Igor Shpilenok | |
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| Born | И́горь Петро́вич Шпилено́к 28 February 1960 |
| Occupation | Wildlife photographer |
| Spouse | Laura Lynne Williams |
Igor Shpilenok (born 28 February 1960) is a Russian wildlife photographer, founder and first director of the Bryansky Les Nature Reserve, author of several books, and environmental inspector. He is a two times winner of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. In 2006 and 2007 he received the first prize at the Golden Turtle international photo festival.
Shpilenok was born in Bryansk Oblast, and his father was a passionate hunter who tried to make his son interested in hunting. Instead, Shpilenok grew fond of nature and preferred to enjoy its beauty without hurting it. He decided to become an environmentalist in his teens. In school he became interested in photography. At the age of 12, he discovered a meadow covered with blooming snowdrops in the forest not far from his home. Impressed with its beauty, he felt he needed to share it and decided to buy a photocamera. During the winter he collected the money and in the next spring he returned to the same meadow with a new camera, only to find scorched terrain and chopped trees. At that moment he decided to dedicate his life to the protection of nature. [1] [2]
Shpilenok graduated from the Bryansk State University as a teacher of Russian language and literature. After graduation, he volunteered to work as a teacher in the most distant school in Novenkoye village. To be as close to Bryansk forest as possible, he settled in a lodge at Staroye Yamnoye (‘The Old Pit’) and every day ventured into the forest to observe its fauna and flora. He wrote essays about the forest and its fragile beauty and sent them with his own photos to the local newspaper, Bryanskiy Rabochiy (Bryansk Worker). Eventually, his works won a state contest on covering conservation issues. After this, the local government paid attention and approved his initiative of creating a nature reserve. The nature reserve Bryansky Les was officially established in 1987, and Shpilenok was appointed its director. [1] [3]
Under Shpilenok, illegal poaching was eliminated in the reserve. For this he was repeatedly threatened, and his house was burned several times. [4]
In the early 1990s, when almost no governmental financial support was given to the Bryansk forest, Shpilenok managed to attract international donors through WWF and promote conservation ideas among the locals. His team successfully reintroduced European bisons [lower-alpha 1] and bears to the forest. [5] [6] [7]
After 10 years of working in Bryansk forest, Shpilenok left the director post and decided to pursue his other childhood dream — discovering Kamchatka. [8] His eldest son Tikhon Shpilenok was assigned to work at Kurils Nature Reserve and in 2009 appointed director of Kronotsky Nature Reserve. He led the fight against massive poaching that was ruining the local ecosystem. At that time on lakes Kurile and Kronotskoye, poacher gangs extracted more than 500 kg each every day during the spawning season. Bears were killed for their bile, fat, and claws. Tikhon Shpilenok assembled a team of state inspectors that included his uncle Dmitry, brother Peter, father Igor and the best specialists from different nature reserves of Russia. According to Dmitry Shpilenok's recollections, the poachers were protected by criminal gangs and some law enforcement officers, and the Shpilenoks were constantly threatened. His step-mother Laura Lynne Williams was forced to leave Kamchatka because due to her American citizenship she was the easiest target for the threats. Only wide media coverage of the case helped them to avoid revenge from poachers and their patrons. [9] [10] [11] 13 years later the story of their struggle to eliminate poaching was shown in Dmitry Shpilenok's film Sockeye Salmon, Red Fish . The movie was shown at 192 international film festivals and collected 61 awards. [12] [13] [14]
In Kamchatka, Igor Shpilenok started his own blog on LiveJournal where he posted stories about animals and photographs. [15] He wanted to use the blog as a tool to attract wide attention to Russia's unique wild nature and the threats it has due to human intrusion. Gradually, his audience grew to 2-3 million visitors per month, sometimes even to 6 million. [16] [17] [18] In 2012, his blog was awarded the first prize in ‘Best Picture’ nomination. [19]
In the summer of 2007, Shpilenok left the Valley of Geysers one day before the huge landslide that destroyed several geysers and blocked the valley. [20] He was one of the first scientists to return there and describe the event.
