Sexual relationship “Yes, it’s better for me to die a hundred times than to lose your sweetest marriage! After all... I love you passionately, like my soul!” (44) - Psyche addresses her husband Cupid in the novel “The Golden Ass,” written by Apuleius in the 2nd century. "She, full of lust, -

Chapter 6 SOMA AND GERM LINE FEEDBACK In this chapter we look at how the DNA sequences of antibody variable genes in germ line cells may have changed over evolutionary time. Some evidence suggests the existence of gene feedback, i.e.

Section 2 Animals and people Chapter 1 Prey, friends and enemies of primitive hunters B ancient times human life was closely connected with the animal world. Animals were the prey of hunters, a source of food and materials for clothing, and in many places a source

At the beginning of the 20th century, the whole world literally turned upside down. It was a period of crazy ideas, experiments and discoveries. It was during this period of time that scientists thought that they were standing on the threshold greatest discovery. For the first time, news that human-animal crossing would occur appeared in 1909. Biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov reported at the world congress that it is quite possible to create an ape-man. And, he was not the only scientist working on this issue.

Who and when created the ape-man

In 1910, surgeons Voronov and Steinach made the first attempts to transplant the glands of a monkey into humans. The xenotransplantation business gained such momentum that Voronov had to open his own monkey nursery in the south of France.

Rozanov Vladimir Nikolaevich, a famous surgeon who operated on Stalin and Lenin in his time, also conducted numerous experiments in this area. He transplanted the glands of chimpanzees into people and, as it seemed, this promised stunning success. Local newspapers constantly published stories about how primate glands can cure dementia, decreased potency and aging. But were these attempts successful? Over time, the world came to the conclusion that these experiments were just placebos. That is, the effect that was observed after xenotransplantation was nothing more than self-hypnosis.

Traces of unseen beasts

In the works of Bernard Euwelmans, a biologist and famous zoologist, there are a huge number of references to the so-called “Yeti”. Whether Bigfoot people really existed is still not known for sure. A large number of Scientists are of the opinion that Yeti actually lived near human settlements, but there are no less skeptics who deny this. One day two cowboys managed to film a female Bigfoot. The famous Patterson-Gimlin story, in which the Yeti is clearly visible, has spread all over the world, but even here there are scientists who refute this event. They believe that since it is impossible for humans to interbreed with animals, the photos and videos presented by many eyewitnesses are nothing more than a montage.

There is also further evidence of the existence of at least one Bigfoot. In the pre-revolutionary forests of Abkhazia, an unusual woman was caught by a prince. Her height was more than 2 meters, in addition, she was covered with fur and could not speak. Some scientists believe that experiments in crossing humans with animals could lead to the birth of such an individual. She was forcibly brought to the settlement and for a long time kept locked up because she was very aggressive. There are facts confirming that the snow woman had intimate relationship with men (people in the settlement) and gave birth to at least 4 children from them. Khvit is one of her sons, who later had his own family and children.

Strong Workforce

It is known that at the beginning of the 20th century there was a catastrophic shortage of Joseph Stalin, having learned that certain animals were being carried out in Germany, he also decided not to hesitate. Under his leadership, numerous experiments were carried out on people. Crossbreeding with animals would help create incredibly tough, yet quite docile ape-men. In addition, according to scientists, such a creature should have reached full maturity in just 4 years. Stalin planned that the new work force will be able not only to mine coal, build railways, but also, if necessary, to fight.

First attempts

The first experiments of the French scientist Sergei Voronov were aimed at rejuvenating people. While studying in Egypt, he turned his attention to eunuchs. They looked much older than the other men. At this moment, the scientist began to think about the influence of the gonads on the state of the body. In 1910, Voronov was the first to successfully transplant a chimpanzee testicle into an elderly English aristocrat. Local newspapers wrote that the effect of xenotransplantation was immediate, and after a while the Englishman looked several years younger. In this case, the question arises: why is this rejuvenation method not used in modern transplantology? It's obvious that it actually was

Secret experiments of Professor Ivanov in Guinea

Almost at the same time, the Kremlin also began to wonder whether the crossing of humans and animals was really possible? All scientific activity in this area was entrusted to two biologists - Ilya Ivanov and Vladimir Rozanov. At that time, they were already successfully engaged in artificial Vladimir Rozanov, like his French colleague Voronov, performed operations on the transplantation of gonads in chimpanzees. The difficulty was that the demand for transplantation was so huge that the scientist did not have enough monkeys.

