Anton Goncharov, senior researcher at the laboratory of soil zoology and general entomology at the IEE RAS, told MK journalists about the study. The study is being conducted by the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences on behalf of the Moscow Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection. The last time the insects of Losiny Ostrov were counted was in the 1980s. As Anton Goncharov, a senior researcher at the Institute's Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology, told MK, five types of traps have been installed in the reserve. The first is a pheromone trap for xylophages (insects that feed on dead wood). These are, first of all, bark beetles, a real scourge of our forests. These are also longhorn beetles and some types of wasps. The beetles flock to the trap, which is made up of two 50x25 cm plastic sheets, hit them and fall into the fixing liquid. In the case of a pheromone trap, this is a strong salt solution: if you use, for example, alcohol, it will reduce the quality of the trap, since the smell will interrupt the smell of the pheromone. The number of beetles can be used to roughly determine the number of dead trees in the area. The next type of trap is the Manitoba. It is designed to catch blood-sucking animals. It is a black ball which heats up from sunlight covered with a cone-shaped net. In its upper part there is a glass with alcohol. Blood-suckers flock to the warm ball, since their main target is warm-blooded animals. Realizing that they have made a mistake and have nothing to eat, they fly up vertically, and, hitting the net, fall into the alcohol. Preliminary results of the surveys showed that horseflies fly more often in open areas of the reserve, and mosquitoes in forest areas. The Malaise trap is designed to count flies that pollinate plants. It is a large tent-like structure. Flying into it, the insects rise up to the white dome of the tent, and eventually also end up in a glass of alcohol connected to this dome. The entomologist explained that the flies known to most city dwellers are only a tiny part of the species of these animals, while the majority live in nature and feed on nectar. Their species diversity can be used to roughly determine the diversity of flowering plants. Robinson's trap attracts moths. It is a nineteen-liter bottle with a light bulb and a battery. Scientists determine the number of trees and shrubs by the number and species composition of the caught ones. And finally, Barber's trap, designed to catch predatory insects (in particular, ground beetles and rove beetles), as well as other predators, spiders. These are half-liter plastic cups filled with fixing liquid. A large variety of arthropod predators indicates the stability of the ecosystem, since they require abundant and diverse food sources.

Photo: Humpback whale. Image source: rawpixel.com / Freepik photobank New observations may indicate that humpback whales are showing friendly interest in people, trying to "flirt" with them. This is the conclusion reached by a group of foreign researchers who published an article in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Scientists noticed that humpback whales release bubble rings near boats and swimmers, showing curiosity towards them. In the past, such cases were not recorded. What this behavior may indicate, Svetlana Artemyeva, a research fellow at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the portal "Scientific Russia". Blowing paths, clouds and rings of bubbles is a well-known "habit" of humpback whales in itself. But earlier, researchers drew attention to how humpback whales use this for more expected purposes - for example, when catching fish. A new article, written by researchers from the University of California at Davis together with representatives of other institutes, focuses only on bubble rings. “Here we describe 12 episodes of bubble ring blowing. A total of 39 rings were recorded from 11 individual humpback whales. The aim of this study is to describe the contexts in which humpback whales produce bubble rings and to elucidate their potential purposes,” the publication notes. The records date back to different years, from 1988 to 2023. The frequency of observations increases over time. Thus, since 2020, episodes have been recorded every year, with two records for 2021 and 2023. The scientists classified the whales’ behavior during these 12 episodes. It turned out that in two cases, the animals were most likely hunting fish, and in another case, the humpback whale was resting. But in the remaining nine situations, the whales showed curiosity. In five of the nine episodes, the whale was alone, which rules out the possibility of blowing bubbles to convey something to their own kind. And in all of these cases, the closest object to the humpback was a swimmer or a boat. “Seven of the eight whales that released rings (one of the whales showed interest in people twice at different times — Correspondent’s note) approached the boat or swimmer at a distance <…> of 13–15 [meters] or less. When other whales were nearby, they remained at a distance, while the one that blew bubbles swam up to the boat or swimmer <…>. In two cases <…> the humpback whale that blew bubbles initially approached with exploratory intentions, including almost touching the swimmer,” the authors of the article explain. In none of the described cases did the whales show aggression, irritation, or a desire to avoid contact with a person. The news of the study was enthusiastically picked up on the Internet as probable evidence that whales are trying to “talk” to people using bubbles instead of a tongue. However, it is too early to draw such conclusions. "The original scientific publication talks about communication, not about conversation. Communication can be different. Therefore, it is a bit incorrect to draw conclusions about conversation," marine biologist Svetlana Mikhailovna Artemyeva explained to a correspondent of "Scientific Russia." "The article talks about play communication. Obviously, the terms "conversation" and "play communication" have critically important differences." Previously, cases of play communication between whales and people have not been recorded. "The authors note that bubbles were usually recorded during hunting: for humpback whales, this is one of the ways to drive fish. The fact is that schooling fish are scared of bubbles and gather together. That is, for humpbacks, this is a way to concentrate prey so as not to chase each fish separately. This phenomenon is not for nothing called a "bubble net": the prey is "caught" in it, and it becomes much more convenient for humpbacks to eat it this way," said S. M. Artemyeva. - Some individuals use this technique on their own, in other cases, there is a group hunt, when several humpbacks join in and catch fish together. Thus, until recently, it was believed that humpback whales mainly release bubbles for hunting. At the same time, in the observations described in new publications, it was play communication that was assumed. I have already seen these materials and read the comments of scientists. Probably, humpbacks are “flirting” with people in this way, displaying playful behavior.” S.M. Artemyeva added that the age of the animals can play an important role — young individuals are probably more willing to try to make contact with people. In this study, it was possible to reliably determine the age of three out of eight humpbacks — one was a year old, another was quite young (4 to 6 years old), and the third was older (at least six years old). "Whales are undoubtedly highly intelligent mammals, so young individuals can show curiosity. Naturally, like any baby, they show play behavior, and interest, and a desire to explore," the researcher noted. As an example, S.M. Artemyeva cited observations of gray whales in the Gulf of Mexico, which have been the subject of many publications on social networks. "There are many photographs showing young animals swimming up to boats with tourists and sticking their heads out of the water. These are always young animals, mostly calves. That is, while the mother dives into the depths and feeds at the bottom (gray whales are benthic feeders), the calf remains on the