© vn.ru/Natalia Nashtalova. Andrey Shilo
28 Jul 2016, 11:00Andrei Shilo officially headed the Novosibirsk Zoo. His father, the former director of the institution, Rostislav Shilo, died in April 2016.
Andrei Shilo has been appointed director of the Zoological Park municipal unitary enterprise, Mayor Anatoly Lokot told reporters on July 28. After the death of Rostislav Shilo, his son became acting. leader.“He [Andrey Shilo] reported on the results of work over these months, we discussed issues related to the opening of new facilities on the territory of the zoological park. The Novosibirsk Zoo is developing, and I hope that Andrei Rostislavovich, with his experience, knowledge and understanding of the problems that his father passed on to him, will continue his work just as energetically,” the press center of the mayor’s office quotes Loktya.
In 2017, the zoo, which was named after Rostislav Shilo, will turn 70 years old. In the near future, a pavilion for penguins and small primates (opening on July 29) and a dolphinarium (August 2) will open on the territory of the institution.
Rostislav Shilo has headed the Novosibirsk Zoo since 1969. By 1993, he managed to build it in a new location, moving it from a cramped site in the Central District to spacious enclosures in Zaeltsovsky Park. Under Shiloh, the zoo became one of the main attractions and symbol of the city.
At the end of August, the Novosibirsk Zoo will celebrate its anniversary. 70 years have passed since the zoo opened in Novosibirsk. But he became the way we know and love him thanks to Rostislav Shilo. In a symbolic place, on the shore of the lake, a monument was unveiled to him. And this is just the beginning. What awaits visitors for the anniversary, the current director of the zoo, Andrei Shilo, told in an interview with Novosibirsk Week.
- Andrey Rostislavovich, why is the monument here, why in this particular design?
This is Rostislav Aleksandrovich Shilo’s favorite place. He loved to come here in the evenings to think about new plans, talk to the animals, and feed the squirrels. This is his favorite place, so there were no questions about where to install the monument.
As for execution, the city provided ideas, and the largest number of proposals was to make the monument in the form of a gazebo. Therefore, it turned out to be a living open monument, a folk one, chosen by everyone.
Andrey Shilo. Photo: Rostislav Netisov, website
- How did the family participate in the choice?
We liked this idea, and we refined it together with architects and sculptors, introducing nuances. For example, sneakers. Despite the fact that Rostislav Alexandrovich wore a suit, he still always wore sneakers. The family was involved in little things like that.
- What awaits the inhabitants of the zoo? What gifts have you prepared for them for their anniversary?
We are opening a basement room for small monkeys and penguins, where monitor lizards, crocodiles, otters, and tayras have received new enclosures. We have three termite mounds there, three aquariums for Aravan and Arapaima.
- The construction of a giraffe colony was announced. Has the work moved forward?
stood big question on the choice of location, and just two days ago, together with our Czech colleagues, we walked around the entire territory, every centimeter, and chose the most suitable place for the construction of the pavilion. It will be located on this bank of Yeltsovka, where a bridge to the children's railway was opened last year.
We are currently holding a photography competition, the results will be summed up on August 27, where we will choose the winners and they will receive prizes. The celebration will take place throughout the zoo; many different locations, interesting competitions, quizzes, and prizes are planned. This will be a very big city festival from early morning until late evening. Every Sunday there are thematic events dedicated to the anniversary of the zoo and the Year of Ecology. Every week something new.
“My father infected the whole family with a love for the zoo,” says Andrei Shilo, who became the director of the Novosibirsk Zoo at the age of 27, when Rostislav Shilo, his father and legendary director, who managed to turn the zoo from a small and cramped menagerie into one of the main attractions of the city, passed away.
Life's work
Sergey Ivanov, AiF-Novosibirsk: Andrey, the other day the mayor of Novosibirsk signed an order on your appointment. Before that you were 3 months and... O. Are you ready for this challenging position?
