This year, the Hydrobiological Station at Lake Glubokoye celebrates its 130th anniversary. The hydrobiological station on Lake Glubokoe, the first in Russia and one of the first scientific freshwater stations in the world, was established in 1891 under the auspices of the Imperial Russian Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants, a public organization that existed and operated almost exclusively on private donations. Professor N.Yu. Zograf, the founder of the station, was at that time chairman of the Ichthyology Department of the Society. Lake Glubokoye was assigned the role of a model reservoir, “where the invertebrate fauna and other components of the biota will be studied in all details and in relation to the fish population, for this knowledge to be transferred to other reservoirs”. Moreover, the biological station was assigned the role of an experimental and acclimatization base. The presentation on the history of the biostation is available through this LINK.

Specialists of the project to restore the population of the Central Asian leopard in North Ossetia began to apply new methods of animal monitoring. The new technique was applied in connection with the need to search for the female Agura. In March, the GPS information from her collar stopped working, and before that the collar of the male Baksan stopped sending signals. Satellite transmitters could be damaged while hunting wild ungulates, or they could have had technical problems. But on both collars, radio beacons continue to work, the signals from which scientists have recorded from time to time during ground monitoring. Therefore, it was decided to search for animals using a radio signal from the air. For this, special equipment was selected to amplify the signal, and with the help of a light aircraft, flights were carried out over the territory of North Ossetia. On the plane, on both sides of the board, special antennas were fixed, which makes it possible to pick up the signal both to the left of the flight route, and to the right, as well as in front. This arrangement of equipment increases the likelihood of detecting animals. The efficiency of the technique was specially calibrated during training flights and flights of a stationary signal source known to researchers, similar to that emanating from leopard collars. To date, flights have been carried out over wooded ridges. No signals have yet been found in the surveyed area. It is likely that, to protect themselves from hot weather, leopards climbed to higher mountainous areas, where now, among other things, there may be a high concentration of wild ungulates. The scientific group plans to continue searching for animals using all possible monitoring methods. Leopards Baksan and Agura were released in North Ossetia in August 2020. While the signals from the satellite transmitter were regularly received, monitoring of animals testified to their successful adaptation to life in the wild. The testing of the new methodology was carried out by specialists from the IEE RAS, IEGT RAS and the North Ossetian Nature Reserve with the help of RusHydro, DOSAAF-RSO and World Fund for Nature. The program for the restoration of the Central Asian leopard in the Caucasus is being implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia with the participation of the Sochi National Park, the Caucasian Nature Reserve, the North Ossetian Nature Reserve, the Alania National Park, the World Fund for Nature, the A.N. Severtsov of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS), A.K. Tembotov Institute of Ecology of Mountain Territories RAS, Moscow Zoo, with the assistance of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA). VTB Bank provides financial support for the monitoring of the Central Asian leopard in the Caucasus. In North Ossetia, RusHydro provides financial support for the population recovery program.  

On May 26, the editorial office of Komsomolskaya Pravda hosted a press conference "Marine mammals and fishing - how to maintain a balance of interests." The speakers at the conference were Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries Vasily Sokolov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Rozhnov, Deputy Director for Research of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution VNIRO Vyacheslav Bizikov, as well as Tatyana Shulezhko, an expert of the Association of Longline Fishing, who joined the discussion via video link from Kamchatka.

Chunkov Magomed Magomedrasulovich and his scientific advisor Kamil Zubairovich Omarov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Animal Ecology of the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources - a separate subdivision of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution of the DPhIC RAS On Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in the conference hall of the A.N.Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Leninsky Prospekt, 33) Chunkov Magomed Magomedrasulovich defended a thesis for the degree of candidate of biological sciences on the topic of "Features of the ecology of the Radde hamster (Mesocricetus raddei avaricus) in the changing nature of land use in Gorny Dagestan." The defense of the thesis was successful. Congratulations to Magomed Magomedrasulovich! The dissertation abstract is available here.

Olga Shpak, specialist in marine mammals, researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) took part in the online meeting "Whales. Disappearing Giants". The Sea of Okhotsk, at the latitude of Moscow, is home to an unusual population of bowhead whales, or polar whales, and is endangered. Would you like to know more about the peculiarities of these whales and the means of their preservation? Video recording of the webinar is available.

