Russian Naturalists - Vitaly Nikolayenko, Richard Maack, Alexander Philipov Postels, Otto Vasilievich Bremer (Paperback)

Chapters: Vitaly Nikolayenko, Richard Maack, Alexander Philipov Postels, Otto Vasilievich Bremer. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 22. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Vitaly Nikolayenko was a Russian self-educated natural scientist and photographer notable for his extensive research on the ethology of Russian bears. He spent 33 years living with the Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) native to the Kamchatka peninsula. He was found dead in December 2003 at the Kronotsky state reserve, one of two managed by the federal government, 110 miles (177 km) north of Petropavlovsk. Authorities concluded that the cause of death was an apparent bear mauling. A senior ranger on the Kronotsky Wildlife Reserve, Vitaly Nikolayenko battled illegal hunting and fishing in the reserve. His patrols kept him in the wilderness for months on end. He routinely spent each day from dawn to dusk following bears, documenting their feeding, mating, and social habits. He compiled one of the most exhaustive documentaries on the giant, 9-foot (3 m) cousins of the North American grizzly bear, Kamchatka Brown Bears, regularly filling what became hundreds of journals, a body of work viewed as one of the most important biographical records of brown bear behaviour in existence. Nikolayenko walked more than 620 miles (998 km) a year through the remote river valleys and coastal plains of Kamchatka, where approximately 15,000 brown bears are under increasing threat from foreign hunters and poachers. He documented an average of 800 bear contacts each year. For over 20 years, Nikolayenko followed an enormous male he named Dobrynya, forming such an easy bond that the bear would often curl up to sleep just a few feet from him. Nikolayenko also documented several lucky escapes during his time with the bears. He described how he had f...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=685524