surface and tries to interact with an object nearby," S.M. Artemyeva explained. Why have such observations only recently begun to be recorded? This is probably due to the fact that whales in general have begun to interact with humans more often in a positive way: in the past, these animals were actively hunted, but now this is prohibited in almost all countries. In addition, tourists are showing great interest in whale watching. Perhaps the ocean giants have simply begun to get used to us. “The number of people who can interact with whales has increased because in recent years, so-called whale watching tourism has become extremely popular all over the world. Citizen science is also actively developing: for example, there is a very large-scale project called Happywhale (an online platform for tracking whales based on observations by enthusiasts — Correspondent’s note). That is, at present, thanks to tourists, scientists are collecting a huge amount of information about whales. And at the same time, many people are attracted to whale watching, they try to interact with the animals,” said S. M. Artemyeva. “Previously, this was the prerogative of researchers who kept their distance during observations. We need to describe the behavior of wild animals, so we try to minimize interaction with them. And now, since tourism is at its peak, it is theoretically possible that humpback whales are developing new behavior. Because in the past, humans essentially interacted with whales only in the form of hunting. Then they were on the verge of extinction for a very long time and were not found everywhere. Now the number of whales, especially humpbacks, is generally growing, despite the fact that there are separate populations whose numbers remain stable or are falling. And, naturally, more and more people are engaged in amateur whale watching and swimming with them. This applies not only to humpbacks, but to other species as well. And it is precisely now that such interactions have begun to be actively observed. Perhaps whales have also begun to get used to people." Another important factor is that humpbacks are mostly serene creatures. “In general, according to evidence, humpbacks have always been relatively peaceful and timid,” noted S.M. Artemyeva. “Some whales exhibit an avoidance reaction or can even show aggression, starting to beat their tails in the presence of people or motorboats. But humpbacks are not one of them. They have always been considered calm and were not afraid of boats. I think that is why we can say that some kind of interaction occurs between them and people.” S.M. Artemyeva noted that the study is of interest: “We need to observe how the interaction between people and whales is formed, because, in fact, this is an active, growing trend of the last ten years.” Earlier publications on human-whale interactions were either devoted to hunting these animals (before the moratorium on whaling), or spoke of a neutral or negative reaction of mammals to people (for example, collisions with ships and avoidance of boats). At the same time, the authors of the article note that the collected data require further study and analysis, including from the point of view of the acoustic effect produced when releasing bubble rings. In order to confirm or refute the idea of ​​whale communication with people, it is necessary to collect more evidence of such episodes and carefully study them. S.M. Artemyeva also drew attention to this: "It is very difficult to draw any final conclusions based on such fragmentary data."

Photo: Dmitry Rogulin / TASS The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources plans to leave only one population of saigas in the Red Book of the Russian Federation - the Northwestern Caspian. However, this does not mean that ordinary Russians will be allowed to hunt the rest of the animals, as special teams will be involved. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Rozhnov, head of the saiga study program, told RTVI journalists about this. A Million Alien Saigas Until July 4, 2025, the federal portal of draft regulatory legal acts is reviewing a draft order, which specifies that only the saiga population (Saiga tatarica) of the North-West Caspian region, which lives mainly in Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region, will remain under state protection. The previous version of the order did not contain this clarification. In the explanatory note to the draft order, the need to clarify the protected population is explained by the damage that saigas cause to agriculture by migrating from Kazakhstan to Russia, as well as the risk of infectious diseases (foot-and-mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, anthrax, brucellosis, plague of small ruminants) being brought into the country. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, since 2023, tens of thousands of saigas have been entering the left bank of the Volgograd and Saratov regions. “Since the beginning of the year, about 400-500 thousand individuals have entered the territory of the Saratov region from the territory of Kazakhstan, their number continues to increase and currently the number of saiga in the Saratov region is estimated at around 1 million individuals,” the explanatory note says. In addition to the population of the North-West Caspian region, there are two more saiga populations in Russia: the Volga-Ural and Betpak-Dala. According to Academician Vyacheslav Rozhnov, they are not actually Russian, since they live mainly on the territory of Kazakhstan and only at the edge of their range enter the territory of several regions of Russia - the Saratov, Volgograd and Astrakhan regions (Volga-Ural population) and the Orenburg region (Betpak-Dala population). "They enter about 10-15 kilometers deep into the country, and in doing so they cause enormous damage to those who are engaged in agriculture. The ecological capacity of the territory does not accommodate such a number of saigas. That is why it’s been decided to restore order here, that is, to preserve only our own country’s population, which is isolated and exists only on the territory of Russia," explains Vyacheslav Rozhnov. Only Russian saigas will be protected “The protection of other saiga populations should be the responsibility of the countries where these animals primarily live, in the case of the Volga-Ural and Betpak-Dala saiga populations, this is the responsibility of Kazakhstan”, Rozhnov believes. “Their population has grown enormously - today, according to their estimates, there are about four million saigas in Kazakhstan, and they cause damage there too. That is why Kazakhstan removed saigas from the protected species list and began normal use of this species,” the scientist says. Rozhnov does not see a problem in the fact that a specific saiga population will be listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, since there is no need to protect such a large number of animals coming from Kazakhstan, which also cause damage to agriculture. In the Saratov Region alone, saigas migrating en masse from Kazakhstan have caused damage to agriculture worth 169 million rubles, reported Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the region Igor Gridnev. Special teams for culling The fact that a specific population will remain under protection means that the numbers of other populations will be regulated by shooting, Rozhnov added. “This does not mean that they are being hunted. This means that special state teams must be created that will have to remove a certain number of saigas so as not to harm the group that has entered Russian territory,” the expert explains. Such teams will be created, if necessary, by regional authorities in each subject of the Russian Federation where there is a saiga problem. “Today we are talking only about the Saratov Region, because that is where the catastrophe is currently taking place,” Rozhnov noted. It is difficult to say yet how many saigas will have to be shot. Local governments will have to count how many animals are in their region in order to determine how much their numbers need to be reduced, the expert adds. At the same time, all saigas in Russia remain listed in the Red Book and their shooting is prohibited by law.

