Today marks the 70th birthday of Yelena Sergeevna Chalikova, a well-known Kazakhstani ornithologist, Candidate of Biological Sciences, and Senior Researcher in the Laboratory of Ornithology and Herpetology at the Institute of Zoology.
For more than 30 years, Yelena Sergeevna worked at the Aksu-Zhabagly Reserve, focusing on the study of its ornithofauna. Her first visit to the reserve was in 1977, during a work placement, the outcome of which was a course paper entitled “The Population and Altitudinal Distribution of Small Mammals in the Aksu-Zhabagly Reserve.” In 1978, under the supervision of Y.A. Grachev, she defended her diploma project, “Ungulates of the Aksu-Zhabagly Reserve.”
While interning at Aksu-Zhabagly, Yelena met ornithologists from Moscow — V.M. Gavrilov and I.N. Dobrynina — who came to the reserve after attending a conference in Alma-Ata. In the Kshi-Kaindy Gorge, they set up mist nets and banded birds. That was her first hands-on experience in capturing and banding birds, as well as identifying and describing them.
It became her first step into ornithology, and getting to know the reserve’s botanist-ornithologist, Anna Andreyevna Ivashchenko, along with the team of scientists from the Chokpak Ornithological Station of the Institute of Zoology, where they captured birds, finalized her decision to specialize in zoology. As soon as a Junior Researcher position opened at the reserve in 1982, Yelena Sergeevna did not hesitate to leave her hometown of Chimkent and settle in the reserve — as it turned out, for more than 33 years…
Aksu-Zhabagly is Kazakhstan’s first and oldest nature reserve; it will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026. A full third of the reserve’s history took place before the eyes of Y.S. Chalikova, with her direct involvement. She continues to participate in the Institute’s work, going on field expeditions and writing articles and notes for scientific journals.
We congratulate Yelena Sergeevna on her anniversary! May she enjoy many more years of good health, new discoveries, and inspiring ornithological observations!
February 28, 2025