Andrey SHILO. Graduated from the Faculty of World Economy at SGUPS in 2011. In 2006, he began officially working at the Novosibirsk Zoo as a commercial development manager. In 2012 he became deputy director, in July 2016 - director.Andrey Shilo: My father purposefully did not prepare me for this work. Everything happened very unexpectedly, and someone had to take up his case urgently, because a zoo is a living organism. It cannot be ignored for a minute. And it so happened that I was probably ready for this better than others. I, in fact, have been working at the zoo since I was a cradle. Of course, now it helps that my father and I were always together, we did everything side by side. We went on business trips together, discussed turnover at all planning sessions and meetings. They could just talk about some problems. Therefore, now there is no process at the zoo that I do not know.- Was Rostislav Alexandrovich a strict father? Was it difficult as a child to spend all the time at his work?
It’s too bad for me to complain - my childhood was wonderful. It was spent in constant contact with nature, and one can only be grateful for this. My father always took me with him both hunting and to work. And I worked throughout my childhood: I cleaned the cages, fed the animals, looked after those of them to whom I was assigned. He loved to tinker with lambs for a long time. When I was growing up, I didn’t even have any thoughts that life would be connected with some other job. In our house, everything was literally saturated with the atmosphere of living creatures. The whole family was “sick” of his father’s love for the zoo. This was his life’s work, and his mother worked side by side with him. Therefore, while my classmates were making plans and dreaming about a career as a pilot, astronaut, or businessman, I already knew that I would work with animals.
The Novosibirsk Zoo is loved by adults and children. Photo: Press service of the Novosibirsk City Hall
It so happens that Novosibirsk now has the youngest zoo director in the world. There is no pressure that it will be special because of his youth close attention to all your decisions?
No, it doesn't pressure. If you are afraid of criticism, then you can sit on the couch and do nothing at all. I think that over time, Novosibirsk residents will see that everything is fine at the zoo, which means they will gain trust in me and my team. We will develop further. If we maintain the pace set by our father, then everything will be fine. And my youth... My official career at the zoo began immediately after entering the institute - at first I was hired part-time as a commercial development manager. I was transferred to full-time work only after I received my diploma. And only in 2012 he began working as deputy director. So there is no need to complain about inexperience. In addition, my father was a very strict leader, very demanding. They came to work in the morning and immediately became colleagues, not relatives. Therefore, I had to grow professionally quickly with him.
Primordial gene
You mentioned that you like to hunt. Does this not contradict your status as a person who cares about animals?
I have also had a love for hunting since childhood. My father said that we need to encourage the “primitive man gene.” We often went to the base of the Institute of Systematics and Ecology - to the hospital, which my grandfather built, to hunt duck, roe deer, and hare. And the passion for hunting does not in any way affect the love for animals in the zoo, nor the work with them. There must be moderation in everything. Imagine a situation where hunting is banned altogether and there will be a lot of roe deer, for example. In any epidemic, they will all die. The law of natural selection must work in the animal world. The fittest must survive. And hunting is one of the ways to improve the population of a species, as paradoxical as it may sound. By the way, I absolutely sincerely love animals more than people. The beast does not have qualities that I cannot stand in a person - meanness, for example.
- He successfully completed the projects that Rostislav Shilo started. Do you have your own projects?
- Not all. There is also a giraffe, which has not even been started yet, but which will definitely happen. My father also dreamed of building a cascade of three lakes flowing into each other and into Yeltsovka. Now, to implement it, it will be necessary to resettle several families who live in private houses.I also have ideas. We are thinking of building a pavilion for Japanese macaques with a warm geyser. Because Japanese macaques can only stay outside until minus five. But when they have a warm source, they easily adapt to Siberian winters. It also looks very cute.
The same dolphinarium was our project, but we were unable to implement it ourselves - it was expensive, so we attracted private investors. Now it is a separate private enterprise.
By the way, opinions are divided on this matter. All over the world, dolphinariums are being closed because the ultrasound reflected from the walls makes it difficult for them to stay indoors.
Animals will not breed in poor conditions. If the water meets the standards, the room is large, and there is good nutrition and care, then they feel great.
