Igor Evstafiev's zooworld and natural history in a journey through years and continents (on the occasion of his 70th birthday)

An essay about one of the most active researchers of the Crimean fauna, especially its micromammals. The main activity of Igor Leonidovich in Crimea is related to the study of zoonoses in all their multicomponent aspects — enthomofauna, pathogens, and small mammals. Thanks to such achievements, the researcher has reached a significant level of understanding of both the statics and dynamics of the fauna, its cyclic and non-cyclic changes, the specifics of the fauna of different natural regions, etc. As a person with an active life position, my colleague has consistently participated in a variety of seminars and schools, including many theriological schools, of which two was organised with his participation (the 10th and 18th Theriological Schools in Crimea in 2003 and 2011), and for more than 10 years, together with other colleagues from the SES system, he has been organising master classes on biosafety, databases, monitoring systems, etc. Igor Evstafiev is the author of many dozens of scientific papers, including about 15 articles published in editions of the Theriological School. He is the author of the powerful website ‘The World of Animals’ and a number of popular science materials on it. Over the past 15 years, the researcher has been actively travelling the world, visiting remote places of the Old World that are interesting and important for a zoologist, while maintaining high publication activity in scientific journals.