In 2013, he published two books: My Kamchatka neighbors. 370 days in Kronotsky nature reserve [21] and Kamchatka that I love. Stories in and outside the lens. [22]
Shpilenok's photographs were published in Smithsonian , National Wildlife , BBC Wildlife , and many other international publications. In 2006 and 2009 he was named the Wildlife Photographer of the Year by BBC, [23] [24] [25] he also won first prizes at the ‘Golden Turtle’ photo contest in 2006 and 2007. [26]
On 10 April 2013, Shpilenok began a four-year project traveling through Russian nature reserves from Bryansk Fores" to Kronotsky Nature Reserve. He travelled the route in a GAZ-3308 vehicle with a diesel engine and a living module. The aim of the trip was to tell about Russia's nature reserves through photography, and to promote the ideas of wildlife conservation and respect for nature. [2] [27] Shpilenok drove 60,000 km, visiting more than 50 nature reserves and national parks, where he shot several series of photo stories, such as Virgin Forests of Russia. [28] A photo exhibition and a two-volume photo book titled One hundred protected years were presented in Moscow's GUM after the trip. [29] [30]
In 2014, Shpilenok became a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers. [31]
In 2022, Shpilenok set off on a new large-scale expedition called 'Protected Russia from Kola Peninsula to Kamchatka'. He dedicated this project to aerial photography of nature reserves. The first part of the project started in September 2022, with Shpilenok crossing the European part of Russia in three and a half months. [32] [33] Shpilenok's third wife, Maria, and their mutual daughter Aglaia, joined him on this journey. The second stage of the expedition, the Kamchatka one, is scheduled for 2023. [34]
Shpilenok was married to Laura Lynne Williams until her untimely death in 2018. From Williams, he has two sons. His sons from the first marriage Tikhon Shpilenok and Peter Shpilenok followed his steps and both became environmentalists. Tikhon was appointed director of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, and after his death in 2006 his brother Peter took his place. Impressed by his son's passion, Shpilenok's father ceased hunting and joined the ranks of Bryansk forest inspectors fighting illegal poaching. [5] [35]
Shpilenok's brother Dmitry Shpilenok is a director of documentary films, as well as an environmentalist. Igor's second brother Nikolay is also a wildlife photographer. The brothers made numerous collaborations; they all worked on Dmitry's film about wild salmon, Sockeye Salmon, Red Fish , and worked with Tikhon Shpilenok, fighting illegal poaching in Kronotsky Nature Reserve. [1]
Bryansk Oblast, also known as Bryanshchina, is a federal subject of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Bryansk. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 1,169,161.
Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, situated on the River Desna, 379 kilometers (235 mi) southwest of Moscow. Population: 379,152 (2021 Census); 415,721 (2010 Census); 431,526 (2002 Census); 452,160 (1989 Census).
The KamchatkaPeninsula is a 1,250-kilometre-long (777 mi) peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about 270,000 km2 (104,248 sq mi). The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500-metre-deep (34,449 ft) Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.
Kamchatka Krai is a federal subject of Russia, situated in the Russian Far East. It is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Its administrative center and largest city is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, home to over half of its population of 291,705.
Vitaly Aleksandrovich Nikolayenko was a Russian self-educated natural scientist and photographer notable for his extensive research on the ethology of Russian bears. He spent 33 years living with the brown bears native to the Kamchatka peninsula. He was found dead in December 2003 at the Kronotsky state reserve, one of two managed by the federal government, 177 km (110 mi) north of Petropavlovsk. Authorities concluded that the cause of death was an apparent bear mauling.
The Valley of Geysers is a geyser field on Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, and has the second largest concentration of geysers in the world. This six-kilometre-long (3.7 mi) basin with approximately ninety geysers and many hot springs is situated on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, predominantly on the left bank of the ever-deepening Geysernaya River, into which geothermal waters flow from a relatively young stratovolcano, Kikhpinych. Temperatures have been found to be 250 °C (482 °F), 500 m (1,640 ft) below the caldera ground. It is part of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which, in turn, is incorporated into the World Heritage Site "Volcanoes of Kamchatka". The valley is difficult to reach, with helicopters providing the only feasible means of transport.