In 1926, Dr. Ivanov and his son went on an expedition to Guinea. They needed to capture female and male chimpanzees for experiments. In addition, they were faced with the task of persuading at least a few to take part in the experiment. Ivanov wanted to try to inseminate a woman with chimpanzee sperm, and a female chimpanzee with human sperm. However, it turned out to be impossible to find a resident of Guinea who agreed to such experiments, even for a lot of money. Then the scientist, together with the Kremlin, decided to do this secretly. Under the guise of an examination, several African women were injected with chimpanzee sperm. How this crossing of animals and humans ended is unknown. Soon the scientist Ivanov left Africa and went to conduct experiments in the Abkhazian town of Sukhumi.

Sukhumi Monkey Reserve

In 1927, in Abkhazia, in the small and little-known town of Sukhum at that time, a monkey reserve was created in order to crossbreed animals and humans.

From Guinea, Ivanov brought the first chimpanzees and gorillas, among which were two large and healthy females. The professor tried to inseminate them with human sperm. After some time, the female monkeys died. At the autopsy it turned out that conception never occurred. At that time, Ivanov still did not understand why the experiments were not working. Modern geneticists explain this quite simply.

Is it the same with chimpanzees?

It turns out that despite the fact that humans and monkeys have a lot of similarities, there are also significant differences. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46. Chimpanzees have 24 pairs, for a total of 48 chromosomes. If such individuals produce a descendant, then he will have an odd number of chromosomes - 47. Such an individual will not be able to produce offspring, since the set of chromosomes will be 46+1 - one chromosome will be without a pair.

An example of such a sterile animal is the mule. It is known that its parents are a donkey (having 31 pairs of chromosomes) and a horse (32 pairs of chromosomes). In science, obtaining offspring from parents who belong to different types, is called interspecific crossing. Humans and animals can only be crossed if they have the same DNA, similar karyotype and anatomical features.

Therefore, it turns out that crossing animals and humans under normal conditions is impossible due to significant differences in their karyotypes. It has been proven that 18 pairs of human and monkey chromosomes are almost identical, but the rest have a lot of differences. The sex chromosomes, which are responsible for the future sex of the offspring, also differ significantly.

What was impossible yesterday became possible today

Experiments on crossing humans and animals probably have not stopped and will never stop. Scientists have found that Professor Ivanov was right in some ways. can truly bring great benefits to humanity. However, we are not talking about mutants at all and snow people. Here we're talking about about stem cells that can be obtained from hybrid embryos.

Modern medicine is in great need of stem cells, since they can be used to cure many diseases. Stem cell capable of self-renewal and division, creating any cells of all organs and tissues. Moreover, experiments in genetic engineering prove that stem cells in the body are responsible for youth and longevity. With old age, there are much fewer such cells in the human body, tissues lose the ability to self-renew, and organs work much weaker.

Secrets and mysticism of experiments

Despite the enormous amount of evidence, there were no less mysteries in this area of ​​research. For example, after Ivanov’s death, all documents and materials on crossing were hidden and strictly classified. The question arises: if the experiments did not bring any positive results, why did the Kremlin classify all the materials? The crossing of animals and humans has always been shrouded in mystery. There is information that many women participated during the experiments in Abkhazia. They were voluntarily inseminated with chimpanzee sperm. But it turned out to be impossible to find such a woman and ask her about the progress of the experiments. What happened to all those people who participated in the experiments, and where did they go?

IN this moment In many countries, experiments on crossing animals and humans are prohibited. However, does this mean that they are not carried out? Who knows, maybe in the next century science will still see a chimera?

In nature, animals have facts and mutual assistance. There are known cases when, in response to the dying groan of a wounded roe deer and herd herds, the leaders returned to their aid. It was even more surprising to see on Wrangel Island how he rushed to the rescue of his brother white bear, just a puppy, weighing no more than half a pound, emerging from the den for the first time. His attack was so frenzied that the catcher was unable to cope with two such cubs.

