Fig.1: Male chaffinch In addition to humans, vocal learning has been found in cetaceans, pinnipeds, bats, elephants, songbirds, hummingbirds, and parrots. It has been studied in most detail in songbirds. We examined whether culturally transmitted behavioral traits, such as bird song types, are stable in natural environments. In migratory populations of finches, there are about twenty stereotypical song types per population, with one to seven song types per male. The sets of song types differ between different populations, even those as geographically close as different parts of the Moscow region. The article describes the results of comparing sets of song types recorded with an interval of forty years on the same territory, at the Zvenigorod biological station in the Moscow region, with a set of song types in the living population of finches in Moscow parks. It was found that at the Zvenigorod biological station, 11 types of songs remained virtually unchanged from 1978 to 2020, retaining a full set of phrases and elements. The four other song types differed by only one phrase. At the same time, the songs of males recorded in Moscow in 2019 differed significantly more from the songs of Zvenigorod finches in 2020. This is the first time such a long-term study of the cultural inheritance of song in a migratory species of songbirds has been carried out. Fig.2: Types of songs of male chaffinches recorded in Zvenigorod in 1978/1982 and 2020. The same song types are marked with the same letters. The horizontal axis is time in seconds, the vertical axis is frequency in kHz. The results of the study were published in the journal Behavioral Processes: Ivanitskii V.V., Marova I.M., Samsonova I.P., Volodin I.A., Volodina E.V., 2023. Four decades later: the highly conserved repertoire of song types in chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs). Behavioural Processes, v. 205, 104821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104821

Free-living cheetahs in Kenya (photo by E.V. Chelysheva). Until now, all research into cheetah sounds has been done in captivity, in zoos and nurseries. In enclosures, animals see each other, and they do not need to use long-distance sound signals for communication. Therefore, in captivity, cheetahs use such sounds mainly to communicate with staff, demanding food or being allowed out for a walk. Thus, the function of these sounds and the information encoded in them remained unknown until cheetah calls were recorded in their natural environment, in Kenya. Our study showed that the long-distance sounds of cheetahs are as high-frequency as in captivity, and fully justify the term chirps, used in the literature for this type of call. In the wild, cheetahs use chirps to communicate with each other: calls between male coalitions, between potential sexual partners, and between mother and cubs. The chirps of adult male cheetahs are longer and lower in fundamental frequency than those of adult females. Discriminant analysis of acoustic parameters showed that the chirps of adult cheetahs also contain information about features that allow individuals to be distinguished by their calls. However, analysis of repeated recordings made a year or two later indicates that the signs of individuality in calls are unstable and cannot be used for long-term identification by calls. Thus, cheetahs probably have to constantly update their knowledge of changes in the voice of conspecifics during regular meetings with them in order to reliably distinguish individuals that are out of sight by sounds . Fig.1. Spectrogram illustrating individual and sex differences in long-distance high-frequency chirps of adult cheetahs older than 4 years. Above: Chirps from five males, two calls per individual. Below: chirps from five females, two calls per individual. An audio file of these chirps is available in the Supporting Information for this article. The study results were published in the journal Ethology: Chelysheva E.V., Klenova A.V., Volodin I.A., Volodina E.V., 2023. Advertising sex and individual identity by long-distance chirps in wild-living mature cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus). Ethology, v. 129. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13366 Related materials: Project for the study of Cheetahs "MARA-MERU" Nauka.rf: "Russian scientists were the first in the world to study the chirping of cheetahs inthe wild" Russian Academy of Sciences: "Long-distance roll calls of cheetahs contain individualinformation about the animals" Forpost Sevastopol: “Russian scientists were the first in the world to study the “chirping” ofcheetahs in the wild” Ferra.ru: “Russian scientists are the first in the world to study the “chirping” of cheetahs inthe wild” Zen: “Russian scientists are the first in the world to study the “chirping” of cheetahs in thewild”

Chief Researcher of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Alexey Alekseevich Kotov took part in the “Floating University”. Vesti Irkutsk prepared a report on the expedition. The ship's crew is preparing the dredge. With its help, the ship will take samples from the bottom of Lake Baikal while it is moving. This is the "Floating University". On board are scientists, students, and university teachers. The dredge returns with the spoils. Inside are stones, algae and, of course, the inhabitants of Lake Baikal themselves. A scientific laboratory is unfolding right on deck. Biologist Anastasia Poroshina examines amphipods through a microscope. “There are a lot of such crustaceans on Baikal. About 180 species. This is actually one of the representatives,” says Anastasia Poroshina, junior researcher at the Limnological Institute of the SB RAS. Participants of the “floating university” also catch crustaceans with a net. They are very widespread. Amphipods are not endemic here, although Baikal is only a few meters away. But for research, says Moscow State University student Ivan Dadykin, they will be useful. “These are freshwater crustaceans. They are very small. They feed on all kinds of algae. They are so funny,” says Moscow State University student Ivan Dadykin. But one of the most advanced ways to get crustaceans from the bottom of Baikal is an underwater robot. In this expedition it managed to reach even 100 meters. The robot has a camera, so the ship can clearly see what is happening at depth. Here are Baikal sponges and algae. The robot's claws scoop up bottom sand and algae - those that interest scientists may end up there. The algae of this overgrown tree trunk is full of inhabitants? The robot’s manipulator sends it back up with the spoils. "Floating University" is a nationwide project. Similar ones ply along the Black Sea, Baltic, and Pacific Oceans. On Baikal it has been organized by the Limnological Institute for many years. This time there is only one shift. 