Chronicle of news for the month.
In December, there was an introductory lesson to the topic “The Evolution of Approaches to the Acknowledgement of the Biodiversity Phenomenon” for the employees of the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve. The main aim of the specially protected natural areas including the biosphere reserves is the preservation of biological diversity. But what does it mean? How to explore and save it effectively? To answer these uneasy questions the employees of the science department developed a cycle of the lessons for the whole staff – “Biological diversity: understanding, saving, recovering. Ilya Murashev, Senior Researcher of the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve prepared and presented the first lecture of the cycle. It focused on the difficulty of the system of the organic world and its insufficient paucity of research.
The 2020 season of the volunteering seemed to be unlike any other previously. Starting from the opening day that did not happen officially: usually the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve starts working with the volunteers in the middle of April. It was uncommonly to see the Central manor of the reserve empty, without any visitors and indispensable helpers – our volunteers. When the limitations were reducing, the reserve involved small groups of helpers. Moreover, corporate volunteers take part in the volunteers’ days of the Proiksko-Terrasny Reserve annually. In total, 333 person took part in 20 volunteers’ events. Despite of the fact that the reserve could host twice less volunteers than in the previous years, the amount of the work done is amazing! Thank you, our friends! Join our volunteers’ team via the link https://pt-zapovednik.ru/volonteram/ (тут вставить ссылку на как стать волонтером).
In the Central Bison’s Reserve bison eat hay and feed two times faster: this is because they celebrate of the special event – The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) changed the status of bison on December 10. The European bison has moved from Vulnerable to Near Threatened thanks to continued conservation efforts. Nowadays, there are more than 8,500 bison (more than 6,000 live in the wild). The important role in this transformation played Russia. Especially the successful Program of Saving and Recovering of bison in Russia should be mentioned, accepted by the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1995. The Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve wishes our younger generation of bison in the reserve to mature faster and go to their wild relatives in free life. Maybe one-day bison will come out of the protected bush and get regular inhabitant of our forests like deer or elk.
On December 16, the project was started on the TV channel “OTV Serpukhov”. It is dedicated to the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve and is called “The Bison’s Calendar”. Every series tells about the events from bison lives: what happens in the reserve, how the change of seasons influences on the bison and people working with them. Irina Zemlyanko, Deputy Director for Maintenance and Breeding of bison pointed out that this project is important not only for the reserve but also for everyone who is interested in bison’s lives in the only reserve in Moscow Region. You can watch the first episode here: https://youtu.be/IiAvtCm-5jw (вставить ссылку на первый эпизод).
In the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve, beavers were counted. The registration of the population of this animal. This time is good for counting because beavers’ families find places for living and stop preparing food for winter. Sergey Albov, Senior Researcher commented the process of counting: “The location of settlements and the number of individuals in them could be determined by the amount of store food and number of dams with ponds formed by beavers…” The research shows the numbers reduce of beavers comparing with 2019: from 40 to 32 individuals. The development of the population depends on the combination of several factors, the most important one is the speed of restoration of food supply.
Elena Kazimir, Chairman of the Forestry Committee of the Moscow Region visited the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve with the heads of the subordinate institutions of the Russian Forest Company and the State Public Institution of the Moscow Region Mosoblles on December 23. The colleagues discussed questions of the issues of nature protection and the state of forests of the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve. Communication with colleagues turned out to be interesting and productive. We are glad that the important cooperation with Russian Forest and Mosoblles continuous and becomes stronger.
