The seminar was attended by 45 people, including heads and specialists from nature reserves and scientific institutes. The seminar-conference presented works carried out throughout Russia, and even beyond it - in China and Antarctica. Methodological reports on approaches to monitoring animals depending on their phylogenetic group, lifestyle and research objectives were presented. Reports were presented on censuses of individually distinguishable animals (tigers, leopards, snow leopards), approaches to census of animals whose individual recognition is difficult (wild boar, elk, red deer), on the use of camera traps to observe the behavior of birds and marine mammals. Such an exchange of experience allows employees of specially protected natural areas to use camera traps more effectively for work in reserves and national parks, as well as to strengthen interaction with academic science. Related materials: BezFormata: "Artificial intelligence to help reserve scientists" MK.Kalmykia: "A reserve from Kalmykia shared its experience of using camera traps" Voronezh State Nature Reserve: "Artificial intelligence to help reserve scientists" Vesti.Kalmykia: "Using modern technologies in reserve work" The video recording of the seminar can be viewed on the site of the Expert Council on Reserve Work

Fig. 1. Basic phenotypes of the oral apparatus of barbels One of the most striking biological phenomena is adaptive radiation - the evolution of ecological and phenotypic diversity within a rapidly diversifying line. Adaptive radiations have long been studied by scientists at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including in the ecosystems of tropical Africa. Unique conditions for the flourishing of multiple adaptive radiations of carp fish (Cyprinidae) have developed in the river ecosystems of the Ethiopian Highlands. One of the most successful evolutionary lines of fish in this regard is the polyploid African barbel of the genus Labeobarbus, which produced four parallel adaptive radiations in geographically isolated river basins of the Ethiopian Highlands. These radiations have been studied quite well using morphological and genetic methods, but almost no ecological studies have been conducted to confirm the adaptive nature of the discovered fish diversifications. "The morphological diversification of African barbel is associated, first of all, with the polymorphism of the oral apparatus. Four basic phenotypes were noted: 1) generalized, 2) thick-lipped with hypertrophied lips, 3) scraping mouth without lips, but with a cutting sheath on the lower jaw, and 4) large-mouthed (potentially piscivorous). To test the hypothesis - to what extent different phenotypes of the oral apparatus are adapted to the division of trophic resources and, accordingly, represent cases of trophic specialization - we undertook a more detailed study using classical (analysis of the food bolus and the length of the intestinal tract) and modern (analysis of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon) trophological methods, ”says the first author of the article, an employee of the laboratory of environmental monitoring of NPP regions and bioindication B.A. Levin. The study showed that the four radiations are at different stages of development - both in terms of the number of mouth phenotypes (within individual types, subtypes are also noted) and in terms of the degree of trophic specialization. In total, up to 5 trophic specializations were found in three radiations: 1) detritophagy, (2) macrophytophagy, (3) benthofagia, (4) periphytonophagy, and (5) piscivorous. Fig. 2. Map of material collection However, one of the most surprising discoveries of this work was the discovery of the absence of a connection between the phenotype of the oral apparatus and trophic specialization in the youngest radiation (according to genetic data). It turned out that carriers of different phenotypes consumed mainly the same food, the most common in river conditions - detritus. Moreover, no differences were noted between ecomorphs in stable isotopes, which indicates that this phenomenon is not accidental. A similar phenomenon - the feeding of individuals with pronounced features of trophic specialization on generalized, or the most accessible, basic food, is called Liem's ​​paradox. It may have different causes, which the authors consider in their work. But in relation to African barbels, most likely, the complex polyploid genome, generating different phenotypes of the oral apparatus, worked. The parental lines that participated in polyploidization and the formation of the African Labeobarbus lineage are characterized by different mouth phenotypes - generalized, thick-lipped, and scraping. Accordingly, the results obtained by the authors indicate that first, morphological diversity of the oral apparatus phenotypes arises in the African Labeobarbus population, and then ecological functionalization of each phenotype occurs. This somewhat contradicts the classical ideas about adaptive radiations, but adds fuel to the development of the “plasticity-first evolution” hypothesis. Fig. 3. Food spectra of sympatric ecomorphs of barbels in four radiations In the article, the authors also touch upon other issues related to adaptive radiations in the presence/absence of ecological opportunities depending on the developing ecological-evolutionary situation in the reservoir, including the well-known intra-lake adaptive radiation of barbels in Lake Tana (Ethiopia). Fig. 4. Biplots and isotopic niches of sympatric ecomorphs of barbels from four adaptive radiations The article is published in the journal Q1 Scopus – Hydrobiologia https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-024-05668-2 Fig. 5. Scheme of the process of trophic radiation The full-text PDF version of the article is available on the ResearchGate profile of the authors. The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant 19-14-00218 "Adaptive radiation and speciation in carp fishes under sympatry conditions".

From 16 to 26 August 2024, the VII International Field Symposium "West Siberian Peatlands and the Carbon Cycle: Past and Present" was held in Khanty-Mansiysk. As part of the symposium, a section report was presented by a third-year student of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Geography of the Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Polina Nikolaevna Tyutyaeva, "Features of the Species Composition of Cladocera (Crustacea: Cladocera) in Sphagnum Bogs of the Nizhny Novgorod Region". The work was co-authored with senior colleagues, Anna Nikolaevna Neretina (IEE RAS) and Yulia Yuryevna Davydova (K. Minin NSPU). Participation of A.N. Neretina's project on the study of the morphology of Daphniidae ephippia was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 22-14-00258. The symposium promoted a broad exchange of knowledge in the field of studying biodiversity, swamping processes and preserving the biosphere functions of peatlands and swamp forests, complex environmental monitoring of peatland ecosystems, the role of peatlands in the global carbon cycle, as well as assessing the anthropogenic impact on the functioning of peatlands and issues of introducing modern low-carbon nature management technologies in the context of climate change. A total of 90 researchers from Russia, Belarus and China took part in the symposium. The participants visited the Kondinsky Lakes Nature Park, the Yurts of the Chaynikovs peasant farm, as well as swamp areas and the SPHAGNUM ECO company's production facilities for the extraction and processing of sphagnum moss. Special attention at the symposium was given to student reports, since participation in such large events is an important stage in involving talented young people in scientific research activities. Let's find out what Polina herself says about the trip to Western Siberia: "I received a huge motivation to research and develop thanks to this trip. At first, it was scary and difficult for me to fly so far alone, because this was my first experience of attending international conferences, but it was even more difficult to fly home from the hospitable team of bog scientists. Two weeks gave me many bright and wonderful impressions, senior colleagues willingly shared useful advice and knowledge with me. I would like to once again thank the organizers of the symposium, as well as my scientific supervisors - A.N. Neretina and Yu.Yu. Davydova." Here is a review of Polina and her work by her scientific supervisor, Anna Neretina: “It’s always a little scary to let a student go on an independent voyage, especially since we planned to go to the symposium together, and as a possible option we considered an adventurous trip from Nizhny Novgorod to Khanty-Mansiysk by car. And such a trip is still in the plans, as soon as I pass the exams and get my license. However, instead of a business trip to Khanty-Mansiysk, I went to Vietnam to catch water fleas in tropical swamp-like reservoirs. And Polina at this time successfully presented our report at the symposium and collected new samples for her term paper. Now all the material is in the initial stage of processing, but it is already clear that we have fulfilled the plan for bears and mosquitoes for this summer.”