20 participants from Irkutsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok. About half of them are teachers. They select the students. There are always many people who want to participate in the Floating University project. After all, Baikal is a unique object. And this is an opportunity not only to see it, but also to study it together with experienced researchers. Tatyana Maryanovskaya from Novosibirsk is on Lake Baikal for the first time. She is in her second year of master's degree. Not a biologist, she deals with mathematical modeling, that is, she processes and analyzes the data that scientists receive on such expeditions. “I’m studying bioinformatics. There we have a junction of sciences - biology, mathematics, some chemistry, programming. And mathematicians and biologists now collaborate very closely. And biology is nothing without mathematics,” says Novosibirsk State University student Tatyana Maryanovskaya. Such joint work of experts from different fields is very important in research, confirms one of the country’s leading hydrobiologists, Alexey Kotov. He works in Moscow, at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, but also contributes to the study of Lake Baikal. “Such projects lead to cooperation between various institutes, scientists, including young ones, with each other. For example, I cooperate with the Limnological Institute. This happened before this project, of course. But this is extremely important,” says Chief Researcher at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (Moscow) Alexey Kotov. Lectures on evolution, Baikal microorganisms, genetics. Students also undergo theory at the floating university. But still, as scientists say, what comes first is practice, the opportunity to get in touch with real field research. Moreover, when such a unique object to study is Baikal. This will help, they hope, to awaken young professionals' interest in science. “They get acquainted with the issues that are best solved here or better solved using our knowledge. This gives us hope that we will attract capable young specialists. A rare breed,” says the head of the laboratory of hydrology and geophysics of the Limnological Institute SB RAS Dmitry Shcherbakov. Video report at the link.

Fig.1.: A - Saddle oyster Placuna ephippium in the field.B - Saddle oyster Placuna ephippium in the laboratory after being cleared of debris.C - Male (bottom) and female (top) symbiotic shrimp Chernocaris placunae In marine ecosystems, many smaller invertebrates adopt a symbiotic lifestyle to avoid predation. Improving this strategy, many symbiotic species moved to living inside the body of their host, and also became monogrammed in order to more efficiently use this resource (= space inside the host). At the same time, social monogamy is preferable in species that live in relatively small and morphologically simple hosts. Currently, in the context of global climate change and coastal ecosystems in the rapidly developing countries of Southeast Asia, many marine communities are undergoing significant changes. Do they affect the social behavior of marine species? An international team of scientists from the USA (Clemson University, South Carolina) and Russia (IEE RAS) tested this hypothesis on the symbiotic shrimp Chernocaris placunae, which lives in the mantle cavity of the saddle oyster Placuna ephippium, widespread in the Indo-Western Pacific Ocean. The work was carried out in 2003-2004 in two locations with different environmental conditions in Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam, and published in the leading international journal Symbiosis. According to the data obtained, the shrimp C. placunae live in the mantle cavity of their hosts in the form of heterosexual pairs more often than would be expected by pure chance. On Tre Island, there was a strong correlation between host and shrimp body size in both males and females, and shrimp mating was dependent on their body size; Moreover, the length of the shrimp carapace was positively correlated between males and females forming social pairs. Overall, these data suggest that C. placunae shrimp are socially and sexually monogamous on Tre (Che) Island. In turn, on Hon Mun island there was no correlation between the body size of the host and symbiotic shrimp, and mating of shrimp was not dependent on their body size, suggesting that C. placunae is socially, but not necessarily sexually, monogamous (and probably promiscuous), as this second section of the study has shown. Body size and host abundance were lower on Tre Island compared to Hon Mun Island, further suggesting that “refuge trait” (= host) drives, at least to some extent, the observed differences in the mating system of C. placunae shrimp. When trying to identify the cause of this phenomenon, the researchers came to this conclusion. From the point of view of the general environmental situation in Nha Trang Bay, Tre Island is a highly polluted area, since there is a large city nearby and the removal of fresh water from a large river, while Hon Mun Island is located at a considerable distance from these polluting factors and is located in a more seaward part of the bay . A comparison of these factors suggests that pollution may affect the mating system of the species studied in this work. Are similar changes occurring in the mating patterns of other marine organisms due to modern changes in the marine environment? This is a highly relevant topic that deserves further attention. Answering these questions requires manipulative ecological laboratory and perhaps natural experiments aimed at understanding how shifts in community components caused by global change and anthropogenic impacts influence and alter the social behavior of marine organisms.