A popular science book by Ksenia Vyacheslavovna Dudova, PhD in Biology, research fellow at the Laboratory for Studying Ecological Functions of Soils, IEE RAS, “Plants of the Big City. A Guide to the Amazing World of Nature in Megacities and Beyond,” has been published. The book is dedicated to the diversity of flora in megalopolises and their environs. Its pages contain descriptions of urban plants, their biological characteristics, as well as advice on observing and studying urban flora. Ksenia Dudova shares the results of her own research, interesting facts, and photographs to make the urban landscape more understandable and interesting to every reader. Now it is possible to order books from the publishing house with an author's discount (almost 50% of the usual retail price) at a cost of 850 rubles. If you would like to purchase the book, please contact the author on k.v.dudova@yandex.ru or in private messages in telegram @Ksenia_Dudova before July 10. The book presentation and lecture "Plants of the Big City" will take place on July 3, Thursday, in the Nauchka library (metro Paveletskaya). Registration for the lecture at the link: https://arhe.msk.ru/?p=149817

Photo: Press Service of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the City of Moscow In the Moscow part of the Losiny Ostrov National Park, six young white hares were released. The event was part of the work to restore rare animal species with the support of the Moscow Government and the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection (https://www.mos.ru/eco/). The white hare is one of the indigenous species of the Losiny Ostrov fauna. Today, its numbers have decreased here. According to experts, this happened about 25 years ago due to viral infections. The species is listed in the Red Book of the city of Moscow. Photo: Press Service of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the City of Moscow "Last year, the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the capital, together with the scientific community, conducted a unique ecological and biological survey of the territory of the Moscow part of the Losiny Ostrov National Park. Scientists discovered more than 1.5 thousand species of plants and animals. Today's event on the release of the mountain hare is dedicated to the restoration and conservation of rare species. The natural environment of Losiny Ostrov is suitable for the mountain hare, it will be good here, since it is a forest species and the park has all the conditions for it to survive, reproduce and its population to become sustainable. The return of animals to the natural environment became possible thanks to the systematic work of the rehabilitation center and scientific support. We hope that monitoring with camera traps will confirm the successful adaptation of the hares, and the data from genetic analysis will help in further work to preserve the population," said Natalya Chukhrayeva, Deputy Director of the State Nature Conservation Center. The hares released into the wild were born in the specialized rehabilitation center "Hare's House". Adult individuals who ended up there for various reasons regularly give birth to offspring. Grown-up animals adapted to independent life are released into a natural environment suitable for their survival. Photo: Press Service of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the City of Moscow Scientific support for the release of the white hares was provided by employees of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Before this, specialists took blood samples from the animals. The immune analysis data will allow us to study what infections the animals encounter during their lives, understand whether there are potential carriers of diseases dangerous to humans among them, and establish family ties in the future if new individuals are recorded in the park. Photo: Press Service of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the City of Moscow "Losiny Ostrov" is a unique natural complex, one of the main assets of Moscow. Rich biodiversity is preserved here, including due to systematic scientific work. Thus, in 2024, a large-scale ecological and biological survey was conducted in the park, in which more than 80 scientists from five scientific institutes took part. They identified over 1.5 thousand species of animals and plants. More than 200 of them are rare and protected. Based on the results of the survey, experts gave recommendations for supporting vulnerable animal species, and programs for the conservation and restoration of rare species were developed. Photo: Press Service of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the City of Moscow In addition, field research continues in Losiny Ostrov. In April, scientists began studying the biodiversity of water bodies using the Babaevsky Pond as an example. During the first surveys, specialists took samples of phyto- and zooplankton, and also selected benthic organisms living in the soil of the reservoir. Source: mos.ru

50 years ago, in 1975, on the initiative of Academician Vladimir Evgenievich Sokolov, Director of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Animal Ecology of the USSR Academy of Sciences (the future IEE RAS), the Scientific and Experimental Base "Chernogolovka" was created in Chernogolovka near Moscow. Congratulations to everyone who worked and continues to work at the biological station, for whom it was and remains not just a place on the map, but a significant part of life, profession, scientific activity, career and destiny. Those who built the biological station for many years, supported it, kept and bred animals, studied them, wrote articles and books. Or simply came for biological practice. All those who were associated with the SEB "Chernogolovka" and for whom it remains a place to which you want to return, a place of strength and hope for the future. Over 50 years, hundreds of people have worked at the biological station – students, postgraduates, research associates of the IEE RAS and other Russian and foreign scientific institutions. Dozens of dissertations and hundreds of diploma theses have been defended. Among those employees who worked at the biological station, candidates and doctors of sciences have grown up, among them there are corresponding members and academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Today, the NEB "Chernogolovka" of the IEE RAS is a large scientific and educational center with a large collection of live animals (about 2,000 individuals), a complex of enclosures and testing grounds for their maintenance and observation in conditions close to natural. Modern research equipment – ​​from microscopes to GPS navigation devices – allows for a wide range of scientific research on behavior, ecological physiology, endocrinology, taxonomy, hybridization, and morphology of the outer skin of terrestrial mammals. Since 1997, the Joint Educational and Scientific Biological Center of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the Moscow State Pedagogical University (ESC Chernogolovka IEE RAS) has been operating at the SEB Chernogolovka IEE RAS. In addition, students from both Moscow and regional universities complete their term papers and theses at the ESC Chernogolovka IPEE RAS. We wish the staff of the biological station long, fruitful years, new discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, good health, and well-being!

