On March 23, 2025, at the age of 80, our colleague – Candidate of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Education and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Honored Worker of Science and Education, Birlikbay Eshzhanovich Eshzhanov, passed away.
Birlikbay Eshzhanovich was born on May 1, 1945. In 1963, he graduated from high school with a silver medal. In 1964, he enrolled in the Natural Science–Geography Faculty (“Biology and Chemistry” department) of the Abai Kazakh Pedagogical Institute. After completing graduate studies in the Department of Zoology, he worked from 1975 to 1979 as an instructor in the Department of Zoology and Methods of Teaching Biology at the A.S. Pushkin Uralsk Pedagogical Institute.
In 1979, he joined the Theriology Laboratory of the Zoology Institute of the Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, where until 1987 he studied the ecology and ethology of desert mammals (goitered gazelle, fox, jackal, Tolai hare, African pygmy hedgehog, midday gerbil, jerboas, etc.). He also participated in annual aerial and ground surveys of the Betpak-Dala, Ustyurt, and Volga-Ural saiga populations. From 1987 onward, he researched the ecology and ethology of semiaquatic animals (muskrat, beaver, Russian desman), and the captive and semi-captive breeding of muskrats.
In 1990, he defended his Candidate’s dissertation on “Ecology of Background Psammophilic Rodent Species in the Deserts of Kazakhstan” at the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk).
From 1991 to 2001, he served as a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Zoology while simultaneously teaching at the Department of Zoology and Ichthyology of Al-Farabi Kazakh State University. Starting in 2002 and up to the present, he was an Associate Professor at the Department of Biodiversity and Bioresources of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.
B.E. Eshzhanov authored more than 300 works, including 4 monographs (3 co-authored), 15 textbooks and study guides, and 43 methodological recommendations. He also wrote 15 standard programs for university students, 1 electronic textbook for the bachelor’s program “Hunting and Fur Farming,” among others.
Birlikbay Eshzhanovich translated dozens of textbooks, books, and identification guides into Kazakh, including the new 5th edition of the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2024).
For his contribution to the development of the country’s higher education system and his many years of productive work in writing textbooks for universities, he was awarded the A. Baitursynov Bronze Medal in 2009 and Silver Medal in 2012.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, colleagues, students, and all those who knew Birlikbay Eshzhanovich. His passing is a great loss for Kazakh zoological science and education.
May the memory of our colleague, friend, teacher, and mentor live on forever!
March 26, 2025