[How Russian scientists live in Orenburg steppes _ Expedition to the last wild horses on the Earth

There are more than 100 nature reserves in Russia. Let's visit one of these protected areas in the Ural steppes and see how scientists live and work inside of the Zapovednik, nature reserves, and how they research endangered species of the last wild horses of the planet. In the steppe, it's always very windy. Today I'm going to spend the day with Maxim, to see what it's like to work here and what are his responsibilities. Will you tell us? About what exactly? Orenburg Oblast is a region of Russia located in endless steppes. The Orenburg State Reserve is a unique natural heritage of the region. All sites are preserved in their natural state and visiting is possible only with a permit. The main pride of the reserve is, of course, the population of the Perzhevaysky horses, which were brought here in 2015. It's a paprika. There's a stork running. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. I don't get it. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Oh, that's right. It's a paprika. Maxim, what's your position here? I'm an employee of the Reintroduction Center of the Perzhevaysky horses. My responsibilities include monitoring, analysis, and gathering information about the horses. We bring special books and journals. We gather all the information about the horses, analyze it, make an article out of it, and use it in various scientific works. How does your day look like here? After I wake up, of course, I have breakfast, if possible, in the best case. And then I go to the monitoring. We can monitor for two hours. We can go to the paprika. It can take a long time. From the earliest morning to the latest evening we can ride. We talk to them, see what they do, how they do it. It's never boring here. There's always something to do and something you'd like to do. Plus, it's always nice to be here, in the steppe. You enjoy the vastness, how the grass is swaying, the strong steppe winds, the rain, the snow. It's always great. How did you get into biology? Initially, I studied to be a social nutrition technologist. I worked as a chef for about five years. I worked as a sushi chef, as a chef, as a salad chef, as a hot guy. I tried out all the professions. I washed floors, I worked as a waiter. Of course, I liked it all. It has its own atmosphere. But a lot of swearing, alcohol and negative characters in this field of activity, of course, tires you out a bit. And it's not very interesting. Initially, I thought and knew that I would do ants. And now, in principle, I do ants. I write scientific work on ants. And, in general, ants are the best creatures in the world. Have you changed? If a year ago and now. You've been working here for a year and six days. Probably, yes, I've changed. I saw that Evgeny Aleksandrovich, at least my boss, has some horse habits. When... And I noticed it myself, such a manifestation, some kind of horse. Because when I don't like something, or I eat bad food, I, of course, fart. I don't like it, that's it, I clean it up. I don't like it. I feel in my soul that my ears seem to be pressed back. Some kind of madness began to manifest in me. That is, I talk more and more often with horses. I know that they don't answer me in any way, they don't know their names, they don't know what I'm talking about. They hear the intonation, they hear some kind of call, which I want to convey to them. But I understand that they don't really understand me. Oh, Pompeii, come here, here are the oats for you. And Pompeii comes up and says, wow. Does he answer me or what? Well, something like that appeared. Oh, bunny! Pompeii! Do you want oats? Are you waiting for me to tell you something or what? Or will I leave for now? Is this Pumka? No, this is not Pumka. Where is Pumka? It's not a usual horse. It's Przewalski's horse. A wild one. It can kill you. They have fights all the time. In general, I am very afraid of horses, especially domestic ones and especially ponies. It drives me crazy. That is, do you overcome yourself every day? No, I'm already used to these horses. They have become my family and I calmly spend time with them. I conduct various works, events. When I first saw the horses fighting, on the very first day they showed me all their power. That is, one horse stood on the hoof, the other horse turned around and jumped on the front hoof, hit another horse that stood on the hoof in the face with hooves. It was a huge, very loud crack. It was very serious and scary. And then they began to bite each other, fight each other. I heard the ribs crack. It was very scary, of course. It was very serious. We will wait for the horse to exercise. We will collect a scale analysis from it. Then we will walk with it a little and then we will go to the base to measure the number of helminths and the number of helminths in its scale. How long do we have to wait for it to throw out what we need? From 20 minutes to 2 hours. Therefore, it is not known when it will do it. We will just watch it. We are waiting. We start at 4.08. I am waiting for it to exercise. Either we will continue to follow them or we need to scare them somehow. But we will not scare them because they are quietly heading somewhere now. If we scare them, will they drop it all? Yes, they drop the ballast so that it is easier for them to run. Arga, come on, come on. You can do it. Yes, did you see it? Yes. That's it, Arga, go. Thank you very much. Well done. God bless you. Yes, samples are taken. And it's 5.32. Good job. Bye. Now we are going to check your excrements to see that you are healthy. In these flasks we have larvae of sheep that we got from horses. More precisely, the horses themselves got rid of them. Are there horses without parasites? Most likely there are, but most of these horses have parasites. But they are like a symbiote of these horses. That is, they play some role in digestion or in the strengthening of immunity. That is, they play some role. That is, you do not try to get them out of the horses? No, you can't get them out completely. So, we have one flask. We pour 50 milliliters of saline solution into it. Can you tell by the poop whether it eats well? Yes. So, we lower all this solution. We need to break it. The poop. So, the conclusion. The horse's excrement is quite healthy and it feels great. First of all, it has a very good callus structure. It has an amazing fibrousness, taste, color. In general, everything about it is amazing. In the sense of excrement. Here we have a tribe book. We have it in a table mode, but in the future we plan to make it an open database. And why is it needed? It is needed in order to have all the information both on people and on Przewalski's horses. That is, the date of birth, mother and father, where he was born, how he was born, what distinguishing signs are there so that everyone can look at this tribe book and understand what kind of horse is standing in front of him. Is there any international tribe book of all Przewalski's horses on this planet? There is a tribe book in Poland that is available only to a certain circle of people. We do not have such an opportunity, but we still send data on our horses there. Because all our horses are included in this tribe book and their children, of course, will also be included in the tribe book. Do they make a label on the horses to distinguish them? Yes, they make a label only for those horses that are transported somewhere. If our horses go somewhere, then we will definitely make a label so that later in the future people who will work with them can easily identify them and easily determine the future. That is, you know all the horses that are in the reserve? Yes, I know every horse in general. They all have some distinctive features that we notice, see, study. Everyone has a name, everyone has a tribe number, everyone has their own biography, we find out where the horse is. Do you have favorites? Yes, we have favorites. Fortunately, she is just this favorite in this particular tribe, in the tribe of Paprika. Now it will be in the background. Her name is Salomea. She is very beautiful, she is like from the cover of the playboy. If there was a horse playboy, then she would definitely be in the first number. Naturally, Paprika is also my favorite, but Salomea is still a girl, so she should get more attention from us. And how much do the employees of the reserve get? This is not a secret, is it? Yes, this is not a secret. The employees of the reserve, like any person from the state system, do not get very much, as they would like, and I get a minimum rate. And this is very sad, but we stick to enthusiasm. What exactly keeps you here? Nature keeps me here, space keeps me, flora and fauna keep me, and horses, of course. I fell in love with them during the time I worked here. It is very interesting to watch them and look for some parallels between the relationships of a person and a person, a person and a horse, and a horse and a horse. In general, every biologist wants to work with some rare species, and to work in the reserve with a rare, you can say, rare horse. It is a great honor. Few people have seen such horses as Przhevalsky's horses, few people have communicated with them as we do now. What is a good life for you? What does it mean to you? Do what you want to do, what you enjoy doing, and get what you deserve for it.