A new book about the Arctic flora by botanists Igor and Elena Pospelov, research associates of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Taimyr Nature Reserves" (Krasnoyarsk Krai), which manages the Bolshoy Arktichesky, Taimyrsky, and Putoransky Nature Reserves, has been published, reports the press service of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Roszapovedtsentr. The publication "Flora of Vascular Plants of the Anabar-Kotuysky Mountain Range and Its Northern Framing" is intended for general botanists, botanical geographers, specialists in the flora and vegetation of the northern Subarctic, as well as people interested in studying Arctic nature. The text is illustrated with photographs of the landscapes of the territory and individual plant species, including those listed in the Red Books of Russia and the region. During the long-term work on the book, a large volume of work was carried out on the inventory of the flora of the north of the Anabar-Kotuysky mountain range, as well as its comparison with the studied floras of both the protected areas of Taimyr, the Putorana Plateau, and the adjacent areas of the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The monograph provides an annotated list of plants growing in the northern Anabar-Kotuysky mountain range and adjacent forest-tundra areas, the flora of which had previously been almost unexplored. “Thanks to the many years of work of our colleagues, which took place in the difficult conditions of Arctic expeditions and painstaking office work, the knowledge base about the flora of such a difficult region for researchers as the north of Central Siberia was once again replenished with valuable scientific information. Such publications fill the scientific baggage of knowledge about the flora of the Arctic and the nature of our region,” said Mikhail Bondar, Deputy Director for Science and Environmental Education of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Taimyr Nature Reserves”. According to the estimation of the scientist, the publication will generate great interest in scientific circles. It provides a general physical and geographical description of the territory under study (geology, relief, climate, hydrological objects), and for the first time describes the vegetation of 29 key areas. “Of great scientific value is the fact that, during many years of field work, botanists not only identified the diversity of vascular plants in the study area, but also divided it into regions with different species compositions, characterized the features of these floras, and compared them with the floras of adjacent territories in the north of Central Siberia,” explained Mikhail Bondar. One of the results of the analysis was the conclusion about the highest similarity of the flora of the Anabar-Kotuysky massif with the flora of the east of the Putorana mountain range. Every year, scientists of the Taimyr protected areas discover up to several dozen new species for the flora of such large physical-geographical regions as the Putorana Plateau, the Taimyr Peninsula, and the north of Central Siberia as a whole. Often, the newly discovered species are entered into the Red Book: alpine woodsia, few-flowered sedge, Cardamine macrophyla, Draba sambukii, Oxytropis putorana, Oxytropis tichomirovii, Oxytropis czekanowskii, Eritrichium arctisibiricum, Eritrichium sericeum, Saussurea denticulata. Over the past few years, Igor and Elena Pospelov have made a number of important floristic discoveries. In 2020, a new species for science was discovered on the territory of the Putorana Nature Reserve - Astragalus guleminskii, subsequently listed in the Red Book of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. And in 2024, scientists described for the first time the northernmost population of a rare orchid species - Calypso bulbosa, listed in the Red Book of Russia. The monograph "Flora of vascular plants of the Anabar-Kotuy mountain range and its northern framing" is available for download: http://byrranga.ru/docs/anabar_kotuy_flora_final.pdf Reference: The publication is an addition to the monographs previously published by these authors - "Flora of vascular plants of Taimyr and adjacent territories" and "Flora of vascular plants of the World Heritage Site "Putorana Plateau" and its buffer zone", which now cover a huge region, characterizing the diversity of vascular plants of almost the entire north of Central Siberia.

