About Wild Boars, Beavers, and Water Shrews

What is a wild boar doing in the dense thickets when no one is watching? How does a beaver family prepare for winter? Is it true that the tail of the water shrew smells like lilies of the valley?

Nadezhda Pankova works and lives in the forest. Regularly — in summer with swamp boots, in winter on skis — she patrols the territory, checks camera traps, and launches a drone. Sometimes she even has to sit in a tree, persuading a disturbed mother boar to let her pass. The field notes and sketches of Nadezhda gave rise to this book — a documentary series, a true guide to the world of the protected forest. The short stories are united by interwoven plots: the author describes her work in the reserve, accompanying a quite artistic narrative about her favorite representatives of animal families with popular excursions into zoology.