Fig.1: distribution map and phylogenetic relationships of the invasive species studied in the work Amphipod crustaceans are one of the most diverse groups of Ponto-Caspian taxa, including over 96 known endemic species, of which 82 belong to the large, apparently monophyletic clade Pontogammaridae. These animals display astonishing diversity in terms of morphology and ecology, very similar to the diversity of amphipods from the famous Lake Baikal. Many of these amphipods are known invasive species that are spreading rapidly throughout Europe and beyond. However, the taxonomy for many ecosystem-important species remains unclear. Using an integrative approach, an international team of scientists, which included specialists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, studied the taxonomy of the invasive amphipod Trichogammarus trichiatus, which has recently become widespread in the inland waters of Europe. The article was published in the international Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Q1 WOS). The study clarified the taxonomic status of species of the genus Trichogammarus and revealed that the widespread invader Spirogammarus major (formerly known as Chaetogammarus tenellus major) has been misidentified as Chaetogammarus/Echinogammarus trichiatus in European inland waters for more than half a century. Chaetogammarus trichiatus was originally described by Russian scientist Martynov in 1932 from the northeastern coast of the Black Sea. A similar taxon, Chaetogammarus tenellus major, was described by the Romanian scientist Caraushu from the western Black Sea in 1943, which was later included in the synonymy of C. trichiatus. In doing so, Chaetogammarus trichiatus was moved between Chaetogammarus and the Atlanto-Mediterranean Echinogammarus, currently classified in the genus Trichogammarus. The obtained molecular genetic data (six DNA markers), as well as studies of the morphology of the studied species using light and scanning electron microscopy, showed that T. trichiatus and C. tenellus major are completely different species. Moreover, the first is endemic to the Caucasus, while the second is distributed along the western coast of the Black Sea and has invaded Europe. The latter species was also transferred to the new genus Spirogammarus. Multilocus molecular phylogeny has also shown that the genus Chaetogammarus is polyphyletic, meaning that it must be divided into additional genera. The authors also propose using a similar approach to assessing other ecologically significant invasive species. The present study highlights the importance of integrating multilocus DNA sequences, morphometry, and biogeography to elucidate the status of taxonomically complex groups such as gammarid amphipods. Related materials: Wild South: "Integrative taxonomy has clarified the confusing taxonomy and distribution ofthe Ponto-Caspian invasive species Trichogammarus trichiatus"

Fig.1. Festival guests viewing fossil specimens of branchial crustaceans and ostracods On September 2, 2023, a Science Festival was held in the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. From the IEE RAS, A.N. Neretina took part in the festival with a master class “In the shadow of dinosaurs and mammoths: a master class on working with microscopic fossils.” At the master class, the main results obtained by the team of the RSF project 22-14-00258 in 2023 were presented in popular science form. Skeletons of dinosaurs and mammoths rightfully belong to the most popular exhibits in museum collections. They cause delight and admiration not only among children, but also among adults. A huge amount of scientific, popular science and even fantasy literature is dedicated to them, the kings of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. We know a lot about their appearance and habits. Even the very fact of the mass extinction of dinosaurs and mammoths is well known not only to scientists, but also to the general public. However, how much do we know about the mechanisms of extinction of large animals that inhabited terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the past? And did similar processes occur in communities of microscopic organisms that are much less known, but no less important for the functioning of the biosphere? Anna Neretina's master class was devoted to microscopic invertebrates - cladocerans, ostracods, conchostracans and some other groups of crustaceans, which, despite their good representation in the fossil record, have long remained an undervalued source of information about ancient aquatic ecosystems. At the master class, she talked about the methods that scientists use to collect the remains of microscopic invertebrates and their study, and also presented in a simple and fascinating form original data on the composition and structure of crustacean communities that inhabited the aquatic ecosystems of our planet in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. She also explained the reasons for the transformation of these communities. Fig.2.Festival guests watching the review material Over 8 hours, about 12 thousand people took part in the master class - children, their parents and teachers from general and specialized schools. Guests and organizers of the festival highly appreciated the quality of the material presented. We hope that the master class will contribute to the involvement of gifted children in research activities!

