MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS Correspondent Dmitry Osipov/. In late 2023, volunteer Nikolay Chechulin, an enthusiast from Moscow, spent almost three weeks delivering rare animals to the Pleistocene Park, a unique territory reviving the ancient Arctic ecosystem. It was a tough journey across the Arctic Ocean, from Arkhangelsk to the shores of Yakutia, to deliver 13 musk oxen calves. Their well-being depended on his care, and the factor of icebergs and storms depended on the weather and luck.

The young naturalist

Since childhood Nikolay dreamed of becoming a naturalist. "I enjoyed studying ants through a microscope. My sister was also interested in biology, and in winter we grew daphnia in jars (small crustaceans that live in stagnant reservoirs and slow-flowing rivers - TASS). We took water from the pond and watched how microorganisms developed there. We had a jar with bugs that we monitored for as long as one year," Nikolay recalled. As a child, he took care of seven species of monitor lizards and 12 species of turtles. The most striking object in his collection was a two-meter crocodile lizard, Vladimir, that lived in a large terrarium.

The Pleistocene Park

The Pleistocene Park is a nature reserve, a scientific station in Yakutia's northeast, taking an area of 144 square kilometers. Russian environmental scientist Sergey Zimov founded it in 1996. The purpose of an experiment in the reserve is to recreate the mammoth steppe ecosystem that existed in the Northern Hemisphere in the Pleistocene - specialists are restoring the population of herbivorous animals that can live in the northern territories. This, scientists say, can help stop warming. Yakut horses, moose, reindeer, musk oxen, bison, yaks, Kalmyk cows, sheep and steppe bison already live there.

Going to study at the Biology Department of the Moscow State University was only logic for Nikolay. At the second year at the university, Nikolay realized he wanted to study reptiles, which he considered ideal pets. This was the beginning of his company that sells reptiles and equipment for terrariums.

"We make sure that people know how to take care of reptiles. Our mission is to raise people who know how to live in harmony with nature. The Pleistocene Park is largely aimed at the same thing. We, however, do this regarding small terrariums, and the Pleistocene Park - on the scale of the entire Arctic, the entire northern ecosystem of the mammoth steppes," he said.

Nikolay has read a book by American geneticist George Church, from which he learned about the park's project to revive the ecosystem that dominated Eurasia 10,000 years ago - in the Late Pleistocene. In the 2010s, that scientist came up with sensational plans to revive mammoths by crossing genes of extinct animals and Asian elephants. In that book, he also wrote about the Pleistocene Park project.

That was how Nikolay became the first business partner of that domestic scientific project. He visited the park for the first time in 2021 and met scientists Sergey and Nikita Zimov. Two years later, he participated in the transportation of musk oxen along the Northern Sea Route - from Arkhangelsk to Yakutia.

"To me, the Northern Sea Route, in a sense, is a family story, because my mother, Irina Chechulina, wrote about the development of the Russian North, and my father comes from a merchant family from Veliky Novgorod. Novgorod merchants took most difficult routes, memorized a huge number of rivers and road forks to get furs. The Chechulins' is the entrance to Veliky Novgorod. Probably that explains my love for the North," Nikolay said.

"Kittens" amid the ice

The project to bring musk oxen to the Pleistocene Park, located in the Nizhnekolymsky District in Yakutia's far north, began back in 1988. It is a global project to settle animals in the tundra. Large herbivorous animals are brought to the park every year. They trample snow in winter and restore the grass cover in summer, thus preventing the permafrost melting. In the park now live deer, horses, moose, bison, musk oxen, cows, camels, goats and sheep - 150 animals. Musk oxen have been brought from Yamal's Ingilor Nature Park via the port of Arkhangelsk. The animals are getting adapted to new conditions and prepare for a frosty winter in Yakutia.

During the voyage, Nikolay was most afraid of getting stuck with animals in icebergs and storms of the Arctic Ocean. The biggest concern was ice floes, which strong winds wash ashore. If huge ice floes pile up, the ship may no longer be able to sail on without a nuclear icebreaker, and such a situation could stretch the journey for another two to three weeks. Stocks of oats then may be not enough. Fortunately, the trip went well: the animals reached their historical homeland safe.

