Yes your English is good (better than mine and it's the only language I speak ) and that picture of the sled you pull behind the snowmachine looks like a lot of the ones people (houndmen and trappers) use around here, except they are usually metal and synthetic. I used to run a sled with skis but switched to an Otter sled, but a)we don't have the extreme cold that you guys do and b)I added UHMW 'outrigger' skis on the outer edges to give it a wider footprint so have never had a problem when bouncing it off trees and gates. . . well other than pulling the hitch off one time when I caught the sled on a rootwad at speed.

Tatiana, what occupies the top of your local food chain? Wolves, Brown Bears, perhaps Sib. Tigers? Do you travel back country armed like most do here in Alaska?

Interesting, and once again quite detailed, write up on beaver. The easy places to trap prime under ice otter will follow the spread of beaver dams. Thanks again for another interesting read.

Brown bears. They're not as aggressive as some bears in East Siberia, but not all of them are timid, especially in remote areas with little hunting pressure. I'm personally not very fond of bears after a couple of scary encounters. There are too few bear hunters nowadays compared to the Soviet and early post-Soviet times – partly because of severed trade channels and decreased demand for paws and bile to China, and partly because everyone just wants big ungulates.This leads to tragedies every now and then. Generally, men here carry guns when in the forest, women - not so often (owning and carrying guns, especially rifles, is a major headache in Russia, and losing a gun is a nightmare). I don't have a gun and usually just carry a can of bear spray and/or a flare when I go on long walks around the village for mushrooms, berries and fishing, and just try to avoid places where chances of meeting a bear are especially high (such as wildlife trails in narrow places between water bodies). My husband generally carries an Izh-27 shotgun around, less often a rifle.

Still, the best protection against bears is a good laika dog - they can stop and/or chase away a bear (most bears prefer to flee). Laikas have strong intrinsic hate towards bears, even laikas who are generally mild-tempered and kind towards other animals. Just to illustrate, this fall our gentle, goofy dog attacked, bit and chased away a medium-sized bear that was feeding on a cranberry patch further up the trail.

Wow hope u don't get in trouble for posting the rant. Be careful.

The no politics rule here just applies to arguments and name calling concerning domestic politics.

Please feel free to discuss the conditions you must put up with in describing your life and how it impacts your everyday activities. Whatever you are comfortable posting. You won't be violating any rules here. We greatly appreciate your contributions !

I agree with you Tatiana, that a good dog is the best bear protection. Personally, I almost always bring my 77 caliber, I mean pound, German Shepherd, along. She's thus far untested against a live bear, but skillfully engages moose and runs them off until I call her back. Before that I had a 90 caliber German Shepherd who skillfully handled bears, moose, and strangers. Hopefully he passed along some wisdom to the current Shepherd. Thanks again for describing your outdoor world.

Do your remaining bear hunters use dogs to hunt them? I seem to recall reading that they used Liakas in eastern europe and Russia to hunt bears much like they do hounds here.

Thank you for the insights you are dealing with Tatiana.
My brother has 2 Norwegian Elk hounds and it is always an adventure when you go for a walk in the boreal forest here. The different barks tells you what is there and a sharp whistle stops the chase. Research in bear country is always a challenge especially when you are looking for ticks. They actually took a dog down to the zoo to " climatize it to bears " because they were working in the mountains on bear trails looking for ticks and some of the associated diseases. Dogs are good tick collectors as well, 4 legs is better than 2. That dog sure got excited when ever it saw my truck coming, cause another adventure was awaiting. Besides the hour of grooming at the end of the day- looking for ticks. And the next day looking for the missed ones. RIP Banner, Mr Pup.

Some of the people from Germany in the summer over here use their dogs( German wire hairs) for looking for " yellow pine mushrooms "( Suillus sibricus ) they have dog collars with trackers and the dog stops at a site they are about to come up. These are picked and air-expressed overseas for the restaurant trade daily. Pre-exposed do not have the fungus gnats laid in them yet

Speaking of great dogs, I got a West Siberian laika back about 1998. One of very few in north America at that time (maybe there are more now, I don't know).
What a great dog to have in the woods. Many people thought it was an Alaskan husky because of it's markings. But laikas don't have the roaming nature of huskies, huskies will take off on their own if you allow them to, whereas a laika will loupe out through the timber, return to you, then loupe out again. They are death on anything that climbs a tree, hunting by nose and sight.
My "Bo" (may he RIP) loved hunting squirrels in particular, we were not allowed to hunt marten, only trap them, but Bo didn't know that. He really loved fighting coons, and stray house cats were game as far as he was concerned.
In this picture he is eating an aplodontia that happened to wander into his yard. Whether it was squirrels or anything else, he would start by crunching the head to a pulp before swallowing it, then work his way down the body until the tail was the last thing to go down the hatch.
He's a little over-weight in this picture.

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I hope your contributions here do not use up too much of your internet bytes.
Every fall the old Baba's would go out to collect the " percherytsi " fall mushrooms and it is always involving a " search and rescue " to find them because of memory loss with old age and they become disoriented. When the tracking dogs are used it looks like a ball going back in forth in a " pin-ball machine" as someone that can barely get around in their homes moves through the forest is revitalized.

Yes the disease that are in Ixodes ticks are just not being diagnosed with the new sampling methods. Another reason they do not use " naming them" from region first described like Lymes