Animals are very observant and are especially keenly aware of the unusual actions of the hunters pursuing them, to which they react with responses that are sometimes similar to rational thinking. Thus, there are known cases when a pack of wolves lay quietly in the forest a few hundred meters from the cutting area, where trees were being felled, skidders were rattling, and lumberjacks were calling to each other. And so cleverly these same wolves recognized the hunters who had appeared and disappeared unnoticed at the first attempt to surround them with flags, which act on the wolves as an insurmountable obstacle.

Along with this, it was noticed that wolves, like crows, very well distinguish an armed person from an unarmed one. While hunting, a hunter spends days and nights for months surrounded by wild animals. Therefore, it is not superfluous for him to know some details of the behavior and actions of animals that pose a danger to him. For example, how an old elk during the rutting season, a pig with piglets and wild boar, or a she-bear with her cub will behave when meeting him.

Many people consider the bear to be a good-natured, clumsy lump who attacks a person by rising on his hind legs and goes at him, exposing his chest to a bullet. If the hunter hopes for this absurdity, he will die at the first meeting with him. In reality, the bear is a very dexterous, strong and cunning animal with an exceptionally quick reaction.

At a distance of several tens of meters, a bear can catch up with a deer. An experienced bear cub husky sometimes whines with fear, barely dodging and escaping from the claws of a bear rushing after her. With such agility, the bear is endowed with powerful strength, which makes him the ruler of the forests. An adult bear is able to kill any elk, and then drag its carcass weighing 3-4 kg several hundred meters to a secluded place and cover it with a mountain of logs and brushwood. Along with this, there are known cases of exceptional dexterity when a bear carried away a hive from an apiary; Having discovered a warehouse with meat in a hunting hut, he did not think of opening the door that was locked by a log, but climbed onto the roof, tore open the roof, broke through the ceiling in the middle and through this hole threw more than a ton of meat out of the hut.

In June, during panting, in order to save the meat of a killed red deer from flies and spoilage, parts of the butchered carcass were placed in a pit with cold spring water. Camouflage from above was neglected. As a result of this oversight, crows discovered the pantry and attracted the bear's attention with their cry. The beast pulled all the meat out of the water. He used a little of it himself, the rest was stolen by wolverines and crows.

If bears are not pursued, they are not afraid of humans, they boldly take fresh bait, go to oat fields to feed, and can plunder a storehouse with food. In other areas, for example on the Kola Peninsula, where reindeer herders chase bears, they behave differently. They visit Privada at night and very carefully walk around it in a circle for a hundred steps and approach it from the leeward side, making sure that there is no danger at all. When inspecting bear food or bait, the hunter must be well armed and very careful, since the bear is often nearby, guarding its prey and can attack suddenly and with lightning speed.

Wounded bears, wild boars, elk and some other large animals can be very aggressive and dangerous. A wolf or jackal caught in a trap, if handled carelessly, can seriously injure the trapper. Therefore, when coming into contact with wild animals, you must always anticipate all sorts of surprises, since the actions of animals in trouble can be unpredictable, lightning-fast and of incredible force. In such cases, animals are especially cunning. Thus, a bear, wild boar or tiger with a trap on his leg or wounded, noticing that they are being pursued by a hunter, as a rule, ambush him - they return to the side and hide in the thicket near their trail from where they are the first to attack the hunter(sick and wounded tigers become man-eaters - note by the website author).

In turn, unexpected decisive actions by a person that do not correspond to the current situation can cause confusion and inhibition of aggression in the attacking animal. There was a case at the Moscow Zoo when an attendant entered an enclosure with an African ostrich with a broom. The ostrich immediately rushed at him and struck him with his paw.(probably, the author of the book means the powerful two-toed leg of an ostrich - note from the author of the website) could have killed, but the attendant was not taken aback and raised the broom, which turned out to be much higher than the ostrich, at arm's length. The bird instantly appreciated such a “growth” of the enemy, stopped and, fluffing its feathers, backed away. Knowing about this incident, I had to use something similar at the time of the attack on me wild moose, who stopped 3 meters away, - then I opened both floors of the soldier’s overcoat wide open in front of him. The animal lowered its head with its ears flattened, the standing fur on the back of the neck settled down, and the elk, turning to the side, disappeared into the thicket.

