Formozov, Aleksandr Nikolaevich

Formozov, Aleksandr Nikolaevich 

Born Feb. 1 (13), 1899, in Nizhny Novgorod, now the city of Gorky; died Dec. 22, 1973, in Moscow. Soviet biologist, biogeographer, and animal illustrator.

Formozov graduated from Moscow State University in 1925 and joined the university’s staff in 1930, becoming a professor there in 1935. From 1930 to 1934 he taught in the subdepartment of zoology that he had founded at the Institute for the Management of Game and Fur-bearing Animals. In 1945, Formozov joined the staff of the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where he established a department of bio-geography.

Formozov took part in many scientific expeditions to the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Transbaikalia, the southern Far East, Kazakhstan, and the Mongolian People’s Republic. His main works dealt with the role played by snow cover in evolution, the distribution and ecology of mammals and birds, and the influence of anthropogenic factors on the animal world. Other works by Formozov were devoted to present and future patterns of change in the population density of commercially valuable animals, changes in the boundaries of areas occupied by certain animal species, and methods of estimating and mapping the distribution of animal species. Formozov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and several medals.

WORKS

Kolebaniia chislennosti promyslovykh zhivotnykh. Moscow-Leningrad, 1935.
Snezhnyi pokrov kak faktor sredy, ego znachenie v zhizni mlekopitaiushchikh i ptits SSSR. Moscow, 1946.
“O znachenii struktury snezhnogo pokrova v ekologii i geografii mlekopitaiushchikh i ptits.” In Rol’ snezhnogo pokrova v prirodnykh protsessakh. Moscow, 1961.
Sputnik sledopyta, 5th ed. Moscow, 1974.
Zveri, ptitsy i ikh vzaimosviazi so sredoi obitaniia. Moscow, 1976.

REFERENCE

Nasimovich, A. A. “Pamiati Aleksandra Nikolaevicha Formozova.” Biul. Moskovskogo ob-va ispytatelei prirody: Old. biologicheskii, 1975, vol. 80, issue 1. (Contains bibliography.)

A. A. NASIMOVICH