Nature has lost two of its friends...

Nature lost two of its friends...

As a child, I didn't pay any attention to crows. To me, they were just ordinary black birds that cawed, uninteresting, and flew around. It never occurred to me that they had their own world, habits, and even character.

**When did I fall in love with this bird?**

About three years ago, I met a crow named Gosha on the Internet. His owner, Alexander Chugaynov, used to show Gosha's habits, actions, and interactions with people in videos. And I became more attached to Gosha day by day and discovered a truth that I didn't know: a crow is not just a black bird that cawed...

Alexander will find Gosha in the forest in 2020. He takes a very small and needy crow to his home and takes care of it, and then begins to film Gosha's growth and character. The videos quickly spread, and Gosha became the most precious animal for millions of people.

When I read about his death on social media a week ago, not only I, but also hundreds of his subscribers were sad.

When news of the death of a blogger spreads on social media, even those who did not follow him in life visit his page. "Who was he? What did he do? How did he benefit people?" They wonder. Sometimes you turn the page and leave without finding anything. There is fame, millions of views, an audience. But you cannot find the answer to the question of what he gave to his audience.

But there are people whose value is realized even more after they are gone. People remember them not just because they were "a good blogger," but because they left something behind. Alexander Chugaynov was one of those people. He was able to show people the crow from a completely different perspective. He did not write a book about the crow, he did not give lectures anywhere, but showed his sincere friendship with the bird.

This year has truly been very difficult for nature, for those who love it. In July and August, nature lost two of its friends who helped people understand it.

Before Alexander, in July, 45-year-old German zoologist Lydia Möcklinghoff passed away. She was conducting field research in the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil when she was involved in a plane crash near Campo Grande. Lydia's world, which she loved day and night, was connected with giant anteaters.

A person who first saw a giant anteater may not understand at first glance what kind of creature it is. With its long, tubular snout, small eyes, long tongue, and strong claws, it could have been just a strange and funny exotic animal for most of us. If it weren't for bloggers like Lydia...

Lidia has been traveling to Brazil every year since 2009 to study these little-known creatures. In addition to her scientific work, she has introduced the anteater to the world through her podcasts and radio appearances. In particular, through her radio broadcasts, she has explained to children that nature is not just a "beautiful picture", but rather work, exploration, and real living life. Lydia has brought human love and attention to the anteater.

When you read the comments people leave on their pages, you realize a great truth. There are not just cold condolences, but sincere heartfelt pain and gratitude: "I fell in love with crows through Alexander...", "I fell in love with anteaters through Lydia...", "What if such people pass away? After all, they were receiving such useful, lively and necessary content!"

**Why do people feel so sorry for them?**

Because these two people were real bloggers with a message and direction on their blogs. They did not create video content that could steal people's time, did not try to collect subscribers by any means. They taught people to make friends with nature through a new look, a different kind of love.

Thanks to the friendship between Alexander and Gosha, later others also began to show love for crows and receive content about them.

Lydia encouraged us to understand and love the anteater that we didn’t know well. Thanks to Lydia, videos about other creatures that no one paid attention to have increased.

The work of these two bloggers had one thing in common: being a sincere bridge between nature and man. Now, new videos do not appear on their pages. But new comments, new confessions continue to appear. Every time I visit their page, I see another new memory among the comments from yesterday. Someone came to their page looking for a new video, someone was sad, and someone else wrote their story saying, “I also fell in love with nature because of this person.”

Then I thought, does a person’s life end the day their heart stops beating? Or if they have changed someone’s gaze, their heart, will they continue to live in the love of those people?

If a person is able to share love with those around them, life will never end.

They didn't just photograph nature, they translated the language of nature to people. And in fact, this is what true heroism is: to live on in someone's eyes, in someone's love, even after you leave this world.

Barno Sultanova