The staff of the Laboratory of Lower Vertebrate Behavior at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences has developed a method and manufactured the first working version of a complex for visualizing electric fields of aquatic animals. Electric images are constructed based on the simultaneous measurement of electric potentials on a matrix of electrodes placed on the bottom of an aquarium. Then, using a specially developed software package, these images are precisely combined with the corresponding frame of the video recording, and patterns of electric events are constructed. “The method and programs allow not only to construct images, but also to synthesize video clips that allow observing the dynamics of electric events and the corresponding behavior of aquatic animals, including at high deceleration,” said Vladimir Mendelevich Olshansky, Senior Researcher at the IEE RAS, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Digitization is carried out at a frequency of up to 50 kHz for each channel, which allows tracking the dynamics of very short events, for example, lasting several milliseconds. The methodology is published in Behavior Research Methods (2024) 56:4255–4276 Text and video clips are available at the link.

Fig.1 Northern minnow from different rivers - a living species. Photo by O.N. Artaev Despite significant progress in studying the species diversity of European fish, there are still significant gaps in understanding the taxonomic diversity of this best-studied part of the world. As a result of complex morphological and genetic studies, a team of scientists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the I.D. Papanin Institute of Inland Water Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other scientific organizations in Russia have determined the species of the most widespread minnow of the genus Phoxinus in Europe, established its phylogenetic position, morphological features and geographic distribution. Fig.2 Morphological features of the northern minnow a. Pharyngeal teeth. b. Pattern of abdominal scales (staining with alizarin red with lightening) Paradoxically, the most widespread species of minnows in Europe, living from Great Britain to the western part of Western Siberia (upper tributaries of the Ob), did not have a species name and in articles of recent years was designated as Phoxinus sp.” explains one of the authors of the article, B.A. Levin, an employee of the laboratory of ecological monitoring of regions of nuclear power plants and bioindication of the IEE RAS. Fig.3 Map of collection of materials and distribution of northern minnow As it turned out, there was a suitable name for this species – Phoxinus isetensis (Isetsky, or, as the authors called it, Northern minnow). The minnow was described in the 18th century by Academician I.I. Lepyokhin, who gave a morphological description, but not a name. The Latin binomial name was given a little later by another Academician – I.G. Georgi. Subsequently, Academician L.S. Berg reduced this species to synonyms of the common minnow Phoxinus phoxinus – a species described from the Rhine, Germany. The type locality (from where the northern minnow is described) – the Iset River – belongs to the upper reaches of the Tobol-Irtysh basin near Yekaterinburg. The authors visited these sites, collected morphological and genetic material from this locality, as well as from 17 other localities in the European part of Russia, and established the conspecificity of this species with an unnamed, wide-range species of minnow from Europe. The genetic results allowed us to establish that the species originated in the Volga-Kama basin, from where it penetrated into the tributaries of the Ob basin along the Chusovaya. The Chusovaya River belongs to the Kama-Volga water system, but originates in Siberia, heading west and cutting through the Ural Mountains. The Chusovaya River has long been considered a potential corridor for the exchange of aquatic fauna between Asia and Europe. However, previous studies showed the direction of ichthyofauna dispersal from Asia to Europe, while the present work showed that this river worked in both directions as an exchange corridor. It is characteristic that the northern minnow penetrated very shallowly into the Ob basin and, apparently, recently, as evidenced by its genetic identity with the populations from the Volga-Kama. The northern minnow quickly spread across the northern waters of the Last Glacial Maximum, which apparently indicates that it has adaptations to a cold climate. The phylogenetic tree indicates a high level of divergence of the species Phoxinus isetensis, the sister (closest) species of which is the Colchis minnow Phoxinus colchicus from the Caucasus. Fig. 4 Phylogenetic tree of minnows of the genus Phoxinus with the northern minnow branch indicated (marked) The article was published in a first quartile journal - Zoosystematics and Evolution. The study was supported by the RSF project 24-44-20018. Related materials: RSF: "New life of the northern minnow: scientists have re-described the "lost" species of carp fish" RAS: "The "lost" species of carp fish has been re-described" Poisk.News: "Expansion of the fish range. Scientists have studied the northern minnow" Stoitsa58: "Penza rivers have surprised scientists after a large-scale study"

Photo: Elena Shnyreva Specialists from the Northern Eurasian Anseriformes Working Group arrived in Anadyr to continue their census work using small aircraft. This is the third time the ornithologists have flown to the region. Each season, they focus their efforts on several of the most pressing projects on rare species: the common (Pacific) eider, the barnacle goose, and the eastern taiga bean goose. Other animals, such as the bowhead whale and beluga whale, also come into their field of vision. Scientists are trying to identify the dynamics of the numbers and distribution of populations, and if possible, the threats to a particular species. – This season we have several projects on a large territory, – says Sofya Rozenfeld, PhD in biology and senior researcher at the Russian Bird Ringing Center of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – We started with the Magadan Region, where we conducted the first census of the common eider in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Previously, employees of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North of the Russian Academy of Sciences only carried out ground-based studies, which indicate that the number of Pacific common eiders is declining. At the same time, we recorded encounters with whales for a project on the bowhead whale, which is being carried out by employees of the IEE of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Then we conducted an aerial survey of the Koryak Nature Reserve (Parapolsky Dol site) and the adjacent Ramsar sites. Such work has not been done in this area for about 20 years. This territory is extremely important as a breeding and molting site for the eastern taiga bean goose, which is listed in the Red Book of Russia. We managed to conduct a virtually total census of molting flocks and broods of many species of anseriformes. We were based in the Kamchatka village of Tilichiki. The ornithologists flew through the village of Vaegi to Anadyr, visiting on the way a part of the Lower Anadyr Lowland that was not fully surveyed last year. Several routes are planned from the district capital. According to scientists, it is necessary to study the coast and adjacent lagoons of Kresta Bay to get a complete picture of the state of the white-necked goose in Chukotka. In 2021, the entire northern coast of the region has already been studied, and in 2023 - the Meynypilgyn lake-river system and the Lower Anadyr Lowland (KS wrote about this work in the issue of August 4 last year). Having received the missing data, ornithologists will be able to estimate the size of the Alaskan population of white-necked goose molting in Chukotka, which is important for clarifying the international conservation status of this species. Then, specialists plan to re-conduct a census of the Anadyr beluga. Let us recall that in 2023, in parallel with the observation of rare and endangered bird species, it was possible to conduct the first ever aerial survey of the summer reproductive aggregation of the Anadyr beluga whale herd, the question of the current state of the resources of which remains open. - After this work, we are moving back south from Anadyr, but we will devote more time to searching for whales. In July, we were in a hurry to catch the birds moulting or with broods, in the second half of August there will be no more rush, - concluded Sofia Rosenfeld. For flights, scientists use a float plane with the individual name "Sterkh C1". The model itself is called SUPERSTOL, an abbreviation for “Short take off and landing”. The owner and pilot of this machine is pilot Georgy Kirtayev. Sofia Rosenfeld works with him on board. The results of last year's aerial survey have been processed and are now at the analysis stage. However, ornithologists are already concerned about the low numbers of all eider species. A change in the birds' food supply is named as a possible reason. Even greater concerns are caused by the situation with the white-necked goose and the black goose, the Asian population of which winters in Japan in Hokkaido. Both species are especially protected and are listed in the Red Book of Russia, but according to the results of work in Chukotka, their numbers were extremely low. Related materials: Far North: "Aerial survey is taken of birds and whales"

Snow sheep (or Siberian bighorn sheep) once inhabited this area, but were exterminated by humans. Four years ago, work began here to restore the population. The first group - four males and three females - were relocated from the Omsukchansky District in 2020. Another 12 animals were released into the wild last weekend. Employees of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution are providing scientific support for the project to capture, release and monitor the animals. According to Jose Antonio Hernandez-Blanco, PhD in Biology, Senior Researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a specialist in the behavior and ecology of large predators, the bighorn sheep are already getting used to the wild and are feeling well. Some of the animals have GPS satellite collars, which allow tracking their movements. Also collared sheep captured and released at the capture site to compare space use patterns in the original habitat and the new one. Fig. 1: Candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Specialist in the Behavior and Ecology of Large Predators Jose Antonio Hernandez-Blanco Currently, the island has stepped up security measures to prevent tourists from disturbing the animals. But in the future, people will be able to watch snow sheep and musk oxen in their natural habitat from observation platforms on the island. Fig.2: Candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher at the IEE RAS, Large Mammal Specialist Taras Sipko This project is part of a program to study the spatial ecology of snow sheep, reindeer, elk and wolves in Kolyma, which is being implemented by the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the financial and organizational support of I.B. Dontsov.