You need to be very careful and prudent when disentangling from the net and tying the legs of caught deer or aurochs and other ungulates, which can, with a sharp jerk of the head or hind leg, break the bone of the catcher’s arm or leg, and also severely bite a kulan or wild boar caught in the net.

Wild animals perceive aggressive human actions with particular acuteness and remember them for a long time. For example, calmly floating wild ducks, having heard a shot that thundered a kilometer away from them, they instantly become alert and freeze with their heads raised on their outstretched necks. Fattening moose, hearing a distant doublet, also stop feeding and fuss anxiously. In Taimyr on the river. Pyasina, where on water crossings Every year thousands of reindeer are shot from motor boats; 2 km away, on the approach to the reindeer crossing, the roar of a boat engine caused panic among an entire herd of reindeer. The animals huddled together, then the old lady jumped out to the side and led the whole herd headlong away from the river.

In the Pereslavl hunting estate, hunting for deer and wild boar was practiced “from the entrance” from an all-terrain vehicle. With the appearance of this car in the forest, all the deer, wild boars and roe deer fled several hundred meters away. This was explained by the fact that the animals’ memory of further human actions associated with the noise of the engine came to life - shots and bloody animals writhing in death throes. All this caused forest inhabitants panic fear.

Animals have a completely different attitude towards the operation of a motor that does not harm them. Thus, in the desert region of Parapamiza, they used a gas engine to pump water from a well into a pool - a drinking bowl intended for wild ungulates. At the sound of this engine, urials descended from the cliffs, and gazelles also gathered around.

Friendly attitude, affection and feeding animals fundamentally change their attitude towards people. Thus, in city parks, caring for squirrels turns them into completely tame animals. They climb onto visitors' laps without the slightest fear; sit on their palms and shell the sunflower seeds offered to them. In Abkhazia on the lake. Bibi-Syri, when breeding nutria freely, their regular feeding led to the fact that behind the boat with the helmsman clanking a bucket, the nutria swam in a crowd to the feeding rafts with live traps, where they were given food. The most tame animals came ashore and followed the helmsman almost to the hut, begging there for tasty handouts.

On Medny Island, regular feeding of Arctic foxes also made them tame. S.V. Marakov observed an amazing picture when, on November and December (pre-harvest days) in various parts of Medny Island and especially in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, at the same time (about 3 o’clock in the afternoon), a fisherman, dragging a smelling scent behind him on a rope the brawl walked through the entire village and whistled the police whistle. As soon as the first sounds were heard, wild blue foxes rushed from different ends, from the tundra and the coast, with their tails in the air. Having surrounded the person, they then calmly and calmly walked along the streets under the windows of houses, almost clinging to their feet, in a tight group (120-150 animals) until the very place where food was given out in the feeder-trap. And so on day after day until the catch, which usually began in early January.

And in the Pereslavl hunting farm, well-organized regular feeding of ungulates led to the fact that when the huntsman was delivering food on a horse in a sleigh, he was always followed at 20-30 paces by several dozen deer, roe deer and wild boars.

The given examples indicate the possibility of attracting many ungulates and fur-bearing animals to such an extent that you do not have to chase them through forest wilds and urems, but, at the desire of the hunter, force them to come to designated points to live traps-feeders. To manage animals in this way, you need to constantly study and be well aware of all the signs of their vital activity and habits.

http://wander.org.ru/hunting_animals1.html

The topic of interaction, the relationship between man and nature has always attracted the attention of both writers and readers. For Russian people at all times, nature is not only a landscape that forms aesthetic taste, an idea of ​​beauty. As a rule, the writer also reveals a certain version of man’s relationship to nature; in a work of art, the character of a literary hero can be traced through his relationship to the animals living nearby. According to M.A. Epstein, author of the book “Nature, the World, the Secret of the Universe,” “images of animals in literature are a kind of mirror of humanistic self-awareness.” Animals, in his opinion, are the most mysterious thing in existence, in relation to which everything else is an experience of unraveling: after all in the animal there is already that inner, original, dynamically self-willed life that is absent in the rest of nature, but this life does not yet pronounce itself, is not embodied in the creations of culture, like in humans. Man is a part of nature.