© Photo: Margarita Romanova A team of scientists is currently conducting large-scale environmental monitoring on Lake Baikal. Employees of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS and other researchers are participating in the expedition organized by the En+ energy holding. They are studying the state of the lake in the area of the villages of Bolshoye Goloustnoye, Listvyanka, Gremyachinsk, Tankhoy, Babushkin, Maksimikha, near Olkhon Island and the Selenga delta. Scientists prioritize measuring the amount of microplastics in water The expedition In 2017 recorded that there are from 19 to 75 thousand microplastic particles per square kilometer of Baikal. This is a high degree of contamination, since the average value in areas of this area is 42 thousand fragments. Microplastics travel through the food chain from the inhabitants of Baikal waters to larger creatures, including humans. – The content of plastic in Baikal waters is already comparable to the content in other lakes on our planet: European, Lake Geneva, and the American Great Lakes. There, “plastic” civilization has been developing quite actively for a long time, from the very beginning of the use of polymers, but here pollution began relatively recently, but its speed is so high that the concentrations are already comparable, says Mikhail Kolobov, senior researcher at the Department of General Ecology and Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. Fig.1. The expedition started in early July and will last until mid-September. © Photo: Margarita Romanova The problem of the high content of microplastics attracted the attention of large companies in the region - so in 2022 in the Irkutsk region, the Baikal Without Plastic Association whose members advocate reducing the use of such products, began its work. This year, the association, with the support of En+, recovered more than two tons of abandoned fishing nets from the bottom of the lake. Another important mission of the expedition is to check water quality. Recently, employees of the Limnological Institute of the SB RAS reported shocking research results: in popular tourist places on Lake Baikal the content of E. coli and enterococci was many times higher. This is a result of the lack of an effective sewage treatment system and uncontrolled runoff from agricultural land. Now scientists from Moscow have to take groundwater samples. Fig.2. Some water samples are analyzed on site, while others are taken for chemical analysis to Moscow. © Photo: Margarita Romanova The expedition includes geneticists, they study Baikal gammarus - these are endemic crustaceans that serve as a food base for other inhabitants of the lake. Their numbers have greatly decreased in recent years. This is especially noticeable in the delta of the Selenga River. To find the cause, scientists used special bacteria that react to toxicants. The results suggested that Gammarus dies due to the toxic effects of DNA-tropic substances, which it accumulates in its tissues during its life. On Lake Baikal, the population of another endemic – the Baikal sponge – is declining. Due to the high concentration of nutrients in coastal waters, the immune system of sponges collapses, bacteria begin to develop on them, and over time, endemic species die. Fig.3. The main goal of the expedition is to measure and assess microplastic pollution in Lake Baikal. © Photo: Margarita Romanova Baikal sponges are one of the main filters of the lake. One sponge cleanses a bucket of water per day. Scientists and representatives of En+ are confident that a set of environmental measures is necessary to solve the accumulated problems. In particular, reducing the use of plastic, building treatment facilities, and a waste disposal system. The full results of this year's expedition will be known after its completion and analysis of the data obtained. “Since 2019, we have been supporting a scientific environmental monitoring expedition; it covers the coastal zone of the lake and is carried out annually. The results of scientists' research are discussed on discussion platforms and submitted to authorities for making management decisions. Research allows us to assess the current situation, environmental risks and the causes of their occurrence. This is a lot of work that is necessary for the sustainable development of the Baikal natural territory,” emphasized Alexander Pervushin, chief specialist in analytics and management systems of the Directorate for Sustainable Development of En+.