Why do we sleep? What is the brain doing during sleep? What happens to our consciousness when we sleep? Mankind has been asking these questions for thousands of years and is still looking for answers. But today somnology is developing at an incredible pace. But dreams remain a mystery to us, and the more we study it, the more confusing and interesting this mystery becomes. Sleep is the most ancient and, apparently, a vital state that originated at the dawn of evolution. An analogue of slow human sleep - a "dreamlike" state of rest - appears already at the level of annelids and insects. Recently there was an article by British authors describing a study on fruit flies. Among almost a thousand female fruit flies, sleeping on average 5 hours a day, scientists have found not only a handful of flies in a “sleeplike” state, but even three individuals sleeping 15, 14 and even 4 minutes a day! By all accounts, they should have died very soon. But they live day after day, week after week without problem. And the life of the fruit fly is about 40 days. Therefore, this sensation is being discussed by the entire scientific world. This study again posed a question that seemed to have been answered long ago - can a person live without sleep? For now, the answer seems to be no. A mammal, especially a human, is not a fly. Physiologically, we need sleep, moreover, we vitally need both of its phases - slow and fast sleep, without them a person cannot think, his consciousness unable to function. Our laboratory has recently obtained data on naked mole rats. These are amazing, strange animals that, according to all suppositions, should live for 3-4 years. But they live for 40 years! Many scientists believe they "know" the secret to longevity. We managed to implant electrodes into their brains and it turned out that they have an unusually large amount of REM sleep, sleep with dreams (a person normally has no more than 2 hours per night). There appears to be a correlation between lifespan and high REM sleep rates. Thus, more and more new questions arise all the time, all impossible to find answers to. We seem to be moving around the problem in a spiral, we get to know it deeper and deeper, but we will never be able to fully cognize it. The book can be bought on  Labirint.ru  

In the fall of 2020, a group of scientists from IEE RAS led by Ph.D. Olga Shpak departed for Wrangel Bay with an interesting task: to install satellite transmitters on whales in order monitor their migration routes and winter habitats, test a new way of taking a biopsy - using a drone, replenish the photo catalog of whales and try to assess the influence of tourists on the population under threat of extinction. It was planned to put satellite tags on animals in an unusual way - from a motorized paraglider. It turned out to be not at all easy, as the pilot Alexander Bogdanov vividly tells. This is a film about an amazing place - the Shantar Islands. This place is one of the few on the planet where people can come into contact with whales in the literal sense of the word. Expedition organizers: Institute of Ecology and Evolution A.N. Severtsov Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS), Project “Trace to Preserve”: Understanding the Seasonal Distribution of Threatened Bowhead Whales to Identify Potential 'Areas of Conflict' with Economic Activities The project was supported by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong (OPCFHK) The film was shot with the support of the “Splav” company https://www.splav.ru/ and the “Far Eastern Expeditions” http://fetravels.ru/.  

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, will sign an agreement on cooperation within the framework of the world-class Marine Scientific Center. On June 3, in the hall of the board of the Federal Agency for Fishery, an organizational meeting of the World-class Marine Scientific Center (NCMU) took place. The event was attended by the heads of scientific and educational organizations of the Federal Agency for Fishery and the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the technical partner of the NCMU - GC "Antey". The establishment and activities of the Center are regulated by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. The project was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Breakthrough solutions for creating an advanced fishing industry can only be found through joint efforts of academic and applied science with the involvement of high-tech companies. The Marine Science Center will become an organizational form of this integration," said Ilya Shestakov, head of the Federal Agency for Fishery. The NCMU is faced with the tasks of developing new promising technologies for the extraction and processing of Antarctic krill, fish and invertebrates, algae, technologies for industrial aqua and mariculture, technologies for the production of medicinal food products. A promising direction will be the decoding of the genomes of deep-sea organisms with a unique metabolism in order to be used for marine pharmacology, aquaculture and agriculture. During the meeting, an agreement on cooperation will be signed between all participants of the NCMU: - All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) - Group of companies "Antey" - Kaliningrad State Technical University - P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology - National Scientific Center for Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution - Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry

Sofia Borisovna Rosenfeld, senior researcher at IEE RAS, took part in the film "Red-breasted Goose. Flying over Manych", which is now available for viewing. The life of the red-breasted goose is subject to strict laws of movement, reproduction and nutrition. They raise their offspring on a limited patch of tundra of Russia, and fly to wintering sites and back along the beaten paths of heaven with obligatory long stops for feeding. And one of these stops is the Kumo-Manych depression. What dangers await them on the way and how they are studied will be described by experts.

The project aimed at environmental education of the population initiated by the IEE RAS in North Ossetia within the framework of the Leopard Restoration Program in the Caucasus (Leopard Restoration in Ossetia) was evaluated and became a finalist for the Crystal Compass award in the Enlightenment nomination. The project is being implemented jointly by the IEE RAS and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania with the participation of regional media and the support of RusHydro. The VIII and IX Crystal Compass awards ceremonies took place at the Moscow International House of Music on May 27, 2021. The prize has been awarded since 2012 for outstanding achievements and unique projects of our time, which are aimed at preserving natural, historical and cultural heritage. The motto of the award is “Protect the Future”. The authors of the nominee project are A. Yachmennikova, A. Alibekov, M. Slanova, A. Dzhenikaeva, V. Tokhsyrov, M. Nagoga. The award for the project at the ceremony of presenting the national prize was accepted by a senior researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS Anna Yachmennikova. "Thank you very much to our wonderful team! Let's achieve new victories together! Our project once again proves how important unity is. The unity of every person who carries his history, his culture, his native language in his heart along with the nature that surrounds him; the importance of the unity between the historical image of the Great Leopard from the Alanian epos and the real animal - a significant part of the biological diversity of the ecosystems of the Caucasus ", - said Anna Yachmennikova.