Fig.1. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev Andrey Abramov, head of the Utrish Marine Station of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the magazine "Science and Life" about how dolphins sleep, how many kilometers they swim per day, whether they save drowning people, and why they might not like your manicure. — Andrey Valerievich, when did you start working at the marine station? — For me, it all started in 1983. At that time, I was a student at the biology department of Moscow State University, the department of zoology and comparative anatomy of vertebrates. And the head of the department was academician Vladimir Evgenievich Sokolov, he was also the director of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution. At that time, it was called the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which included the Utrish marine station. That was when I was invited to work here. Here it was necessary to perform a certain amount of specific diving work, and by that time I had finished my service in the military dolphinarium of the USSR Ministry of Defense, after which I worked there for two years under a contract. So this work was close to me, and I was useful here. — Military dolphinarium – what is it? — It is a message to use marine animals for the needs of the Ministry of Defense. One day, people noticed the unique features of dolphins: adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle, deep-sea diving, fast swimming. And they thought – is it possible to use dolphins and pinnipeds for specific tasks? — To dive to a submarine, for example? — Nothing of the sort. This is fiction. But a dolphin can do quite a lot. First of all, attention was drawn to the ability of dolphins to navigate underwater, find each other using echolocator, and identify obstacles. These capabilities can be used to search for some objects underwater. Or the hydrodynamic capabilities of fast swimming, the physiology of deep-sea diving and surfacing without decompression - all this aroused great interest. If it is problematic for us to dive 100 meters even with the use of diving equipment, then for a dolphin it is 2.5 minutes there and back without any decompression, easily. They decided to study and use these features of adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle. — When you came here in 1983, what was here? — The biological station had already existed at this place for six years. It was a very well-organized field camp, there were tents and small houses, minimal pools for keeping dolphins and pinnipeds. There was an organized Black Sea expedition of the institute, which worked here seasonally - in the spring, employees arrived, animals were brought in. At the end of the season, in the fall, the employees left. Animals were released into the sea, sometimes died as a result of experiments, it was like that then, or were transferred to organizations cooperating with the institute, to live in captivity all year round. Fig.2. Andrey Abramov, head of the Utrish Marine Station of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev. — It so happened that when I arrived, we began organizing year-round maintenance of marine animals. It was necessary to constantly conduct research on the animals that we had already worked on the year before, to continue experiments, and not release them or hand them over to someone else. It was necessary to improve the methods. And for year-round maintenance, it is important that the personnel live here year-round. They need to eat, create living conditions. And then we decided: no families, unless the employee works in the conditions of the Utrish Marine Station for six months. After this period of work, the employee has the right to bring his wife and children here and somehow settle in. So we had a certain number of local employees whose children were taken to the Novorossiysk boarding school for a week by the biological station's cars, and on weekends the children were brought here, to their parents. That's how we started working. — Surely it was difficult in the everyday sense? — We didn’t pay much attention to everyday life back then. We were young, everyday life came second, and dolphins came first. This is a unique site for keeping animals, and two kilometers away there was the second territory of the biological station, Lake Solenoe. This is a sea lagoon, where semi-free keeping of animals in sea enclosures was supported. Unfortunately, in severe winters this water area of ​​3.5 hectares and 5 meters deep with sea water freezes, but cold-resistant species, for example, belugas, are kept there all year round. If in summer the water temperature can reach 28 degrees, and the belugas can withstand it, then in winter, when the water freezes, the belugas break the ice. — Why was this place chosen? — This site was not chosen by chance – minimal anthropogenic impact, clean sea water, no one interfered with the work. Yes, we had to transport food, fish for the animals, medicine, but this remoteness allowed us to exist well and peacefully. — What kind of scientific research has been conducted over the years? — Discoveries of global significance have been made here. First of all, these are works related to the sleep of marine animals, echolocation, and sensory systems. These are works that allow us to extend the life of marine animals in captivity. It is known that animals in such conditions live longer than in the wild. For some reason, many people think that dolphins in the sea are healthy, and when they get to the dolphinarium, they start to get sick. In fact, everything is exactly the opposite. — What diseases do they have in the wild? — Any. First of all, these are helminthic invasions, pneumonia, skin lesions. If an animal has veterinary and medical care, normal nutrition, high-quality water, and proper care, then why shouldn't they live? They don't have to travel kilometers to catch fish. All the fish they are fed is checked - there are no parasites, the expiration dates and quality are observed. These animals are tested regularly, once a month or a quarter. We conduct a full diagnostic of white and red blood, see how the animal feels, make adjustments to the diet, to the conditions of maintenance. - But all this had to be discovered! When we did not know all this, the life expectancy of dolphins in artificial conditions was very low. In the USSR, there were laws prohibiting at the legislative level feeding fish that went to the table of the country's residents to animals. We could not go and officially buy mullet or mackerel for dolphins. We fed horse mackerel or small fish of the third group - this is called a monoration. We did not know what vitamins to add and whether it was necessary to add them at all. We did not know how to defrost fish correctly. We made such mistakes that now give you goosebumps. Fig.3. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev - But we put all this in order. From a certain time, when the "iron curtain" fell and we had the opportunity to travel abroad, we gained access to scientific literature and research by our colleagues, and learned many interesting things. It turned out that in many ways we "reinvented the wheel" and followed a parallel course with our foreign colleagues. In some things they succeeded, and in others - we did. All this gave some impetus - both in the maintenance of animals, and in their training and preparation. Over all these years, scientists from all over the world have visited here - from Canada, the USA, Pakistan, South Africa, Israel, China. Who hasn't been here! - And why did they come here? - In some countries, work related to fundamental research on animals is prohibited. Previously, in the USA, in order to catch dolphins, it was necessary to obtain permission from Congress. For a while they gave them, then they stopped. And the Americans faced a problem. The activists thought that all dolphinariums would close, but they did not because the Americans learned to obtain offspring in artificial conditions, they became pioneers in this field. We also know how to do this now, but for now in a natural way. Our next step will be to obtain offspring using IVF. We are moving towards this. But this is a big and very serious job. — Where did you get dolphins before that? — Academician Vladimir Evgenievich Sokolov, the director of the Institute, set the task: to come up with our own institute method for catching dolphins in the Black Sea. Usually, they used the fishing method for this, which has been preserved since the times of dolphin fishing. Everyone knows that dolphin fishing existed until 1966, when the Black Sea countries, except Turkey, signed the Convention and stopped catching dolphins for industrial