Experts from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the support of the World Around You Foundation Siberian Wellness, went on an expedition to Shelikhov Bay in the northern Sea of Okhotsk to discover whether bowhead whales could be found there. According to eyewitness accounts and literary sources, it is known that cases of encounters with whales in this area have been recorded. The main goal of the expedition was to update and verify this data. Experts have been studying the Sea of Okhotsk population of bowhead whales for more than 20 years. Previously, the main work was carried out off the coast in the Shantarsky region, where whales come in the summer. Where they spend the rest of the year is still unclear. Finding new whale sites in the Sea of Okhotsk is an important step in studying the rare mammal and developing a strategy for its protection. They managed to find such a place - experts found about 13 whales in Shelikhov Bay. As part of the expedition, a research team of six people spent 25 days at sea. During this time, 253 hours of observations were carried out, which is almost 10.5 days in totality. They also covered 4,345 kilometers on a yacht and another more than 330 kilometers on a motor boat. Researchers were able to take genetic samples from two whales that will help clarify their sex and identify the individual. Five animals were examined in sufficient detail: they were identified by visual characteristics and entered into the database, which already contains more than 250 individuals. Now specialists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences will have to find out whether the animals encountered in Shelikhov Bay are related to the summer Shantar herd - this will allow us to learn more about how the Sea of Okhotsk whales move through the sea. Saker falcons need enhanced protection. Over the past 20 years, the number of these birds in Russia has decreased by half, and Altai Saker Falcons have practically disappeared from nature. The main reasons are poaching and trapping for the needs of falconry enthusiasts in Arab countries and the danger of unprotected power lines. The Sea of Okhotsk population of bowhead whales has been under the care of the World Around You Foundation Siberian Wellness since 2022. By the end of the 19th century, their numbers were greatly reduced as a result of fishing; today there are only 300–400 individuals. And even now, when whales are not threatened by fishing, they face other threats and are vulnerable to them.

Fig. 1. Boundary of the experimental area during root pruning in the Kivach Nature Reserve. No fruiting of macromycetes was observed inside the sites (in the photo to the right of the steel plate). Researchers from IEE RAS, Zuev A.G. and Doctor of Biological Sciences Corresponding member Tiunov A.V., together with colleagues from the Moscow Pedagogical State University and the Forest Institute of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, studied the significance of the flow of matter and energy entering soil food webs through the mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi in coniferous forests for soil springtails. A four-year field experiment was conducted in 70-year-old and 180-year-old pine forests on the territory of the Kivach Nature Reserve (Republic of Karelia). It included pruning tree roots, isolating experimental areas with steel sheets to a depth of 0.6 m, and further monitoring changes in the abundance and isotopic composition of soil springtails at the species level. Fig. 2. Isotopic composition of carbon (δ13C, ‰) and nitrogen (δ15N, ‰) of springtails after pruning tree roots (blue dots) and control soil (red dots). Green and brown dots indicate the isotopic composition of fruiting bodies and mycelium of ectomycorrhizal fungi; the ellipse describes the 95% confidence interval for fungal fruiting bodies and mycelium. The dotted lines show the isotopic composition of plant litter. The springtail community was represented by 25 species, of which 22 were common to young and overripe pine forests; the dominant species in the communities of both forests also coincided. Tree root pruning did not lead to a statistically significant change in the total number of springtails, but the abundance of the species Friesea mirabilis, Mesaphorura yosiii, and Willemia anophthalma decreased with root pruning in a 70-year-old pine forest. The biomass of the mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi 1 year after root pruning on the experimental plots was approximately three times lower compared to the control, and did not differ between forests of different ages. The isotopic composition of nitrogen and carbon, corresponding to the isotopic composition of the putative consumers of the mycelium of ectomycorrhizal fungi (inside the green ellipse in Fig. 2), was found almost exclusively in springtail samples from control plots, represented by 5 species. In general, the results of the study indicate the limited importance of the mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi in the nutrition of soil springtails, but confirm the importance of this resource for individual species. The work was published in the European Journal of Soil Biology (SJR Q1, IF = 3.232) Zuev A.G., Potapov M. B., Tiunov A.V., Saraeva A.K. (2023). Root trenching and stable isotope analysis uncover trophic links of euedaphic collembola species to mycorrhizal mycelium in pine forests. European Journal of Soil Biology, 118, 103519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejsobi.2023.103519

