had dreamed of hunting a tiger one day, but when he found his calling in
the Far East, he realized that bloodless pursuit, though less exciting,
would be of greater benefit to tigers and to science. This was an unusual
way to be thinking in the 1930s, when tiger research consisted solely of
what might best be described as “gunbarrel zoology.” With the exception
of the pioneering wildlife photographer (and former tiger hunter)
Frederick Champion, Kaplanov was the first person ever to write an
account of tracking tigers with no intention of killing them once he found
them. This was, in its way, a truly radical act—all the more so because it
occurred in a remote corner of a traumatized country with restricted
access to the outside world. While the notion of conservation and national
parks was not new, the idea of focusing specifically on a nongame
species, and a dangerous one at that, was unheard of. But Kaplanov could
not have done it without the counsel and support of Konstantin Abramov,
the founding director of Primorye’s largest biosphere reserve, the
Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik (“forbidden zone”), and Yuri Salmin, a gifted
zoologist and zapovednik cofounder.
There is a famous quote: “You can’t understand Russia with your
mind,” and the zapovednik is a case in point. In spite of the contemptuous
attitude the Soviets had toward nature, they also allowed for some of the
most stringent conservation practices in the world. A zapovednik is a
wildlife refuge into which no one but guards and scientists are allowed—
period. The only exceptions are guests—typically fellow scientists—with
written permission from the zapovednik’s director. There are scores of
these reserves scattered across Russia, ranging in size from more than
sixteen thousand square miles down to a dozen square miles. The
Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik was established in 1935 to promote the
restoration of the sable population, which had nearly been wiped out in
the Kremlin’s eagerness to capitalize on the formerly booming U.S. fur
market. Since then, the role of this and other zapovedniks has expanded
to include the preservation of noncommercial animals and plants.
This holistic approach to conservation has coexisted in the Russian
scientific consciousness alongside more utilitarian views of nature since
it was first imported from the West in the 1860s. At its root is a
ron
(Ron)
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