Photo: Field mouse. Source: Natalia Feoktistova. Scientists have shown that in field mice living in the city, the diversity of genes of the major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II), responsible for the body's resistance to parasitic diseases, is associated with the degree of urbanization of the parks in which the rodents live. Thus, the more the parks resembled natural biotopes, the more variants of these genes were found in the population. This may be due to the greater diversity of pathogens in "natural" parks and, accordingly, the low probability for each individual mouse to encounter a certain pathogen. Thus, field mice can potentially be used to track the spread of parasites in parks. The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), were published in the biological series of the Izvestiya RAS journal. Urban ecosystems differ from natural landscapes. For example, cities host new, previously non-existent communities of organisms, which may have higher population densities than in natural conditions, atypical food chains, and parasitic infections may spread more quickly. However, until now there has been insufficient data on how the immune system of urban animals responds to the increased likelihood of infection with pathogens. Knowledge of this could potentially help control the spread of infections in the city and reduce the incidence of infections in both wild animals and pets. Scientists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) assessed the diversity of alleles (variants) of one of the genes of the major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) in populations of field mice living in Moscow parks with varying degrees of urbanization. Proteins for the synthesis of which MHC genes are responsible are distinguished by great diversity and determine the resistance of organisms to various pathogens - viruses (class I) and parasites (class II). That is, resistance to pathogens is directly related to the diversity of MHC gene alleles. The authors chose the field mouse as the object of their study, since this type of rodent is most often found in undeveloped areas of the metropolis. This allows them to be considered as an indicator when analyzing the state of the urban environment. The animals were caught in four parks: Neskuchny Garden, located within the most urbanized area, Terletsky Forest Park, the N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Bitsevsky Forest Park, the least urbanized area among those studied. The degree of urbanization of the areas was assessed according to their distance from the city center. The authors caught 45 mice, from which muscle tissue fragments were collected. Using whole-genome sequencing, the scientists determined the allelic diversity of one of the MHC genes from the samples obtained. In total, the researchers found 27 allele variants in all samples of field mice living in Moscow parks. At the same time, one animal had from one to five alleles. Photo: Setting traps in the park, carried out by Tatyana Karmanova. Source: Natalia Feoktistova The authors found the largest number of allele variants (17), including unique ones, in field mice from the Bitsevsky forest park. This park also showed the greatest diversity of individual genotypes with a relatively smaller number of MHC gene alleles in each individual. The observed picture may be associated with a large spectrum of pathogens in this territory and a simultaneous decrease in the probability of encountering each of them for a specific individual. In the mouse populations inhabiting the other three parks located in areas with a higher degree of urbanization, the total number of alleles and the diversity of individual genotypes were lower, but the number of alleles represented in the genotype of one individual was greater. Thus, in the developed parks, which are characterized by a small species diversity of rodents, but an increased population density of each species, the variability of pathogens is lower, but for an individual the probability of encountering each of them increases. Species living in urbanized areas can serve as good indicators of the state of the urban environment and be used to assess the degree of its well-being. The authors showed that in Moscow one of such species could be the field mouse, which lives in many urban areas experiencing varying degrees of anthropogenic pressure. Monitoring the condition of these rodents will allow for adjustments to be made to city improvement and landscaping activities. "In the future, we plan to use field mice to assess the condition of each park for its contamination with heavy metals and arsenic. This work is already underway. As a result of the study, we will demonstrate the features of heavy metal accumulation depending on the location of the park and the tissue we are studying. It is especially important that the assessment will be carried out using living organisms that permanently inhabit these parks. In addition, a very important area of ​​our research is assessing the contamination of animal organisms with microplastics. This is a pilot project. We assess the content of microplastics and artificial threads in the gastrointestinal tract of model rodents," says Natalia Feoktistova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology and Biocommunication at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the project supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation.

Photo: Appearance of the fly. A - Top view. B - Bottom view. C - Wing. Blood-sucking flies of the Hippoboscidae family currently number about 213 species and are vectors of diseases of birds and mammals. The genus of parasites of birds Ornithomya Latreille, 1802 is quite extensive - it includes 33 species. These flies mainly live in the middle latitudes of the Old World, but 9 species are known from Africa. Unfortunately, not all species are described in detail. Some important features were not taken into account before this work. A new specimen of Ornithomya cecropis Hutson, 1971 (Diptera, Hippoboscidae) was collected in South Africa. The description of this species was supplemented with new morphological data that are used in modern identification keys: length of the head and thorax taken together, wing length, ratio of costal vein segments, coloration of the ventral side of the head and thorax, etc. An updated key for all known species of the genus Ornithomya from the Afrotropical region is provided. Link to article: Yatsuk, A.A., Nartshuk, E.P., Markovets, M.Y. et al. New Record of the Louse Fly Ornithomya cecropis Hutson, 1971 with an Amended Description (Diptera, Hippoboscidae). Entomological Review. 104, 567–571.