Nikolay affectionately calls those giants "kittens:" they traveled at the age of just a few months. During the voyage, he fed them vitamins and salt to have wool grow faster, and to make sure the bodies strengthen and become ready for the long Arctic winter. The musk oxen care rules are simple: refresh water once or twice a day, put a lot of hay and oats. Nikolay tried to feed them carrots and apples, but the "kittens" refused to eat them.

"The little musk oxen had an "elder brother," a bull named Boris. He is almost twice older. He was sitting in an aviary with another three young bulls. As you know, brothers may be different: some are caring, and some, on the contrary, may affirm themselves at the expense of the younger ones. We, unfortunately, had the second case: I had to put additional oats and hay to the corral with Boris so that the younger ones could also get the food. At times, as soon as I throw an armful of straw, a rumble immediately roars from the cage: the eldest was pushing away a young bull," Nikolay said.

Boris was not right

In the middle of the journey, it was getting noticeably colder. "I'm feeding the musk oxen, and behind my back are icebergs! Real ice blocks in the misty sun rays. The scene is fascinating. Fingers are freezing, and steam is coming out of my mouth. That's how we entered the truly northern waters," Nikolay continued.

Three weeks later, the vessel reached the port of Zeleny Mys in the north of Yakutia - 3 km from the village of Chersky, on the right bank of the Kolyma River. There, Nikolay got a dream. "We leave the house on the high shore, from where we can see the fantastic northern lights. They at first flicker in flashes, then spread blue over the entire sky. River, orange, golden autumn, a huge rainbow across the sky… And here emerges a dream - to travel the North by a seaplane," he said.

At Zeleny Mys, the animals were transferred to a barge, and their journey to the park continued along the Kolyma River.

"When we arrived, we started to release the animals from the enclosures. We began with the central one - Boris and his three younger brothers were there. The first ones came out of the enclosure almost immediately, but as for the biggest, Boris, we had problems. The animals had used to being inside four walls, and an open door seemed to them something very scary and frightening - that very 'learned helplessness' (the confidence that negative circumstances cannot be changed - TASS)," Nikolay explained. "Our first attempts failed. Then there came the heavy artillery - Nikita Zimov, the park's director. He took a huge sheet of plywood and entered the enclosure to expel the animal with it. Quite a risky idea it was, as the musk ox weighs about 250 kg and may injure seriously if something goes wrong."

The director's plan worked well, and Boris left the enclosure. With the other musk oxen, things went easier: "They are just kids and do not weigh that much. The tactics we used were like dealing with huge kittens - four men grab one musk ox by the neck and pulled it out. That turned out to be a correct approach, and in an hour and a half all the animals were moved to a new house," the volunteer said.

Why trample the snow?

This is how he explains the scientific project in the remote tundra: "In winter, animals trample snow, increasing the depth of soil freezing, and, as a result, in summer the earth thaws less. They also eat moss, and grass grows in its place. Grass consumes a lot of carbon for its roots - this is how soils are strengthened. In the past, the North looked like an African savanna with herds of wild animals. It was based on mammoths. That was the largest ecosystem in the world. It stretched from the Kamchatka Peninsula to Europe."

Dozens of thousands of animals in the Arctic are also about the country's food security, he said. "Our project can transform the North from the lifeless tundra with gold and diamonds into a large ecosystem with pastures and many animals - bison, yaks, musk oxen, possibly mammoths," the scientist added.

Nikolay worries about the animals, brought to Yakutia, and he was happy to learn the park had a major sponsor - since last year, the project has been supported by the Andrey Melnichenko Charitable Foundation. This means that things will get better and more and more animals will be grazing in the vast Kolyma. The park's strategy is to release pioneer breeds, such as bison and musk oxen, followed by more demanding animal species - Kolyma horse, goats, camels.

Having returned from his trip, Nikolay is preparing for publication a book "Three Men in a Boat: (to say nothing of the bison)" - an illustrated diary, which will tell in detail all the adventures during the trip along the Northern Sea Route.