purposes. The Turks joined in the late 80s. And then the task was set - to learn how to catch Black Sea dolphins here. By that time, we understood what the problem was, how the animal is injured during catching, how quantity kills quality, how we lose control if we get a large number of animals and we cannot keep track of them all - why they get caught in the net, why they choke. We managed to find out how the Americans catch dolphins in Florida. We couldn’t go ourselves, but we got the information. It remains to find a place on the Black Sea coast of the USSR from Romania to Turkey, closely similar in conditions. This place should be frequently visited by dolphins, they should go there every day; it should have appropriate depths, and this place should be close to the Utrish marine station, so that from the place of capture it is not far to transport them to the place of keeping. — Where is this place? — We found one. It is the Taman Bay of the Black Sea, the entrance to the Kerch Strait. There are a lot of fish, a lot of dolphins. The only problem is that this bay can freeze in winter. From spring to late autumn, this water area is visited by dolphins and is unofficially a "dolphin maternity hospital" because it is shallow, the water is always warm, and there is minimal anthropogenic impact. We did not think then that the Crimean Bridge would be built there. From 1985 to 2005, in this area, with permission from government agencies of the USSR and the Russian Federation, we caught dolphins every year. I received an author's certificate, it is in the Institute. It is called "Method of catching small cetaceans with light sweeping nets." — And now you can't fish there because of the built Crimean Bridge? — They didn't go anywhere because their grandmothers and great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers lived there, it's in their genetic memory. There was noise during the construction of the bridge, fish avoided the area, dolphins too. Now everything has calmed down — there are plenty of dolphins. But in 2005, the capture was stopped. For some reason, the Ministry of Natural Resources stopped issuing permits. But by that time we had already established births in artificial conditions, and we don't need capture. — What is the life of the Utrish Marine Station like today? — It is different from what it was before. In the distant 80s, the director of the institute, academician Vladimir Evgenievich Sokolov, and his deputy Lev Mukharamovich Mukhametov came up with an interesting scheme - to use dolphins not only for study, but also for demonstration. At that time, the USSR had only one dolphinarium in Batumi, and there were no demonstration dolphinariums in the Russian Federation. And so they came up with the idea of ​​using the water area on Utrish, on Lake Solyonoe, to show dolphins for money to Soviet citizens. They charged 50 kopeikas for one viewing, and they finished when the ticket price was one ruble. They planned to use this money for the development of the biological station and scientific research. If you keep marine mammals, the costs are gigantic. And you couldn’t expect regular funding from the Academy of Sciences of the then USSR or from the Russian Academy. That’s how they developed, lived for the time being. Fig.4. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev - But now neither Sokolov, nor Mukhametov, nor the commercial structures that were affiliated with the institute are with us. The demonstration programs here have ended, we transferred some of the technologies to commercial structures, and people went there. I also worked there, and I still work there. But there is no commercial use of dolphins at the biostation now, there are no demonstration programs. Life is hard, but we live. We continue to work with dolphins and pinnipeds. — What is currently being done at the biostation in scientific terms? — The main areas have remained the same — this is the continuation of research into sensory systems — echolocation and vision, sleep research. Fundamental discoveries about dolphin sleep were made right here — now everyone knows about unihemispheric sleep, but back then it was a sensation. Discoveries have been made, but new details always appear, and there are a huge number of them. We are among the leaders in the world somnology of marine animals. Students of the Biological and Geographical Faculties of Moscow State University have been coming here for 25 years. Our doors are open to everyone. — And what do geographers do here? — It's a paradise for zoogeographers! By the sea there's only vegetation and animals, when you go up the mountain it's like the Alps, high-mountain zoning, the landscape changes. Jackals live by the sea, deer live on the mountain. Then came ichthyologists, geobotanists, invertebrate specialists, entomologists — whoever you can think of. Every year in May, up to 60 people from the biology department come, and in June they are replaced by up to 20 geographers. And so on — every year. — You have a laboratory where you study dolphin blood. Why? — We analyze it because deviations from the norm are possible, just like with people. It's important to make sure there's no disease that's easier to prevent than to treat. We take blood samples from them from time to time to see how they feel. There's a subjective assessment of the dolphin's condition — food, motor activity. And there's an objective assessment of the functional state of health. If we are engaged in dolphin reproduction, then we also look at the hormonal background of the mother and father, we know about the timing of ovulation, and by the level of progesterone we know that conception has occurred and the fetus has begun to develop. We monitor it, do an ultrasound. — How do you do it? — Yesterday at training you saw commands when the dolphin lay down at the edge and obeyed. In the same way, on command, he lies down at the edge of the pool: you move the transducer - and everything is visible on the screen. He has a well-developed behavior model, he lies obediently. If you need to do a more detailed study, then water is dumped from the pool, equipment is lowered there, and everything is done at the bottom so that the dolphin does not accidentally turn over anything. — How many years can a dolphin live in captivity, if everything is organized correctly? — When I first encountered dolphins kept in captivity, the values ​​of five to seven years were considered large, they were veterans. Now our animals live 29-33 years. — And in the wild? — In the wild, it is almost impossible to trace the moment of a dolphin calf’s birth and its death from natural causes. But there are indirect signs and new diagnostic methods that allow us to roughly calculate this. And it turns out that if everything is fine in the wild, then it is extremely rare for these animals to live to 35 years. I once worked in Maryland, Canada. Here I see a dolphin, the same bottlenose dolphin as ours, but an Atlantic one, caught near Florida. They look different. When I arrived, he had been in this dolphinarium for 40 years. Fidel Castro once donated a group of dolphins to the Canadian government, which included this male Nimo. I went there for several years, and Nimo lived to be 47 years old with me. This crosses out all our previous ideas that 22 years is already an elder. We now believe that 25-27 years is the prime of reproductive age. — Do they retain reproductive capabilities until the very end of their lives? — Females – practically yes. And males have everything in order with spermatogenesis. This is due to the conditions of captivity, where we can look at the spermogram, and how ovulation is going, and what the hormone level is. But we can’t do this out at sea. — What can you say about their mental abilities? How smart are they, really? — I am a graduate of the biology department of Moscow State University. You can’t say “smart” when talking about an animal. That’s how I was taught. Dolphins are highly organized animals. Sometimes you are surprised how quickly they learn, how they pass on skills: you teach one dolphin a certain behavior pattern, and other dolphins begin to repeat it. All that remains is to reinforce them and bring them under stimulus control – to perform these patterns not when the dolphin wants, but when you want. The transfer of information, the ability to teach each other – is from evolution, otherwise they would not survive in an alien environment, but it is amazing. — Should dolphins be punished for an incorrectly executed command? — Absolutely not! The wrong trainer thinks: I won’t give this one a fish, the first one will dive and explain to the second one what needs to be done. But the right thing to do is to teach this one, then that one, and remember that they may have different social statuses. Maybe, due to their position in the group, they should not stand next to each other. This should also be taken into account. But if you gave a command to a dolphin, and it did it, you should reward it. If it didn’t do it, repeat it; if it didn’t work, explain it, go back a step. Reward is reinforcement, and it doesn’t necessarily mean fish. For a dolphin, it can be a tactile sensation, swimming with another dolphin or a person. It can be access to the enclosure where the “girls,” the female dolphins, live. Fig.5. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev - The idea that they will work for fish when they are hungry is nonsense. If you don't feed a dolphin or underfeed it, it will suffer from thirst. It doesn't drink salt water. It gets fresh water from fish to maintain internal homeostasis. If you don't give it the required amount of fish, it will want to drink while in salt water. This is absolutely forbidden, it is a life-threatening condition. Therefore, there are rules written in the blood of dolphins and people who looked after them: a dolphin must eat a certain amount of fish from the animal's weight, no matter what it does or doesn't do. It uses energy - for breathing, for thermoregulation, for swimming. If you don't feed it, it starts eating itself. Internal catabolism works like this: if it breaks down one gram of fat, it gets four grams of water. - They say about dolphins that they save people drowning in the sea. Is that true? - No. They don't care about people. A dolphin uses echolocation to navigate in the sea. It does not need to swim up to you and look at you with a "dolphin's gaze". It receives all the information about who is in front of it from a certain distance: whether it is a relative or not, dangerous or not, edible or inedible. A person is of no interest to it in any way. Unless it is a dolphin that was released or escaped from a dolphinarium. When catching, when placing in artificial conditions, we break the dolphin's instinct to avoid a person. And a dolphin that has lived in captivity, one way or another understands that a person is not a threat to it, but rather positive emotions - fish, some tactile reinforcements. — If we release a dolphin from captivity into the wild, does it lose its fishing skills? — No, although all the eco-activists shout about it. They don’t need to be taught this again. 60 million years of evolution are in a dolphin’s head – it won’t forget how to catch fish! If it’s born in captivity, it doesn’t need to watch its mom and dad, grandparents hunt, it already knows. - The main reason why it’s dangerous to release animals from artificial conditions into the wild is that these animals are not afraid of people. And people are different. Dolphins start to approach people, they are not afraid of nets – they can get tangled. Once, an animal escaped from our dolphinarium. It had been wandering around the Black Sea for a year and a half, and then came to Turkey. The Turks saw that it was clearly not afraid of people, and was approaching people. They notified the Black Sea countries through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – where had it escaped from? Two weeks later, we caught the beluga whale and brought it here. She was not hurt. More precisely, she was almost hurt: the Turkish side showed us a video of a beluga whale standing with its mouth open, and a can of Coca-Cola, a loaf of bread was thrown into its mouth... — That’s horrible! — The human reaction is to feed. If she swallowed this can, in six months the can would have dissolved, injured her stomach - and goodbye. That is why it is dangerous to release them. We "broke" them, and it is very difficult to wean them off people. This is domestication. If you violate the most powerful instinct of fear of people, then these dolphins become uncontrollable in the sea. They can come up to you, let you pet them. But they do not save people. — What is this myth based on? — There is a pronounced instinct to preserve the species – if a dolphin is weakened, sick, injured, then the social group around it begins to support it. And people, seeing this from time immemorial, extrapolated this to humans – dolphins save each other, support each other on the surface of the water, which means they can also save people. To date, there is not a single recorded fact of saving a person. Fig.6. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev — And cases of attacks on humans, aggressive behavior? — As many as you like. Usually these are dolphins that have been in captivity. The dolphin is not afraid of humans, it approaches them. How do humans behave? For example, they can hit the eyes of the animal with their nails. So 10 people had a good swim with dolphins in a dolphinarium, 20. And 50 people? If it is not organized correctly, anything can happen. We have experienced these mistakes in our time. During a ride, someone hit their nails where they shouldn't have hit them. The dolphin turns around, pokes you with its snout, and your ribs break, you drown. This happens. Everything should be organized correctly. Animals should be trained. People who pay for this should be insured by the dolphinarium staff. Dolphins that are allowed to provide such a paid service must be absolutely healthy from brucellosis, leptospirosis, herpes, flu, erysipelas - these are all zoonotic diseases that are potentially dangerous to people. And the dolphin "carries" this on itself. And it can slip in the opposite direction - from a person to a dolphin. - Now there are a lot of dolphinariums. Is this good or bad? - I think it is bad, because it is impossible to organize correct conditions for keeping animals in each village that would comply with Russian and international rules. In the USSR, there were no standards for keeping marine mammals in captivity, in the Russian Federation they did not exist until 2019, and then the rule No. 1937 was adopted. As a result, dolphinariums began to change, and those who could not change, closed. And now they are being closed because they do not meet the standards. And this is right. — Why do we need dolphinariums at all? — Dolphinariums are needed so that the maximum number of people can see these unique animals. — But in India, for example, they are banned. — They hold some animals sacred. Everyone knows about cows. But few people know that they also revere dolphins. We don’t have such traditions. Or this question: why kill dolphins for meat? After the war, people here survived by eating dolphin meat. There was nothing else to eat. Thank God, food appeared, the trade was closed, and there is no need to eat dolphins anymore. But we eat cows or pigs, and we have no problems. But the Japanese traditionally eat dolphins and are not going to sign any conventions. I was in Japan, worked with them for many years, and the Japanese came here. They take exactly as much as they need. It is normal for them that canned dolphin meat is sold. Why deprive them of these traditions? There are a lot of dolphins there. Go to our livestock farm – there is blood flowing there too. You can “raise a wave” on this, promote yourself – but is it necessary? — Another myth about dolphins is that they heal. Sick children and adults should swim with them, and this will help them recover. Is this true? — It is a psycho-emotional impact, and nothing more. Someone needs to read an interesting book, and they will feel better. Someone needs to feed a squirrel from the palm of their hand, someone needs to give a carrot to a horse. And someone needs to swim with a dolphin. The psychotherapeutic effect is huge. There are a lot of works on this topic. Usually they refer to English literature: people who have had a heart attack lie down and do not get up, and the control group walks in the park and feeds horses carrots. The latter recover much faster. Fig.7. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev — Exactly. On the other hand, supposedly a dolphin affects a person with its echolocator or biofield, and the person is cured of all diseases. People who say such things, and even take money for it, should be put in prison. Apart from psycho-emotional influence, there is nothing. In the West, they once understood with what intensity and what waves a dolphin emits, they measured them. When you come to a physiotherapy room with a sore knee, they put an electrode on it, turn on one handle - this is the intensity of the current, and a timer - this is the duration of the effect. We will never teach a single dolphin in the world to come up and turn on its locator with a certain intensity and not turn it off for a certain amount of time, so that it emits a certain field with a certain intensity. This is nonsense. The device can do this. That is why physiotherapy heals, but a dolphin does not. It has nothing with which to do it. If we delve into the dolphin, its organs and systems, there is no structure that heals. There is nothing miraculous there. — Besides, if such “therapeutic” bathing is not organized correctly, it can be dangerous! — Of course. Just imagine: Moscow, a dolphinarium, everything is beautiful. A young man proposes to his girlfriend, buys her a certificate for swimming. The girl goes into the water, the dolphin takes her for a ride, everything is great. If the organization is incorrect, it happens that the dolphin “plays too much”. He likes it, and he does not let the person out of the water. The trainer, who should be insuring, went off to smoke. The girl swam enough, drank enough water, pulls herself up on the handrail to get out, and then the dolphin bites her leg. Not because he wanted a piece of meat - he wanted to hold her leg, not to let go. But from the side it looks like a bite. He has 44 teeth on the lower and upper jaws. The teeth are sharp, conical. She even jerked her leg. Naturally, a cloud of blood, the proposal was thwarted, a tragedy. — And there is also a certain number of women who like to give birth in water. Moreover, there is an extra-advanced category of women who believe that they will give birth not just in water, but in the presence of dolphins. — No way! — And whatever you say: let them into the territory of the biological station! One with a huge belly, the other two are also pregnant... We had some like that. Their instigator was put in jail, thank God, otherwise it was unbearable. We barely fought them off. But this is not only in Russia! We worked in a different direction in Israel. The 1990s. A colleague comes from the Red Sea, where there is also a dolphinarium, they collaborated on scientific issues with the University of Berlin: "Andrey, we have this story ... Pregnant tourists are coming, they want to give birth here. We do not let them in, but they try to "break" us, insisting that they will give birth in a floating plexiglass aquarium. The aquarium will float, the woman in labor will be inside, with a nurse. And around, behind the plexiglass, our dolphins will swim. What can you say?" — What can you even say to that! God forbid. But there are also statistics to the contrary. As a result, the Israeli Ministry of Health expelled them from the country at the state level, banned pregnant women from approaching the dolphinarium and giving birth in the water. That's how it happens. — Dolphins now live longer because they have learned how to keep them properly. But why such captivity, where you live for a long time, because you don't have the main thing - freedom. You can't swim kilometers in the open sea, dive to the depths you are used to... — It is a profound misconception that dolphins move little in the dolphinarium. This is absolutely wrong. In fact, they hung a "pedometer" on a dolphin in the dolphinarium in Tel Aviv. One wall there was glass. In the summer we demonstrated "red dolphins" from Russia there, and in the winter we did scientific research. We installed a camera and watched the dolphin through the glass for 24 hours. It turned out that inside a pool 25 meters long, 15 meters wide and 5.5 meters deep, he swims from 120 to 180 kilometers. — Is this normal for them, is it habitual? — Absolutely. The depth of Taman Bay is 2.5 meters – they give birth and swim, no problem! — And what about the fact that they are bored in the pool? They are used to constantly changing the environment, swimming long distances. — Why? They hunt. They follow the fish. You have to look at it differently. They swim not because they are interested – they are looking for fish. The word “interesting” cannot be used here at all. Fig.8. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev — And what word is appropriate? — Important, unimportant, motivated, unmotivated. We have tables hanging up – there are pelagic species of dolphins that live in the open sea, at great depths, they need space, swim-swim-swim for a long time. Again – why? They chase schools of the same sardines that go through the ocean, and they follow them. These dolphins do not live well near the shore. They have a very hard time with captivity. That is why we do not keep them. We have tried. People all over the world have tried. It turned out that the most promising species for keeping in captivity are those species that live near the shore, they do not need great depths. They do not dive one and a half kilometers for squid and know what shallow water is – when echolocation signals are reflected both from the bottom and from the surface. They know these obstacles. These dolphins tolerate cramped conditions better than pelagic species. And it turned out that bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus (as they are called all over the world) are the most promising for artificial maintenance. — What would you like to change at the biological station if such an opportunity presented itself? — I would probably think about the living conditions for the employees. Normal communication is needed, the Internet. Naturally, we need to improve the conditions for keeping animals, if we say that we need to keep dolphins all year round to carry out certain work. — For example, we started artificial insemination of dolphins. There was such an intention - to turn the Utrish marine station into a maternity hospital for dolphins. We did not only because it is expensive. You have dolphins, on whose maintenance a huge amount of money is spent, and they do not bring in income. Well, you wrote an article, well, your babies were born. If you haven't registered these babies with a government permit, haven't taken them away, haven't sold them to China or Germany, you haven't covered all your expenses. You need a water intake for the dolphins, a sewer system for people. You need a lot of things. — What feelings do you have for dolphins after 40 years of working with them? — The same as in the beginning. Reverence and care. They still appear in your dreams at night, you worry about them as if they were your own children. Everything is the same, if you think about something at night, you can’t fall asleep. It’s impossible to get used to it. If we lose them, it’s a tragedy. — Are they individuals for you? — From a professional point of view, it is believed that they should all be the same. But it doesn’t work out that way. They all have a distinct character – except for their appearance and habits. The longer you work with a particular dolphin, the more attached you become. — Do you have any favorites? — That shouldn’t be the case. I work with all of them, and the animals you see here, except for one small male born in captivity, were all caught by me in Taman. They have Taman roots. The trainers Anton and Kirill, the senior trainer Oleg and the veterinarian Olga are working with them now. I don't have direct contact with them, although I love them. But I don't want to single out any of them. — Another unprofessional question: do they hold a grudge against you for catching them? — Resentment, holding a grudge are anthropomorphisms. They don’t know that they were caught. They experience the deepest stress of captivity due to a powerful release of cortisol, the main stress hormone. Some may even die because of this. Some endure. For some, we stop this condition using a special attitude and certain chemistry. That’s all. We bring them in – and quickly start “blowing the dust off them”. Don’t say, “You destroyed families, half of them stayed in Taman! They’re crying!” I caught and will continue to catch, God willing, because we do it right. Gently. How to choose a group, how to approach the sea, how to look – are there pregnant females, are there any babies from last year, do you need such animals… And only then do you make a decision. But, as a rule, you turn around and leave. The next dolphins come – you look again. Deciding on your own is a huge responsibility. — Why is it important to study dolphins from a scientific point of view? What is the gain? — A person is a person because he wants to know everything. This is fundamental knowledge. And from a practical point of view, for example, studying the mechanisms of sleep gives us an important way to treat its disorders. There are many sleep disorders. And dolphins do not have a "sleep-wakefulness" cycle, like us. People have huge problems with insomnia, from lack of sleep, mental disorders are associated with this. But a dolphin can sleep for two seconds with one hemisphere of the brain, and a few hours later sleep for three seconds with the other - and that's it. It does not have a "night-day" cycle, it does not need it at all. — Perhaps we will learn to use this somehow. At the moment, it is good that we have studied how they sleep. Maybe someday this will give us a breakthrough. And I am sure there are a whole sea of ​​such opportunities. Fig.9. Photo by Andrey Afanasyev

