On November 23, 2016 we celebrate 87 years since the birth of Sergei Vladimirovich Marakov (1929-1986), a famous Soviet zoologist, nature photographer and popularize of science. Due to his efforts, in 1980 a wildfowl reserve was established on the Commander Islands and in 1983 it was reestablished as a wildlife reserve, maintained by the regional government. Later in 1993 the reserve became a state nature reserve and in 2010 the reserve was named in honor of the scientist – Federal State Budgetary Institution The Commander Islands Nature and Biosphere Reserve named Marakov S.V.

Sergei Vladimirovich Marakov was born in 1929 in Moscow. He was assigned to work on the Commander Islands in 1952 after graduation from Moscow Institute of Fur. In that period of time a small village existed on presently deserted Medny Island. That is where S. Marakov started his career as an animal technician. He was responsible for arctic fox hunting trade.

Nature and beauty of the islands soon captured him and he started his systematic research: monitoring on marine mammals rookeries, analysis of sea otter ecology and collection of information on local birds. Based on this long experience of diligent work, Marakov passed his PhD defense and wrote over 150 scientific papers. The thesis paper accumulated the main results of his 10-year-long work. Several years later he published a number of popular-scientific books about of the Commander Islands nature.

In 1960 Marakov left the islands and entered Kirov All-Union Research Institute of Hunt and Animal Breeding. In 1964 he defended his PhD thesis. In this period the scientist started his research of the musk beaver and participated in expedition to Kazakhstan, to lake Balkhash, Amurdarya River and Ili River. Later he became the leader of the expedition.

In 1973 Sergei Vladimirovich Marakov started to work as a teacher in Kirov Agricultural Institute in Game Management Department and continued to publish scientific and educational papers. Despite his new job, Marakov never forgot the Commander Islands.

 In the 70-80s he, together with a group of like-minded people, proposed to create a specially protected natural area on the Commander Islands. In 1983 the then wildfowl reserve, created in 1980, was reorganized into a wildlife reserve and 10 years later into the Commander Islands Nature and Biosphere Reserve. In 2010 to commemorate Marakov’s contribution to nature conservation on the islands, the reserve got his name.

The main scientific papers of Sergei Markov include his monograph The Northern Seal and his book Sea Otter, created together with I.I. Barabash-Nikiforov and A.M. Nikolayev. The Land of Unfrightened Birds, Flora and Fauna of the Commander Islands and The Mysterious World of the Islands are the best known of his popular-scientific books.

On the photo above you can see S. Marakov on Yugo-Vostochnoye rookery on Medny Island with a northern seal pup. Photo by courtesy of the Marakov family.