Scientists continue to work on recreating the Caucasian leopard population lost in the last century in Ossetia. On July 22, 2023, another male leopard was released to form a breeding group in the Central Caucasus as part of the state program for the restoration of the Red Book predator. Zoologists regularly obtain data on the movements and life of leopards, and then check their hunting areas. Exactly one month has passed since the release into the wild of another representative of the main predators of the Caucasus - the Central Asian leopard named Chilmas. He successfully hunts ungulates, uses energy sparingly and avoids encounters with humans. This information is confirmed by zoologists of the protected area complex Ossetia-Alania from the leopard monitoring group in the Caucasus. The young leopard passes field tests in the mountain forests of Ossetia with excellent marks. In comparison with other males previously released in North Ossetia, during the first month of life in the wild, Chilmas traveled a slightly shorter distance - 73 kilometers versus 100-160 for Leo and Baksan. At the same time, he surprised the zoologists of the field monitoring group with a large prey - an adult male roe deer. Thus, Chilmas becomes a full-fledged link in the ecosystem of the mountain forests of Ossetia and, as we all hope, can become one of the founders of the reviving population. The Caucasian leopard stays away from roads and settlements, is not at all interested in forest edges, does not reduce the distance to anthropogenic objects and places of human activity, and the area that he has colonized to date is about 100 square kilometers. Other transmitters installed on the collars of Khosta and Laura, which were released into the wild last summer, continue to transmit information about the movements of leopards in the Central Caucasus. “They chose to settle in different directions. Laura is mastering the western direction - this is the area covering the western part of North Ossetia and the eastern part of Kabardino-Balkaria. And Khosta prefers the eastern direction - the eastern part of Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya. Despite the fact that both of them covered approximately the same distance in a year (Laura - 1882 km, and Khosta - 1942 km), the areas they traversed differed significantly. The area that Khosta has developed is 6,453 sq. m. km, but she has so far explored it in less detail than Laura has explored hers - her plot is more compact, only 1910 sq. m. km, and is better studied by the leopardess. Both of them are successful hunters and are excellent at hunting both small and large prey. At the same time, Khosta still prefers to hunt more often and for small prey (76% versus 24%), and Laura less often, but for large prey - wild boar or roe deer (60% versus 40% of small prey),” say experts from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS). “Leo, released together with Khosta and Laura in 2022, is currently out of reach: his transmitter probably stopped working completely in May. However, during the time he kept us updated on his journey, he hunted no less than 35 times, of which 72% were large game - mainly wild boar, and 28% - small game, such as badgers, raccoon dogs and jackals. During the 10 months that we tracked him, he walked 1,101 km and developed an area of 1,965 square kilometers,” says Jose Antonio Hernandez-Blanco, Candidate of Biological Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of Economics and Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “In total, over the years of implementing the project to return the Caucasian leopard to North Ossetia, 8 leopards were released here, and they continue to develop the territory of the Central Caucasus, moving through mountain forests between the republics, where nature is least affected by humans. It is currently unknown for certain whether they have offspring, but this may be due to the secretive lifestyle of these predators and the ability to avoid human attention,” noted Madina Slanova, coordinator of the Caucasian leopard restoration program in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. Central Asian leopard before the release A reminder that the program for the restoration (reintroduction) of the Central Asian leopard in the Caucasus is being implemented by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources with the participation of the Sochi National Park, the Caucasus Nature Reserve, the Ossetia-Alania Protected Natural Area complex, the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution. RAS, A.K. Tembotov Institute of Ecology of Mountain Territories RAS, the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources FERC RAS, the Moscow Zoo, as well as with the assistance of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA). Funding for monitoring and activities for the release of the Central Asian leopard in North Ossetia is carried out with the support of the RusHydro business company, EcoEnergy Group, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the ERA republican operator. Related materials: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania:“Scientists continue to work on the return of the Caucasian leopard population lost in the lastcentury in Ossetia” KP Kuban: “Caught a roe deer and avoids humans. It became known how a leopard fromSochi settled on the territory of Ossetia” Institute of Ecology of Mountain Areas: "Leopard Chilmas. A month after release in theCentral Caucasus" Kuban news: "First kill: the Sochi leopard Chilmas, released into the wild, began to huntsuccessfully" Greater Asia: "The Central Asian leopard named Chilmas has successfully settled in theOssetian forests" 15th region: "The Central Asian leopard named Chilmas has successfully settled in theOssetian forests" New Kuban: “Successfully hunts ungulates and avoids encounters with humans”: scientistsspoke about the first month of life in the wild of the Sochi leopard Chilmas” Kuban Inform: “The leopard Chilmas, raised in Sochi, has mastered the forests of NorthOssetia in a month”