Sergey Valerievich Naidenko. Photo by Olga Merzlyakova / Scientific Russia What do we know about ecology as a science? How is it related to evolution? Why is the activity of the nature conservation enthusiasts not always beneficial? How can we ensure that the advice and warnings of scientists are heard? What are the environmental consequences of the oil spill in the Black Sea? What can each of us do to preserve nature? Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Valerievich Naidenko, Director of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, talks about this. Sergey Valerievich Naidenko is a zoologist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a specialist in remote observation of animals, ecology and reproductive biology of wild cats. He defended his PhD thesis on the topic of "Social behavior of lynx and features of its formation in ontogenesis" and his doctoral dissertation on the topic of "Biology of reproduction of felines. Mechanism of reproductive success". His scientific interests include the study of the physiological state of vertebrates, behavioral ecology of mammals, and the formation of species-specific behavior in ontogenesis. — Many people think that ecology is not polluting the environment. In fact, it is a science that is studied by more than one institute. What is it? — Ecology is the science of the relationship between organisms and the environment. These are adaptations, adaptations of organisms, reactions to environmental factors, which include other animals and humans. But now, unfortunately, this term has such a huge number of interpretations that it is not very clear how to interpret it correctly in a specific situation. When people start talking about environmental ecology, I do not really understand what they are talking about, because there is no such concept. Now, in the common sense, everything that is connected with our environment is ecology. — How is ecology connected to evolution? — In the most direct way possible, because the process of evolution is, in fact, a process of adaptation to certain environmental conditions. If the territory is open, it is very important for you to run fast, if it is closed, then using the example of my beloved cats, we see that it is important for you to sneak up carefully. If it is cold around, you need to adapt to the cold. Thus, all evolution is a process of adaptation. It follows that as soon as external conditions change (temperature, humidity in a particular region), the biotope changes, the forest is cut down or burns out, the adaptation of organisms to new conditions begins. Some die out, some die locally, some appear in their place, some organisms simply change, adapting to the environment. A classic story: in England, milk was carried in bottles covered with foil and left in front of the house. A new food resource appeared for tits, but they had to learn how to open the foil covering. They learned, they opened it. There you have it: the environment changed, a new adaptation appeared, ecological changes occurred in the species. — Didn’t they stop bringing such bottles? — Yes, then the resource disappeared and the tits had to adapt again. What is happening now with the tiger in the Far East is a big, although expected, problem. The tiger is adapted to the fact that its main prey is the wild boar. It is not for nothing that the tiger is known as a "boar herder": it follows the herds, kills a young pig, eats it for five to seven days, staying in one place, then goes on to pursue the herd. The share of wild boar in its diet is 50-60%. Now in the Russian Far East, as a result of African swine fever, the number of wild boar has sharply decreased by two orders of magnitude. And that's it — the tiger has nothing to eat. — What do they eat now? — Then the tiger begins to adapt, actively hunting sika deer, somewhere — red deer, in the northern regions there is also elk. But the number of these prey is absolutely insufficient to feed the tiger. In addition, unlike all the ungulates listed, which give birth to one cub per year, a pig can give birth to 12 piglets, which will grow up by autumn and provide excellent food for the tiger. And now there is hunger, winter, it is difficult to hunt ungulates, there are few wild boars, the tiger is looking for at least something. It goes to villages, finds dogs, sometimes livestock. This scares people. — Maybe they should throw out domestic pigs to feed the tigers? — No one will throw out pigs in such quantities. It will be very expensive. We currently have about 750 tigers, one tiger eats 50 ungulates per year, one per week. We’d need to provide 35 thousand pigs. — In the Sailyugem National Park, where the main protected species is the snow leopard, which feeds mainly on ungulates, there is also a problem of food shortage. Snow leopards raid grazing domestic ungulates, and the national park began to compensate the local population for these material losses from the funds of the specially created Irbis Fund. What is your attitude to this? — This is a real problem, and the solution is real, it works. Moreover, it works in the Far East, at least there the Far Eastern Leopard Fund adheres to the same strategy. As for the tiger, I am not ready to say whether the Amur Tiger pays or not. At some point, tiger sacrifices were paid. But the main thing here is to build this system correctly. Both the leopard and the snow leopard in Sailyugem have it a little easier, because these are relatively small areas. When we talk about a tiger in the Far East, these are huge territories: half of the Khabarovsk Territory, the entire Primorsky Territory, the Amur Region and a little bit of the Jewish Autonomous Region. But we need to check that those are really tigers feeding, otherwise it will be a scam, people will come and say that a cow has disappeared again, they should pay. Secondly, the problem now is not so much that people are worried and want to get money for their dogs. Some have lost a friend who was taken straight off the chain a few meters away from home. This means that a tiger simply comes to a village and walks through the village at night. Nobody likes this anymore, because everyone has children, and adults do not want to meet a tiger. I would not want to either. There is another problem here - not only monetary compensation, but also safety. This is a standard situation for the winter period, it is just very pronounced now because of the situation with the wild boar. It will ease by summer. — But then winter will come again. Is there a more permanent solution? — There are several solutions, we discuss them often. Firstly, we need to very clearly combat poaching, primarily with regard to ungulate species. There was even talk about a complete ban on hunting, but I am a pragmatic person and I do not think that this is possible in principle, given the Far East. Hunting will take place, but ideally it would be better to make this hunting completely legal and carried out according to the calculated standards: how many deer can be harvested, how many moose. — Is this realistic? — It is very difficult to eliminate poaching because of the vast spaces, but this is the most necessary measure. Secondly, we need to reduce the anthropogenic pressure on the collection of pine nuts. Now the nuts are collected in tons, exported to China, and all this is animal feed, especially in the autumn, when fattening is taking place and it is important to eat something. For ungulates, including wild boar and deer, these are the main sources of food. Logging was very active, some of the productive forests in terms of animal feed have already been destroyed. But the most unpleasant thing is not even that they have been destroyed, but that a lot of logging roads have been laid in the forest, which provide an opportunity for people in cars - hunters, poachers - to penetrate deeper into the forest, take the prey. — How can we increase the number of wild boar? — This is the most painful question. I don’t have an answer. The problem is big. Theoretically, we can say that we need to develop a vaccine against African swine fever. The institute can’t handle it, it’s not our profile. Colleagues haven’t managed it yet either. The result is that the mortality rate of wild boar is extremely high, almost all of them die from it. I don’t believe in a quick recovery of wild boar precisely because the plague doesn’t go away, it remains — the virus remains active for a long time, is present in wild boar populations. But this is not only our problem, no one has created a vaccine yet. — If it were suddenly created, how would you use it? — Vaccination of some animals is already a big plus. This means that at least some of the animals survive the outbreak of the epizootic and can reproduce. This means that at some point there will be a guaranteed increase in numbers. Secondly, we have large pig farms, and veterinarians have one approach — we need to shoot the