Some people believe that wild animals should not be kept in zoos. But it is zoos that preserve endangered species. For example, the English zoo helped preserve David's deer, the Novosibirsk zoo saved the Altai mountain sheep, the argali, from extinction. Amur tigers and Far Eastern leopards breed here. In general, there are fewer and fewer large cats in nature. This is a worldwide problem. If some kind of epidemic occurs, then certain species on the planet will very quickly cease to exist.
- There are various rumors that the zoo can be sold to private individuals. Who owns it now?
- They're lying. The zoo is a municipal enterprise. Private investment comes here only in the form of sponsorship. But city authorities are not involved in the development of the zoo. If there is any help, it is minimal. We exist solely through self-sufficiency. This is a very important point - there are only three zoos in the world that pay for themselves. These are Novosibirsk, Singapore and San Diego. At the same time, both Singapore and San Diego enjoy very comfortable climatic conditions. They don't need heating, for example, on which we spend a lot of money. And despite all the difficulties, we not only feed ourselves, but also develop at a rapid pace, and despite the crisis.You still have a sign on your door that says this is the office of director Rostislav Shilo. Isn't it time to change?
Many people are already telling me that this sign needs to be replaced, but I’m not mentally ready yet. It still seems to me that the time has not yet come.
Scarlet Cuban flamingos will settle in the Novosibirsk Zoo. Director Andrei Shilo told Vesti about plans for the development of the recreation area beloved by the townspeople this week: if negotiations on the supply of birds, which will take place on Monday, go well, then the pavilion for flamingos will be opened before the end of the year. In addition, Rostislav Shilo’s dream of building a pavilion for African animals is not far off - and then giraffes, antelopes and zebras will settle in the heart of Siberia: almost fantastic - in fact, like the zoo itself, built during the years of perestroika. When the whole country was surviving, the Novosibirsk Animal House grew and developed, in 20 years it became the best in Russia, and today it is one of the twenty best zoos in the world. The absolute merit is not even from Novosibirsk - a native of Primorye, Rostislav Aleksandrovich Shilo. We’ll tell you little-known facts about the biography of a restless, restless, happy Man with a capital M right now.
You definitely wouldn’t expect to find a pre-revolutionary edition of “Faust” in Rostislav Shilo’s office, but he was such a man – with a voracious interest in life. In the office of the current director Andrei Shilo, everything is the same as in his father’s office, except that a computer has appeared. Gifts from all over the world - Yerevan, Sao Paulo, Minsk... As if the whole planet knows who Rostislav Shilo is and what kind of miracle this is - the Novosibirsk Zoo.
Where does the energy, strength, ability to be first, to take responsibility for everything and everyone come from? Rostislav Shilo is a descendant of the princely family in the sixth generation. Great-grandfather - state councilor, general of the tsarist army. Father is a game warden, geologist, scientist. Rostislav was born a year before 1941, in the Primorsky Territory. The father went to serve, the mother and the children left for evacuation to Kuibyshev. So he remained in Siberia for the rest of his life.
The profession for young Rostislav was written in his family: in a family where the cult of nature reigned from childhood, and he himself did not let go of a single wounded animal without help, things would not have turned out differently. He graduated from the veterinary department of the Kuibyshev Agricultural Technical School, then worked in Novosibirsk, at the zoo - then still tiny, near the Central Market. In 1961 he became an animal care worker, then a veterinarian, director of an animal exhibition, and head of the mammal section.
Finally, a 29-year-old guy from Primorye becomes the director of the Novosibirsk Zoo. Entire career in 8 years. There would be no higher position in his life, but the status was not interesting to him at all - Shilo was truly interested in animals, their study, help, breeding in captivity. In the Novosibirsk Zoo, for the first time in the world, a river otter, an Asian spruce grouse, and a Kamchatka bighorn sheep were born under artificial conditions... Do you think it’s simple? For days on end at the cage - in the rain, snow, heat. Labor is when you live not for yourself, but for the sake of the beast.
Rosa Solovyova, head of the carnivore section of the Novosibirsk Zoo named after R. A. Shilo:“That’s why we probably say that we have classical music, classical writers, great poets - so, in his field, as far as animals are concerned, he was also a great man.”
The great one easily took up a shovel, a broom, carried bags, removed garbage together with the workers - he controlled and was an example. “One in a million,” his former employees say about him. On a bear with bare hands, on a wolf in a cage, on a tiger in the mouth - and this happened in Shilo’s life, when a predator choked and it was necessary to urgently save him. For the sake of what he needed, Rostislav Alexandrovich could come to an agreement with anyone - both with the beast and with the official. With the latter it was sometimes much more difficult.
Andrey Shilo, director of the Novosibirsk Zoo named after R. A. Shilo:“The tiger opened his mouth and gave him a bone: the official nevertheless listened and somehow reacted more loyally. My father was never stopped by bureaucratic issues. He had a task to build - he took it and built it. And then I figured it out.”
The main thing in his life was construction - a new zoo for the city near the Zaeltsovsky forest. They moved here from the center in 1993. It was either madness, or fate, or magic - to build from scratch one of the wonders of Russia during the years of perestroika. Rostislav Aleksandrovich thought not only about animals - he saved people: in the crazy, hungry, incredibly difficult 90s, his employees did not know about the delays in salaries at all. A thrifty, strong businessman.
Svetlana Verkholantseva, head of the veterinary department of the Novosibirsk Zoo named after R. A. Shilo:“He tried to lay cement in the foundation, and lay out stones, and lay gratings - he also practically knew how to do all this. He controlled every step - that’s probably why everything worked out.”
The authorities also trusted his intuition and talents. In 2011, Shilo was asked to take under her wing a subsidiary farm in the Moshkovsky district: 30 heads, in the farms there was cellophane instead of windows. Like, pick it up - it will help, you can feed predators and birds. He performed a miracle again: today he goes out into the fields new technology, 600 heads of cattle, four hundred sheep, an apiary, arable land - a thousand hectares.
Oleg Potapov, Deputy Director of the Novosibirsk Zoo named after R. A. Shilo:“It’s like when there are two children in a family, one grown up and the other small - Shiloh fit in like that... He loved farming with all his soul.”
To feed the animals and birds, a year you need 100 tons of grain, 18 tons of milk, 250 tons of hay - and the zoo gets all this from here, as well as honey (a delicacy for bears), partly meat... And again, Shilo helped not only the animals - 50 village residents got a job and more.
Olesya Gerasimenko, correspondent:“Seven years ago, Rostislav Aleksandrovich built this residential building with 11 apartments for the farm workers - all well-equipped, with sewerage, hot and cold water. The only apartment building in the village. People here don’t pay for rent or utilities, except for electricity.”
Andrey Shilo, director of the Novosibirsk Zoo named after R. A. Shilo: “He always did everything for the people, for the city. A patriot, a very great patriot.”
There was so much pride in the country, in our native zoo in 2013, when the Olympic torch relay passed through Novosibirsk - our zoo was the first in the world where such an event took place. Rostislav Aleksandrovich probably could not even dream of this, although he was a big dreamer. Happiness for the city is that almost everything that Shiloh had in mind was magically realized. My dream is one of the last ones - a dolphinarium. The Dolphinarium was opened after the death of Rostislav Alexandrovich. Fortunately, Shiloh is a dynasty of dreamers. Son Andrei Rostislavovich continues his father’s work: next in line is the construction of a house for flamingos, a pavilion for African animals - the Novosibirsk Zoo will have zebras, giraffes, and antelopes.
For half a century that he stood at the helm of the Novosibirsk Zoo, Rostislav Shilo made it one of the best in the country and in the world. Demanding, persistent, hardworking, giving, lucky. A newcomer, but who became his own to the end, who loved the city with all his heart, beloved by the townspeople, the King of Beasts.