Analysis of Belov’s “Stories about all living creatures” is given in many books and articles devoted to his work. As a rule, experts analyze the characters’ characters, compositional features, artistic originality works. Lipin S.A. in the book “Man through the Eyes of Nature” he characterized V. Belov as one of those artists who peer into today from the heights of spiritual values ​​accumulated by centuries of folk experience.

The general mood in the family, their mutual love and respect significantly influenced the character and behavior of pets. The relationships between children and animals, as well as some domestic animals with others, were very interesting, sometimes simply inexplicable from the point of view of reason,” writes the author of Lada.

Belov's prose, in which every phrase is a story in literature, reflecting the complexity and beauty of our difficult age. Every literary hero Belov is unique, with his own character, mentality and surprisingly large figurative speech. The works of V. Belov are instructive and therefore memorable for life.

These are stories for children, but adults can also find a lot of useful and interesting things in them.

The writer E. Nosov compared these stories with sketches that the artist sketches. “Not even all of them are built on some interesting story. Two or three fleeting touches - and, please, here you have the lively and visual horse Faithful, the dog Malka, the pig Kuzya, and not just different in appearance, but also endowed with their own characteristics of behavior, so to speak, personal character traits,” writes Nosov.

The action described in this work takes place in a small village. The name of the village is not given. Perhaps because the situations presented in the story could happen in any northern village.

There are few people inhabiting the village, but they live large friendly family, help each other whenever possible. There is a store in the village; once there was a stable for 120 horses, but now half of the stable has collapsed, and the horse Faithful lives in the second. The farm and club are in another village. Civilization has little impact on this village; people live here in many ways as several generations of peasants lived, especially with regard to the relationship between people and animals. Cars, bicycles, tractors frighten animals and cause them irritation.

The characters in “Stories about All Living Animals” are village residents - Fedya, Elena Egorovna, the author, children, Dedko Ostakhov, grandmother Marya, Lydia and others who are not named. And animals - cats, dogs, cows, horses, geese, rabbits, chickens, jackdaws, crows, ferrets, pigs, sheep, goats, bees.

The main means of revealing the central idea in “Stories about All Living Animals” are the author’s descriptions of the animals themselves, their behavior, and people’s attitudes towards them.

The description of the appearance of some animals in the stories is given in quite detail. For example, the description of Valdai: a huge dog, dark gray with patches of gray on his thighs. The author introduces the reader to the cat Ryzhko, bright as fire, very red, even orange, with a white belly, and emphasizes that he is very beautiful.

Some people don't have animals detailed description, for example, when talking about a rooster, the author points only to his red beard and luxurious neck: “... proudly raises his head, arches his luxurious neck and selflessly sings to the whole wide world.”

Lidya’s dog Malka has “small legs like matchsticks and very crooked.”

All that is said about Valetko’s little dog is that he is “of unknown breed.”

To reveal the character of animals, emotional and evaluative words and epithets are used. For example, it is said that the dog Valdai is loyal. About the cat Ryzhko - that he has a “impudent”, “independent character”, and the bull Roma is “restless”, “lonely”.

Animals in the village are called by simple, ordinary names: the horse Faithful, the bull Roma, the cat Zaplatkin, Ryzhko, etc.

The whole village calls Marya’s goat a demon and a devil, and Dedko Ostakhov called him “cosmonaut” when the goat climbed onto the roof because he didn’t want to be locked up.

They address animals not only by nicknames, but also call them with affectionate words: to the piglet Kuza - “father”, to the cow Polyana - “mother”.

All animal names and nicknames create some kind of coziness in the village, and also show the attitude of the owners towards their animals, love, respect, equality of status between people and animals. Indeed, humans and animals are creatures of nature, and everyone is equal before nature. The author calls on a person not to rise above nature, to take care of his “little brothers.”

V. Belov in “Stories about all living creatures” tells how humans and animals live together. Every village family has animals.

Fedya and Elena Egorovna have everyone! Two cats, a cow Polyana, a calf, two geese and a goose, five chickens and a rooster, a pig Kuzya, a dog Valdai.

