Evgeny Nikolaevich Panov is a zoologist for whom this science has become a way of life. In his life, from a young age, expeditions, research and scientific works were uninterrupted. He still does not lose interest in animals and studies their behavior.
Biography
Zoologist Evgeny Nikolaevich Panov was born in 1936 in Moscow. Father is a writer. Mother is a journalist, literary critic. Eugene remembered the difficult time of evacuation and the long separation from his parents. As a child, he drew a lot, and when he read and analyzed books about animals, he wanted to know not only how to catch an animal and how to keep it, but also how it lives in natural conditions. The father brought his son from England a book by Konrad Lorenz "The Ring of King Solomon". From it, the boy learned what an ethologist does. And he decided to translate it into Russian. At school he loved classes in the biological circle. He graduated from Moscow State University.
Practical student
In 1957 E. Panov left for the Oksky Nature Reserve. Associate Professor N. N. Kartashev invited him to study the sandpipers who lived along the banks of one of the tributaries of the Oka - the Pra River. The young students were assigned a rowboat and several automatic traps. Having caught the bird, he had to ring it and in the future observe it.
Once ornithologist A. A. Nazarenko, who met young Panov, decided to check him and showed him a stuffed bird. The future ethologist admitted that he could not determine. It was lentils.
The trainee had to walk several routes on foot. At first, this work seemed routine to the student. E. Panov had to recall the instructions of Kartashev: "The ornithologist's legs are fed."
Student E. Panov decided to make a field guide to local birds. It was especially important to reflect in the drawings such birds, the behavior of which remained unexplored. For observations, it was necessary to choose a certain tactic. He sat on the beach, which was littered with algae and sometimes jellyfish, and tried not to move. About half an hour later, little cakes were jumping around him.
Difficulties in the life of a zoologist
In youth, due to one or another wrong choice, mistakes can be made that will later affect adult life. This happened in the life of Panov. One day, at the end of October, he was wandering in search of a wagtail along the river bed in sneakers. The water reached his ankles, and as a result, he developed sciatica, which followed him later in life.
Sometimes I had to watch birds on the bare shallows. It was necessary to approach them imperceptibly. This could only be done by crawling, freezing motionless for a while. According to Panov's recollections, the body often felt heavy, even his hands were shaking from the cold. But the events that passed before his eyes were so unique that he kept repeating to himself, just not to forget anything.
Captured by the birds
Evgeny Panov admits that he was captivated by small plovers. The image of small plovers has become symbolic for the scientist. It became not only the theme of his thesis, but subsequently the emblem of his website. In Central Asia, he was carried away by stoves. In the 70-80s of the 20th century, the attention of E. N. Panov was attracted by the seagulls.
Personal life
E. I. Panov was married four times. There are four children - 3 daughters and a son. Now his grandchildren are growing up.
His first wife Natalya also graduated from the biology department of Moscow State University and worked in the field of geobotany. She was a companion and assistant on many expeditions, even on such distant ones as in Primorye, on the border of Russia and China. Natalia, being pregnant, on one of the expeditions, then left for Moscow. Sometimes the events of their personal life and professional activity were so intertwined that the scientist himself was surprised. Once E. Panov discovered the Japanese wagtail, which was a new species for the fauna of the Soviet Union as a whole. On the same day, he received a telegram that the family was replenished with a daughter. So two indelible events coincided in his life.
Amazing person
E. Panov is the kind of person who could live without elementary convenience. He recalls how they came to many places and sometimes lived in completely empty houses that were allocated for them to live.
Sometimes E. Panov had conflicts with his superiors, for example, with the director of one of the reserves because of an otter caught in a trap. This whole story happened with the consent of the director, who did not interfere with such behavior of people.
Once during one of the expeditions E. Panov found a nest of a very rare bird. His first teacher-ornithologist V. E. Flint. He said that he would give everything Panov wanted for a bird's egg. Flint the teacher gave Panov the student the book "Birds of America" by D. Audubon.
Devotion to Science
In 2016, E. Panov wrote memoirs about how his interests and scientific views developed. The book is called Zoology and my life in it.
A zoologist is a man of a rare profession. Many people think that these people are looking for something that is not at all interesting. Loneliness is always desirable for zoologists.
In recent years, Panov has been studying dragonflies. He talks about how passers-by relate to the person who is watching them. He is often mistaken for an angler. When people see a camera with a telephoto lens and hear explanations, then everything becomes clear to the passer-by, and he guesses that this is "nerd".
In recent years, this scientist has increased interest in human behavior. This interest resulted in two works. The title of the first work consists of a characterization of a person using antonyms - "… creator and destroyer …". The title of the second book expresses the question of the wise zoologist - how did man learn to shoot. For E. I. Panova ethology has become a way of life. The contribution of this famous scientist has been appreciated by many awards, including the State Prize of the Russian Federation.