Fig.1. Woodlice Porcellio bollivari. In natural conditions it lives in the mountainous regions of Spain. Photo: Fyodor Demin What could be interesting about woodlice? They are commonly disliked, and their appearance in the house can hardly please anyone. But someone devotes years to studying these creatures. Why they are interesting for scientists and how to join the club of woodlice fans was described by Fyodor Demin, a student of the biology department of Moscow State University. The conversation took place at the Utrish Marine Station of the IEE RAS. - Fyodor, tell us what led you to study woodlice? - Now I study woodlice at the Aleksei Nikolaevich Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, but in general the area of ​​my interests is wider - these are many other invertebrates, primarily insects. I completed my bachelor's degree at the Timiryazev Academy, choosing woodlice as my area of ​​interest, and entered the master's program of the biology department of Moscow State University to continue studying this area. However, I did not come to this choice right away. The first time I had to face a crossroads was right before entering a university: music or biology? At first I thought about entering the conservatory. But biology won out. I decided that music would be my hobby. The second "crossroads" arose about two years ago - praying mantises or woodlice? Woodlice won. - Why? - Most likely, due to their greater morphological diversity compared to praying mantises and their lesser study in our country. Both in the USSR and now in Russia, the number of scientists who study them at a high level can be counted on your fingers. Fig.2. Fyodor Demin. Photo by Natalia Leskova. — Are woodlice insects? — They are not insects, as many people think, but small crustaceans that can live on land and do not need a lot of water. The general order of isopod crustaceans includes not only terrestrial, but also aquatic and parasitic species. Fig.3. Woodlouse Porcellio haasi. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — Why does their name in Russian refer to the word “wet” if they don't really need water? — They need water in any case, like any living organism. In the process of evolution, representatives of the Isopoda order, also known as isopods, initially lived in water, and only then gradually came to land. Their name is due to the fact that woodlice prefer damp places. Probably, most often people found synanthropic species (that live in human dwellings) in damp rooms, which is why we have this name for them. — How ancient are these creatures? — The earliest finds of woodlice were attributed to the Cretaceous period, which is about 100 million years ago. — What interesting things have you managed to learn about woodlice? — I mainly study their nutrition, this issue was devoted to my diploma work, which I did partly in the entomology department of the Moscow Zoo, and partly in the IEE RAS under the supervision of the head of the laboratory for the study of ecological functions of soils Konstantin Gongalsky. I studied the food preferences of three species of woodlice – Porcellio laevis, Porcellio scaber and Porcellionides pruinosus. I also studied their ability to decompose the leaves of agricultural cereal plants. During the work it turned out that woodlice actively eat corn leaves, but are indifferent to rice and wheat. Perhaps this is due to the low silicon content in corn leaves. Fig. 3. Group of woodlice Porcellio scaber. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — They’re averse to silicon? — In general, if you look at different soil saprophages — animals that process dead organic matter — most of them have similar nutritional and other ecological features. High silicon content in plants makes it difficult for microorganisms to decompose leaves and straw, and it is more difficult for woodlice to feed on them, since the leaves remain hard. This is my hypothesis. Chemical analysis of corn leaves showed that corn had the lowest concentration of silicon. — Does this mean that silicon is not a substance that woodlice vitally need? — Certainly not the case with other substances (for example, nitrogen, carbon, copper and calcium, which are among the most important substances). And a separate experiment should be conducted on the effect of silicon on their survival. I offered woodlice eight types of plants to study their food preferences. This type of experiment is called a "cafeteria". — What is the purpose of your current expedition to the Utrish biological station? — My goal is to collect samples of woodlice of three ecological groups: coastal species, near-water woodlice that live along freshwater streams, and land woodlice that do not require any water body nearby. In the future, the samples will be sent to Krasnoyarsk, to the Institute of Biophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to colleagues who study the transfer of fatty acids in food chains, for analysis of fatty acids and carbon with nitrogen in the body of woodlice. In addition, I found several species in the reserve that can probably be called rare - these are Buddelundiella cataractae, Caucasocyphoniscus taitii, Trachelipus utrishensis, Tylos europaeus and Halophiloscia couchii. Fig.4. Woodlouse Halophiloscia couchii in a drop of water. Photo by Fyodor Demin. To find the species of interest, you have to cover quite large distances. For example, small woodlice live on the Pearl Waterfall, hiding in cracks. And near the streams that go into the very depths of the reserve, you can find many species that live in the soil or near the water. It is quite dry on Utrish, which is quite atypical for the habitation of most woodlice, since they prefer more humid places. And therefore due to the dry climate they have to look for bodies of water where it is cool and humid. — What interested you most in woodlice? — The diversity of life and morphological forms, behavioral features. Every year, more and more new species are described, and this suggests that their approximate number is not yet fully known. It is impossible to say exactly how many species there may be based on woodlice. And old species are regrouped through genetic analysis, which sometimes shows surprising results. Fig.6. Woodlouse Trachelipus caucasius. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — For example? — For example, some species of woodlice found in the same place and morphologically similar, using genetic analysis can turn out to be two different species. However, there are cases when, it would seem, two different species of woodlice by morphology turn out to be the same species by genetic analysis, although their external differences were initially very significant and they were described as two different species. — How do they interact with each other? — The behavior of woodlice is quite interesting. As a rule, they prefer to exist in groups. If you find one woodlice, there will be others nearby, they do not live alone. There are woodlice that are noted for sociality. These are, for example, woodlice of the genus Hemilepistus. Some woodlice are capable of migrating, like one of the Crimean species of the genus Cylisticus - they often have seasonal migrations, when a huge group of woodlice moves from one area to another. The coastal species Tylos granulatus grows up to five centimeters, lives near the sea and is capable of digging holes. Behavior features are quite diverse depending on the ecological group. Woodlice of the Armadillo officinalis species are capable of "squeaking" as a defense and curling up into a ball (this ability is called conglobation), some species are myrmecophiles and live in anthills. In general, this is a huge, amazing world. Fig.7. Woodlice Armadillidium granulatus. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — You said that some species are social, but can woodlice be aggressive towards each other? — I have never noticed one woodlice attacking another. But woodlice can fight for food. I used to keep a lot of woodlice at home, over 50 species, and I observed this behavior. When I threw them some kind of protein feed, for example, in the form of a piece of dry cat food or a dead cockroach, they would start fighting for it and try to drag it to their side. — Where did you keep them? — I had two shelves with dozens of plastic containers and mesh cages at home. — How did your family feel about this? — They gradually got used to it. At first, my parents said that there should be no creepy-crawlies at home, but now a tarantula is commonplace. In addition to woodlice, I had stick insects, grasshoppers, praying mantises, centipedes, scorpions, crabs, predatory planarians and other invertebrates. — How do woodlice reproduce? — It is enough for them to mate once, and after that the females can produce offspring many times. The male's seminal products are enough for them for the rest of their lives, for all further reproduction. If a woodlice grows to a maximum of two centimeters, then it can become capable of reproduction when it grows to one centimeter in length. At the same time, the number of mancae (mancae are newborn woodlice) can also vary depending on the species. Fig.8. Woodlice Porcellio expansus. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — Are they gonochorous? — Most woodlice are gonochorous animals, but there are parthenogenetics (females that reproduce without the participation of males). One of these species is Trichorhina tomentosa. They are parthenogenetic, very small - a few millimeters in length. They eat rotten organic matter very well, they are often placed in containers with arachnids and reptiles so that the woodlice eat up the remains of food. As for their reproduction, they increase their numbers very quickly. If even one woodlice accidentally gets into a container with another, gonochorous species of woodlice, then gradually the parthenogenetic species can displace the "competitors". Since there will soon be a lot of them, they will begin to eat woodlice of another species, for example, during molting. On the one hand, this is a cleaning species, and this is good for it, but when kept next to other species of woodlice, it is terrible. — How long do woodlice live? Are there any long-livers among them? — This issue has not been studied for many species. It is quite difficult to observe this, because woodlice are kept in large numbers, and they are not particularly easy to mark – it is not clear where the old ones are and where the young ones are. Articles written about some species say that their average lifespan is from one to two years. But it seems to me that some types of woodlice can probably live longer. — And yet – why did you choose woodlice, what attracted you to them? Most people treat them with hostility. — As a rule, people treat them with hostility, since woodlice appear in their houses, usually in villages, where the floor rots or water leaks. Woodlice themselves simply process organic matter, feed on leaves on the street – essentially like earthworms, and are not dangerous in any way. In my scientific interest, a large role was played by the Invertebrates&Others page in the VKontakte group, which was created by guys from Moscow State University: Philipp Byzov, Dania Polyakov and Gleb Grachev. So something like a "Woodlouse Lovers Club" appeared. - And what do the members of the "woodlouse club" do? - About five years ago they began to actively promote the "woodlouse" theme, and now the community has grown quite a lot. They also began to actively breed woodlouse, which was previously not popular in our country, unlike, for example, in Europe. Fig.9. Woodlice Armadillidium klugii. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — Why breed them? — Woodlice are a diverse group in color which does not attract people in their usual form when we see them in our garden - black, brown. And if we take some tropical or troglobiontic (cave-dwelling) species, which are not often found here - these are quite unusual, beautiful and bright woodlice. They are kept at home in containers or terrariums for beauty, for observation. — Are they edible? How valuable are they in terms of protein? — It is known that grasshoppers, cockroaches, and crustaceans are now actively eaten. As for woodlice, it seems to me that no one has really studied this yet, but in theory such an idea may be quite promising. I know of only one article on the possibility of using woodlice as food. It was published in 2023 in the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed. Fig.10. Woodlouse Caucasocyphoniscus taitii. Photo by Fyodor Demin. — Why is it important to study woodlice from a scientific point of view? — This is a large group of soil reducers that process organic matter. Woodlice actively participate in the cycle of substances such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. In some ecosystems, woodlice involve up to 1.5% of these elements in the general cycle of substances, which is quite a lot. Only representatives of annelids participate in the cycle more. But other groups, for example, collembolans (springtails), some species of insects that live in the soil litter, play a slightly smaller role as decomposers. After earthworms, woodlice are in second place. You can also study many other aspects - their diversity, evolution, interaction with other organisms. — Tell me honestly: would you like to study woodlice your whole life? — Definitely yes, but my plans include expanding my horizons by studying, in addition to woodlice, other representatives of invertebrates, including soil fauna. I would especially like to study the unique fauna of woodlice living somewhere in the tropics. I hope I have a lot more ahead of me.

Fig.1. Ushkany Islands From August 16 to 26, 2024, an expedition to Lake Baikal took place as part of the Baikal-Evolution-2024 school for young scientists, organized by the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Three employees of the Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions took part in it: Doctor of Biological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Alekseevich Kotov, postgraduate student Dmitry Dmitrievich Pereboev and student Elizaveta Dmitrievna Varakina. The research vessel Akademik Koptyug with scientists on board set out from the village of Listvyanka on the evening of August 16 and headed for Olkhon Island and the Maloe sea. The expedition stopped in the area of ​​Cape Muzhinay, then in the port of Severobaikalsk. After that, the ship went to the Ushkany Islands, making stops in the villages of Davsha and in Zmeevaya Bay. Then it went south through the village of Maksimikha, Cape Posolsky and Cape Tolsty. In the evening of August 25, the ship arrived in the village of Bol'shiye Koty, and in the morning of the 26th, it went to the village of Listvyanka. Fig.2. Features of landing on the shore of Lake Baikal. On the sign: “Beware of bears”. The School of Young Scientists brought together students, postgraduates and scientists from Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and St. Petersburg. Lectures from biologists became a significant part of each day on the ship. Aleksey Alekseevich Kotov presented three lectures on various topics to the participants, from the biogeography of continental water bodies to approaches to writing grant applications. Fig.3. Student E. Varakina collects samples of coastal zooplankton in Lake Baikal. In addition to the invited lecturers, the school participants also prepared reports on their work. Postgraduate student Dmitry Dmitrievich Pereboev presented some of the results of the laboratory's work in the report "Molecular phylogenetics of cladocerans in light of whole-genome sequencing", in which he paid special attention to modern methods of processing the obtained molecular genetic data. Elizaveta Dmitrievna Varakina in her report "Using cladocerans (Crustacea: Cladocera) as a model object for paleoecological reconstructions: methodological problems and possible solutions" drew the participants' attention to a number of difficulties that the laboratory staff encountered while conducting research under the RSF project No. 22-14-00258. Fig.4. Report in the wardroom on the results of her diploma work by E. Varakina. An important part of the expedition was sampling of aquatic organisms. The participants focused on studying the fauna of Baikal amphipods, but another group of crustaceans, cladocerans, was not left without attention. The staff collected samples from a number of unique and hard-to-reach places on Baikal. All the material was delivered to the laboratory and is in the initial stage of processing. Fig.5. Postgraduate student D. Pereboyev and his catch - a large amphipod from a trawl. The expedition would not have been possible without D.Sc. (Biology) Dmitry Yuryevich Shcherbakov, the organizer of the school of young scientists "Baikal-Evolution-2024". The Laboratory of Ecology of Aquatic Communities and Invasions expresses its gratitude to the staff of the SB RAS for the opportunity to take part in the expedition! Fig.6. Participants of the school of young scientists "Baikal-Evolution-2024"