All her life, Grandma Marya, another resident of the village, kept a cow, when the “private sector” was liquidated - the cow was handed over to the collective farm, the grandmother got a sheep and a goat, because, as the author writes, “it is very difficult for a person associated with cattle all his life get used to living alone."

People and animals help each other.

All the villagers love animals, although sometimes they toil with them. Grandmother Marya, when she could not support the sheep and goats, sold them, but there was no buyer for the goat. And although he was “smelly and so pestering,” the owner felt sorry for the goat and talked to him as to a person: “What a rogue you are, how did you get on my head?” And when the goat, who did not want to be locked up, climbed onto the roof, the whole village rescued him.

When the horse Verny was starving, there was not enough hay, Fedya put the frame in the stable, the village children fed the horse all their school breakfasts, stored at home, only one boy named Lenka almost cried, because he felt sorry for the two candies, although they were later eaten by the horse.

The author, and then the reader, is surprised that the animals seem to understand what is required of them. Thus, Valdai mastered his duties well: he carefully monitored the behavior of the piglet Kuzi, who was trying to get dirty in a puddle of manure. Helping his owner Fedya with these actions, “after all, you can’t keep track of the pig, but you have to walk with him.”

You can’t do without animals in the village: “... Fedya travels seven kilometers through the forest every day to bring letters, newspapers and translations to these parts. For this, the collective farm gave him a horse named Verny.” But Verny is not only Fedya’s assistant, the postman, he also takes Yegorovna to the farm.

When his wife was not at home, Fedya “often had to milk the cow,” as he said to himself: “they found a chef,” the author laments how times change. What do you mean?

Egorovna did not at all have to put on Fedya’s cap in order to saddle the gelding. Why did Fedya have to wear Yegorovna’s scarf when he milked the cow? Why, in fact, should the man Fedya milk the cow, and the woman Yegorovna ride in the saddle? In these places, from time immemorial, everything was the other way around: men did men’s work, women did women’s work. That's how times change!”

Animals are friends, quarrel, make peace with each other and people. For example, Valdai and the cat Zaplatkin, who “grew up, completely abandoned his mother and became very friendly with Valdai,” and when the cat was found dead, then “Valdai alone felt sorry for his friend and more than once began to howl, apparently remembering the cat.” Valdai even managed to reconcile grandfather Ostakhov and Fedya when he saved Valetka from the mouth of a large dog. Although Fedya “very rarely feeds Valdai,” this did not in the least interfere with the dog’s greatest devotion to his master, as well as their mutual love. The narrator, living in the village, watched as Valdai and Fedya quarreled, and all because the owner ordered the dog Valdai to leave the house when he was not treating him to pieces of sausage. But then they made peace, they even became somehow closer to each other.

The chapter “Conflict” tells how a drunken Fedya “out of the blue” kicked Valdai, and the dog growled at the owner - “after all, he was innocent of anything” - and grabbed his hand when he hit second time. And in the morning Fedya woke up to Valdai carefully licking his wound. This was the last conflict between them; Fedya never hit the dog again. All animals loved Fedya, even birds. He “did not like and scolded terribly” his geese because they were killing everyone. But the birds sold to a distant village returned to him.

Living with people, animals become like their owners: “I am convinced that some cows, dogs and cats take on the character of their owners. Many become like the people they live with. Malka the dog, for example. She definitely imitates her owner, Lydia. Both are cursing and not very friendly.”

The dog Valdai ignored movies, he “simply despised television shows, pop music especially irritated him,” the author suggests that the dog was “jealous of the owner of this terrible car.”

Unlike Valdai, the cat Muska “attentively followed what was happening on the screen”

Vasily Ivanovich Belov admires Valdai’s devotion to Feda, the maternal feeling of Malka, who “every day ran two kilometers to a strange village to feed her “son”, despite any dangers.” The author is surprised at the chicken “house-building”: “as soon as two laying hens quarrel, the rooster is right there,” and the bees’ intelligence: they stole their own honey from Grandfather Ostakhov, taken at the wrong time, ahead of schedule. Dedko Ostakhov talks about bees: “When August comes, they will begin to evict the drones. Get all the loafers out of the house. The drones are crawling back, but the bees won’t let them in, it’s a sabbath! Enough, they say, to feed these parasites. If only people could do this!”