wild boar. This is called "depopulation": a sharp reduction in its numbers so that it cannot spread the pathogen and in no case bring it to the pig farm, otherwise it will become a big problem, the entire herd will die. In this situation, you can at least vaccinate the pigs in the pig farms and not try to shoot the boar, leave it alone. — Environmental organizations promoting so-called green living are very active now. I heard that sometimes their activities bring not only pluses, but also minuses. Is that true? Sergey Valerievich Naidenko. Photo by Olga Merzlyakova / Scientific Russia — You noticed correctly. Very different organizations, very different people. What I like most about people is the ability not only to listen, but also to hear and understand what they are being talked about, what is needed and what is not. My colleagues and I now have the following situation with the Black Sea, with the fuel oil spill: colleagues from the centers that accept birds are trying to save them, complained about the environmentalists, who can even interfere with work. There is quite a lot of waste there, because when a bird gets covered in fuel oil, it is difficult to save it. People try, they try, they are great, but not all birds need to be saved. Recently, these centers have been receiving migratory birds that flew past and, as often happens, hit themselves somewhere, weakened somewhere. From the point of view of the same ecology, the interaction of organisms with the environment, it is clear that during bird migrations there is always a certain waste and you can’t get away from it, that’s how life works. — By waste, do you mean the loss of a certain number of animals? — Yes, those that die during flights and short rests. But they try to save them too. This is motivated by empathy for wildlife, and perhaps this is a good thing. I myself love wildlife, but our human society treats it very differently. In some places we save migratory birds, and in others we build a high-speed highway, cutting down good habitats for the same birds. More will die there, but no one pays much attention to it. It seems to me that environmentalists in this sense sometimes stray from a reasonable balance and look in the wrong direction. — In the situation with the same fuel oil spill in the Black Sea, they are now talking about how many dolphins died and are raising money for hospitals for them. I know that your institute has a different point of view on this issue. — The way the dolphin works, it is extremely difficult for it to die by choking and poisoning with fuel oil. This is not a very feasible program. Perhaps this can happen, but it is hard to believe that this would cause mass death. It is more likely that this could be the death of animals in their nets: in such situations, fishermen, when they find a dolphin in their nets, simply release it, throw it back into the sea, and then this dolphin swims in an oil slick, all dirty, then it is thrown ashore - and the conclusion is made that it died from fuel oil. We are not at all sure of this. We are trying to participate in this, to get permission to autopsy the animals that die, but so far we have not succeeded. — Why? — It's hard to say. We contacted Rosprirodnadzor, talked to them for a long time, they told us to write a letter to get such permission. We wrote, they replied that they give permission to remove live animals from the wild, and dead ones are no longer their competence, you need to contact the veterinary service, but local veterinarians just take the dolphins away without doing an autopsy. Therefore, we cannot say anything objectively. — Black Sea dolphins are a rare, protected species, and it would seem that the state is interested in conducting a thorough investigation of what is happening to them. — Morally, it seems, they are interested, but in reality, everyone works within the scope of their authority. So far, interaction here has not been established. — Your institute has a marine biological station in Utrish, and it has signed an agreement with this department to monitor the fate of the injured animals. But, as the head of this station, Andrei Valerievich Abramov, told me, not a single call has been received since the disaster, which occurred back in December. — Maybe it’s because not everyone knows about us yet. One way or another, the question of how much the dolphins suffered from this ecological disaster remains open. — But the fact that this is an ecological disaster is indisputable to you? — Of course. — What are the environmental consequences? — Humans have destroyed some coastal biotopes where fuel oil was dumped. Then it was torn off along with the soil, and this aggravated the situation. These are different organisms living in the soil, worms, mollusks, other invertebrates. This is the most severe shock to the ecosystem. — And the benthos, the birds? — We have already talked about the birds — this is a problem, but the scale is not very clear. On the one hand, there are indeed a lot of birds, they number in the thousands, but within the framework of the entire group living in the Black Sea region... Here it is more likely that we need to assess individual rare species and the damage to them. I don’t know about the benthos, it seems to me that this is one of the least affected groups. — Why? — The problem with fuel oil is that its density changes depending on the temperature and it can move in water layers. I don’t think it all settles to the bottom, making life very difficult for benthos. It seems to me that benthos suffers significantly less compared to the littoral (coastal zone). — The average person will read this and say: big deal, worms suffered — what a trifle. What harm is there? — This is a food source for other invertebrates, and for birds, and for fish. Damage to the food source is bad, difficult. We don’t know how quickly natural communities will recover after this spill. But there could also be a separate story about the humans for whom all this could be very dangerous. — Tell us about it. — Heavy organic compounds, aromatic hydrocarbons are obtained, and they will be present in the environment for quite a long time. Then — their transformation into dioxins, organochlorine compounds, one of the most dangerous and most persistent pollutants of the environment. They were used during the Vietnam War as defoliants, causing trees to shed their leaves so that Vietnamese partisans could be found later. Dioxins are very dangerous for the human body too, and they are formed quite well when chlorine comes into contact with aromatic hydrocarbons. Chlorine is present in sea water, you just need to understand how intensively the formation occurs depending on the temperature and illumination. In addition, this fuel oil is burned, and dioxins are formed during combustion. This is the most dangerous thing. All this does not go anywhere — it either flies into the air or remains in the ground and can lead to serious consequences for humans. This is a change in the genetic activity of various cells of living organisms. — Summer is coming. What will happen to these chemical processes? Will they accelerate? — It is better to ask chemists about this, especially in terms of conversion to dioxins. However, I can say for sure: dioxins are already present there and are unlikely to disappear, especially after burning. As for the fuel oil that remains in the water, apparently, all new portions will gradually rise from the bottom, new emissions will occur. How intense, I can’t judge yet, but they will definitely happen. — Can people do something really useful here? — Volunteers are very useful: in general, this is saving animals, cleaning beaches. Rospotrebnadzor, in my opinion, does quite a lot, monitoring the situation in various regions, assessing the presence of certain