The volcanoes of Kamchatka are a large group of volcanoes situated on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in eastern Russia. The Kamchatka River and the surrounding central side valley are flanked by large volcanic belts containing around 160 volcanoes, 29 of them still active. The peninsula has a high density of volcanoes and associated volcanic phenomena, with 29 active volcanoes being included in the six UNESCO World Heritage List sites in the Volcanoes of Kamchatka group, most of them on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Kronotsky (Кроноцкий) Nature Reserve is a Russian 'zapovednik' reserved for the study of natural sciences in the remote Russian Far East, on the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was created in 1934 and its current boundary contains an area of 10,990 km2 (4,240 sq mi). The largest lake in the reserve is Lake Kronotskoye, which covers an area of 246 square kilometres (95 sq mi). It also has Russia's only geyser basin, plus several mountain ranges with numerous volcanoes, both active and extinct. Due to its often harsh climate and its mix of volcanoes and geysers, it is frequently described as the Land of Fire and Ice.
The wildlife of Russia inhabits terrain that extends across 12 time zones and from the tundra region in the far north to the Caucasus Mountains and prairies in the south, including temperate forests which cover 70% of the country. Russia's forests comprise 22% of the forest in the world as well as 33% of all temperate forest.
Karl Bernhard Woldemar Ferdinand von Ditmar was a Baltic German geologist and explorer, who travelled in and contributed to the scientific understanding of Kamchatka.
The Bryansk Forest Nature Reserve, also known as Bryansky Les, is a nature reserve in Bryansk Oblast, Russia, along the Nerussa River near the Russian border with Ukraine.
The Kamchatka-Kurile meadows and sparse forests ecoregion covers the coastal zones of the Kamchatka peninsula, northern section of the Kuril Islands, and the Commander Islands in the Russian Far East. The region noted for its sparse forests of Betula ermanii, and also for extensive tall-herb meadows. It is in the Palearctic realm, and mostly in the boreal forests/taiga biome with a Humid continental climate, cool summer climate. It covers 146,334 km2 (56,500 sq mi).
Lake Kronotskoye is a triangle-shaped lake located in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of the Valley of Geysers and 40 kilometres (25 mi) away from the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is named after the nearby volcano Kronotsky, part of the Eastern Range, whose name presumably derives from Itelmen krának, "high stone mountain." It was formed about 10,000 years ago when lava and pyroclastic flows from eruptions of the Kronotsky and Krasheninnikov volcanoes dammed the Kronotskaya River.
The Central European mixed forests ecoregion is a temperate hardwood forest covering much of northeastern Europe, from Germany to Russia. The area is only about one-third forested, with pressure from human agriculture leaving the rest in a patchwork of traditional pasture, meadows, wetlands. The ecoregion is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome, and the Palearctic realm, with a Humid Continental climate. It covers 731,154 km2 (282,300 sq mi).
The Kamchatka Mountain tundra and forest tundra ecoregion is an ecoregion that covers the central mountain range of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The region is one of volcanos, caldera, geysers, and mountain tundra. It is in the Palearctic realm and tundra biome. It has an area of 119,400 square kilometres (46,100 sq mi).
Igor Mikhaylovich Rudenya, is a Russian statesman who is currently the 5th governor of Tver Oblast since 23 September 2016. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.
Igor Yurievich Kastyukevich is a Russian political figure and deputy of the 8th State Duma.
Laura Lynne Williams was a Russian-American ecologist, founder of the Russian World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) branch and WWF office on Kamchatka. She was also director of the Wild Salmon Center, as well as a journalist, writer, and equine-assisted therapist.
Dmitry Shpilenok is a Russian documentary filmmaker, operator, and producer. For many years he has also worked as an environmental inspector.
Peter Shpilenok is a Russian ecologist and environmental inspector, head of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in 2017-2022. Resigned in 2022 in protest at the unfair criminal prosecution of colleagues in the "cleansing case".
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