Animals in the stories of V.I. Belova are smart. The dominant place in the gallery of animal images is occupied by the dog. IN fiction it becomes a kind of symbol that focuses the diversity of relationships between man and nature.

In “Stories about All Living Animals,” the smartest dog is Valdai: “He was not kind to anyone or curried favor, like Valetko. I didn’t throw myself at anyone in vain, I didn’t tear the throat like Lidina Malka.”

But he is not only smart, but also brave. Valdai stood up for the bully Valetko, saving him from a huge strange dog. “He simply respected himself and others and was not afraid of anyone,” the author believes.

In the chapter “Courier” V. Belov admires Verny. The horse delivers mail without Fedya, and “he never made a mistake the whole way.”

The author talks about his observations of birds, talks about smart “cunning and restless” crows, who, as if jokingly, more than once deceived him and other village residents. Crows - these smart birds- divided their spheres of influence. If strangers arrived from another settlement, the locals raised a fuss and noisily drove them away. “Crows are very good at understanding what’s what - when I went out with a real gun, the crows, after one of them screamed twice in warning, flew far into the field. As an experiment, I once took Fedin’s model and went out into the street. Not one of them even thought about flying away!”

The author talks about “brisk, unpleasant, grumpy jackdaws” who ask him a riddle, he does not understand why jackdaws “poke their noses directly into the wool” of sheep, he thought that “they pull the fluff onto the nest,” but was surprised: “all normal birds make nests in the spring." The author further writes: “Later, a local veterinarian told me that jackdaws catch larvae in sheep’s wool.” This means that he did not leave this mystery unsolved, apparently he specifically asked the veterinarian - he did not just show curiosity, he wants to understand what he observes.

In “Stories about all living creatures” V.A. Belov showed not only his own powers of observation, but also his subtle knowledge of nature and animals. “The most evil lies about nature come from bad conceit educated person. He puts himself too high to take into account some little animals, and therefore he rushes to explain their life in terms of himself - to man...” - rightly noted the Russian baiter M.M. Prishvin.

The animals in the stories are smart, which they really are. And there are smart actions scientific explanation, academician N.P. Bekhterev believed: “Undoubtedly, animals think, but they cannot tell us their thoughts in our language. They don't own it at all highest form thinking - speech..." Evidence that animals think has been obtained modern research. The famous German zoologist A.E. Brehm believed that among other mammals (excluding monkeys), cats have the highest degree of intelligence. They are patient, smart, extremely attentive and have lightning-fast reactions. Interesting information about the selectivity of cat hearing were published in the Parisian newspaper "Maten". It turns out that the cat tribe is attracted to classical music. Four-legged music lovers especially enjoy the works of Mozart and Vivaldi.

But horses, it turns out, have a truly amazing memory for places and objects; they may well be a “courier.”

Why didn’t Grandma Marya’s goat want to be locked up? The fact is that goats cannot stand life indoors, without walks. Scientists have proven that animals get sick when kept in such a “punishment cell.”

The bee is able to detect the finest odors. Its antennae contain a huge number of olfactory pits - locators and numerous sensitive hairs. That is why the bees stole honey from Grandfather Ostakhov - “they took theirs.”

Bees are smart animals. For example, they keep drones only in the spring and summer, and in the fall the bees expel the drones from the hives, and they all die from hunger and cold.

In the description of animals, the life of the village where he spent the summer, we see the author - a storyteller who loves rural life, the usual way of peasant life, who loves “all living creatures” or is not indifferent to it.

Readers of his stories not only get to know the villagers, learn the habits of domestic and wild animals and birds, but also observe, empathize, and study animals with him. Nature and animals are inseparable, and the writer is sure that being around animals makes a person kinder and wiser.

“Love for animals is an absolutely special love: it has its own sorrows, joys, its own needs, and it requires its own special conditions,” wrote Emile Zola.

It is natural for rural residents to love animals, since they are closer to nature, and this is their special happiness, so natural that, most likely, it is not perceived this way by the people themselves, but necessary, given by nature itself, says V. in his stories. A. Belov.

A Japanese sage said: “Happiness is being with nature, seeing it, talking to it.” And the heroes of Vasily Ivanovich Belov’s stories are happy.