harmful compounds in the water, in the air, taking measures to clean the shores. Control work is underway. The most important thing, probably, is to try to extract the second tanker that sank. It seems to have no leaks, but at the moment it has turned into a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later, if not now, then in ten years, when the ship's hull rots, this will happen. This is probably the most important task now. Well, and cleaning up what continues to spill and will be spilling for some time. — Is it worth going on vacation to the Black Sea? Surely everyone is interested in this question. — I am not ready to give advice on this. Listen to Rospotrebnadzor. — How should an ordinary person behave in nature so as not to harm it? — I think the worst thing is a lot of plastic. If you have the opportunity to reduce the amount of plastic bags and plastic packaging you consume, that's good. I'm not talking about completely obvious things now, like not throwing it anywhere. I don't really trust biodegradable plastic, which is often sold in some stores. As a rule, all this turns into microplastic, which decomposes and still doesn't go anywhere. And it's even more dangerous. — Chemists say that completely degradable plastic will appear soon. — God willing. We're talking about what everyone can do by themselves. Reducing any amount of waste, in my opinion, is the main thing. When you're in the forest, please think about the trees around you, about the plants and animals that are nearby. If you see a hollow from which an owlet is peeking out, don't climb in there and check what it is and how many of them are there. There should be an understanding of a gentle attitude towards nature: if you went to the Losiny Ostrov National Park in the spring and saw a large number of primroses, do not pick them. This argument - "I picked three, what harm could that do, look how many there are" - is absolutely wrong. How many people came? You need to start with yourself. — If we go back to Utrish, another ecological disaster recently happened there — a huge fire in the reserve. The staff told me that there have been many such fires over the years and all of them are man-made. — Most of the fires here, and not only in this region, are man-made. In some cases, these are arson attacks, when people try to burn out some piece of dry grass either at their dacha or in the wild. In the Far East, they believe that if you burn out dry grass, it is easier to collect ferns — they are easier to see when they sprout. As a rule, this is not limited to the piece you want to burn. So the fire starts — either something flew out of your garden, or someone burned it out on purpose. This is the first approach. The second — of course, if you are in the forest with a fire, you need to think about where to make it, and generally listen to recommendations on whether it is possible to make it. In very dry weather, it is strongly recommended not to make fires, because you can underestimate what is happening around you, you can accidentally make a fire on a peat bog, and then you will not be able to put it out. In all cases, you need to watch the fire, carefully put it out after you leave. And thirdly, cigarette butts. A burning cigarette butt can easily set dry grass on fire. It is easy to light, but extremely difficult to stop. — What consequences can such fires have if they happen too often? Is it true that the ecosystem does not have time to recover? — Some fires are natural in origin — maybe lightning struck. Sometimes this happens. Ecosystems recover after this, although certain changes occur. Colleagues have studied: for example, the soil fauna changes very clearly there. Relatively large animals, if the fire was big, and also individuals were trapped in the fire, there can be very large losses. Everything depends on the intensity of the fire, because burrowing animals can wait it out, and sometimes everything burns out completely. An ashen waste appears in place of the forest, and the new forest will take much longer to recover. Since this is a burnt-out forest that gradually overgrows, a different composition of the soil biota appears, which causes different mammals to come there. But it is one thing when this happens once every 100 years, and another thing when this starts happening every five years in the same place, burning everything out. There is even a new term for the Far East: "pyrogenic oak forests." The Mongolian oak is not the largest, and there are very small oaks there that burn every year. There is a ground fire, all the grass burns out - and there is a relatively bare forest with oaks, which do not all bear fruit, because they have a hard time after the fire. Their importance as a food resource for the same ungulates is sharply reduced. In other words, as a result of regular fires, the ecosystem changes to something that is not typical for this region. "Eternal succession" occurs - the replacement of one biotope with another. — Do you think that the global ecologization of human consciousness can happen, when all people understand how to behave in nature? — I really hope so. We'll see how it will be in reality. There is a theory of animal behavior called "evolutionarily stable strategies" — the strategy of the dove and the hawk. In short, it looks like this: doves live, somehow compete with each other for resources, sort things out. Then suddenly a hawk appears — it will kill a dove, and will always kill others. There are many doves, one or two hawks, and the hawks feel very good about this, just great. They begin to actively reproduce, there are more of them, they begin to fight among themselves for food, compete, and at some point they no longer really care about doves. And suddenly it becomes more profitable to be a dove than a hawk. What I mean is that, unfortunately or fortunately, this system works in our human society, and this can be clearly seen at various stages. Everyone grows organic products - everything is absolutely clean, without fertilizers, and we all start competing on equal terms. Then someone appears and says: "Let me sprinkle some chemicals here." And his watermelons are three times bigger! Everyone watches and also starts using chemicals. At some point, it turns out that people who grow clean products are the winners: the harvest may be small, but it is harmless. I have a feeling that it is almost the same with the same fires, with the same plastic. Almost everyone has stopped burning grass, and one says: "I will still set it on fire and collect four times more ferns." I don't know how to break this, but let's hope that it will work. — How can this happen? What can you, your institute, do here? — First of all, we need to start working with children. We actively participate in the Science 2.0 festivals, we show how science works, how to treat nature. We are primarily a scientific institute, but we are actively involved in this: we act as partners in a variety of initiatives to preserve both individual species and ecosystems. — How do children react? Are they interested? — Children are very interested in this, and it seems to me that the following phrase is appropriate here: “Now you will never be able to forget what you have learned.” When they have heard about it since childhood, felt it since childhood, it is harder for them to give it up. — Employees of various reserves told me that such children even stop their parents when they do something wrong in nature: don't touch the turtle, don't pick a flower. And the parents feel ashamed. Is there such a tendency? — Yes, it's true, and it's normal. So my main hope is for these children who have heard us today, and tomorrow with their reverent attitude to nature they will change the planet. The interview was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation