Biol.) V.V. Rozhnov, work at the Chernogolovka Base on a permanent basis. Experimental studies of the communicative and social behavior of terrestrial mammals and their reproductive biology are carried out here year-round; methods and technologies for keeping and breeding rare mammal species are being developed.
The base holds a unique live collection of terrestrial mammals totaling about 2,000 individuals. These include carnivores (mustelids — polecats, minks, sables; viverrids — palm civets, genets; lynxes, small felids), ungulates (musk deer), insectivores (hedgehogs, desmans), rodents (wood voles, gray voles, birch mice, gerbils, house mice, hamsters, guinea pigs), lagomorphs (rabbits), and bats.
Specialized enclosure and testing-ground complexes, most of them unique, have been built for various mammal species:
- a complex of enclosures and experimental testing grounds for small carnivorous mammals (about fifteen enclosed pens from 3 to 30 m², two 40 m² and two 120 m² testing grounds consisting of three reconfigurable compartments, a large enclosed «open field» apparatus, two large open-air enclosures, and two covered sheds with individual cages for 45 animals);
- a complex of enclosures for lynxes and small felids (28 enclosed cages of 4-8 m² each, six 74 m² open-air enclosures, and two 0.5 ha open-air enclosures);
- a complex of enclosures for canids (one 130 m² enclosure, three of 300 m² each, one of 360 m², one of 420 m², one of 700 m² and one of 1,400 m²); a complex of enclosures for musk deer (seven enclosures with a total area of about 5 ha);
- a bat research station (a large enclosed pen — the so-called wintering «cave» — and a complex of auxiliary structures);
- a vivarium-enclosure complex for insectivores (special cages for 20 animals, open-air enclosures of various sizes);
- a complex of enclosures and pools for the Russian desman;
- a complex of experimental testing grounds for rodents (a covered 120 m² ground with three reconfigurable compartments for seasonal observations, an open-air 240 m² ground with six reconfigurable compartments for seasonal observations, and two enclosed 120 m² grounds with two reconfigurable compartments each for year-round observations);
- three laboratory-vivarium complexes for rodents (one for 1,000 animals with a set of laboratory equipment; a second for 500 animals with a 100 m² open-air experimental testing ground; and a third, also for 500 animals);
- a laboratory-vivarium complex for house mice (300 spaces, enclosures);
- a laboratory-vivarium complex for desert rodents (special cages for 200 animals, 1 m² chambers, and two open-air enclosures of 200 and 400 m²).
The IEE RAS Chernogolovka Base has specialized laboratories equipped with scientific instruments:
- a video laboratory for filming and analyzing mammal behavior (the «Observer» video surveillance system with licensed software, digital video cameras, computers, video recorders, and monitors),
- an acoustics laboratory for research on acoustic communication (recording equipment — a professional digital two-channel Tascam Teac Professional Division DA-P1 audio recorder with a recording frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, a Sennheiser K6 condenser microphone with a frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, a flat response of 500 Hz–20 kHz and a sensitivity of 0 dB at 1 kHz, a Sennheiser 416P 48U shotgun microphone with a frequency range of 40 Hz to 20 kHz and a pickup angle of 45° at a sensitivity of 0 dB at 1 kHz; a computer equipped with a professional DMX 6fire sound card for processing and storing the sound archive — a collection of mammal calls comprising more than 100 species, subspecies, and populations; the licensed Saslab Pro version 4.2 software for recording and analyzing acoustic signals),
- a cytogenetics laboratory (microscopes, centrifuges, photographic equipment),
- an ecological physiology laboratory for determining hormone concentrations by enzyme immunoassay (a Multiscan EX variable-wavelength plate spectrophotometer with software for measuring optical density and concentrations, a StatFax-2600 automatic plate washer, an Elmi plate shaker-thermostat, an Ekros-6500 mixer, an Elmi centrifuge for Eppendorf tubes (up to 15,000 rpm), an Elmi shaker, a Heidolph magnetic stirrer, a Labsystem stepper, Ohaus electronic scales up to 200 g with 0.01 g precision, a portable Mettler-Toledo pH meter, Gilson variable-volume automatic pipettes, refrigerators and freezers for sample storage, a diluter, and a sperm analyzer for quality control of the semen of breeding mammals),
- a field equipment laboratory for studying the behavioral ecology of mammals under natural conditions (Dedal-45 night-vision devices, equipment for radio-tracking mammals — Yaesu FT-817nd receivers with three-section YHA-63 antennas, Nikon Coolpix3200 digital cameras for photographing mammal tracks for subsequent individual identification using computer software, GPS navigation devices, and sensors for long-term measurement of temperature and humidity in mammal burrows).
The base's scientific and technical equipment makes it possible to conduct a much wider range of research than just the study of the social and communicative behavior of mammals. Together with specialists from other Institute departments, as well as colleagues from other research institutions in Russia and other countries, studies are conducted on the systematics, hybridization, ecological physiology, endocrinology, and integument morphology of terrestrial mammals.
To conserve rare mammal species, the base has established the «European Mink Conservation Center,» the «Russian Desman Conservation Center,» and the «Musk Deer Breeding Farm.»
The use of the unique live mammal collection and modern scientific equipment by specialists from many research institutions has made it possible to establish a shared-use center — the «Chernogolovka Center for Ecological and Ethological Research» (at the A.N. Severtsov IEE RAS Experimental Base).