About the situation with , the incompetence of the transfer of which to a commercial company was confirmed by the prosecutor's office, . Mitrofanov points out in the comments: “The agreement was concluded without a competition and in fact represents a transfer of sublease of municipal land plot, which is directly prohibited by Article 18-FZ “On State and Municipal Unitary Enterprises”.
In response to a request from RBC Novosibirsk, the municipal unitary enterprise “Novosibirsk Zoo” reported that they had not received a decision from the prosecutor’s office at the time of comment. “Once the decision is received, appropriate measures will be taken,” said zoo director Andrei Shilo.
Business and management of MUP
At the beginning of the year, there were reports that 70 Novosibirsk officials are also entrepreneurs and are engaged in business contrary to the requirements of the law. Among them was the name of Andrei Shilo.
From the response of the acting head of the department of legal and personnel work of the mayor’s office L.I. Chernykh, sent to Mitrofanov, it follows that Shilo filed applications to the tax authority to leave Arlikom LLC on March 6 of this year, and Shilo left Sib-nova LLC March 3, 2017.
Andrei Shilo himself, regarding the situation with charges of violation of Federal Law 161 related to the illegal business of civil servants, explained:
“By the time I was appointed to the position of director, I was not the owner, founder or manager of other legal entities. The application to resign from the founders of Sib-Nova LLC was submitted in 2015. According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, termination of membership in the organization is considered from the moment the corresponding application is submitted"
At the request of an RBC Novosibirsk correspondent, lawyer Olga Zabalueva commented on this situation. Indeed, the moment of termination of participation coming out participant in an LLC is the moment the company receives an application to withdraw from it.
The obligation of the exiting participant to notarize his application enshrined in law since January 1, 2016. Until this time, the application was submitted in simple written form.
It turns out that the director of Sib-Nova LLC, Sergei Podgorny, and the director of Arlicom LLC, Artem Zuev, did not submit data to make changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for a year and a half. “The director is obliged to submit information to the tax office within 5 days,” comments Zabalueva. “For violation of the deadlines for submitting data to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, administrative liability is provided - a fine of 5 thousand rubles.”
Moreover, if a participant leaving the company sees that no changes have appeared in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, he can himself, with a notarized statement, apply to the tax office with an application to withdraw from the founders. This is what Andrei Shilo did (as follows from the document signed by L.I. Chernykh from the Novosibirsk City Hall) in March 2017.
Competitions and auctions
Analyzing the composition of the participants of Zoologika LLC, to which the zoo transferred the right “to organize and provide services to the population,” Mitrofanov points to the fact that a number of individuals repeatedly overlapped among the founders and/or directors of companies that won contracts from the zoo for certain goods and services.
Thus, Radik Margaryan, who is one of the founders of Zoologica LLC, is the buyer of a 100% stake in Dalar LLC, the only participant of which until April 2016 was Andrei Shilo. Margaryan is a member of Berkut LLC, which won a contract from the zoo for 1.4 million rubles. Until August last year, there was the “Shilovskoye Hunting and Tourist Farm”, the founders of which, along with the older and younger Shilo and Margaryan, included a number of other people - Vladimir Afonin, Sergey Ionkin. Afonin, Mitrofanov points out, is the owner of Selstroymontazh LLC, this LLC won contracts worth 5 million rubles from the zoo in 2015.
Along with Shilo, the founders of the aforementioned Sib-nova included Sergei Podgorny, who also owns Stroypark LLC. This company won tenders from the zoo in the amount of 41 million rubles.
Zabalueva reported that formally the companies listed by Mitrofanov are not affiliated with the Novosibirsk Zoo municipal unitary enterprise. “We can assume that the beneficiaries, directors and founders of the companies that won the competitions are probably people close and friendly to the management of the zoo. This is logical - if they previously worked within the same company, they are clearly not strangers. But formally there is no violation of the law in this situation.”
Shilo explains that the commercial activities of Sib-Nova LLC and the Shilovskoye farm, where Rostislav and Andrey Shilo were once the founders, were not actually carried out, and the latter enterprise was created “as a non-profit organization for environmental purposes for the release of animals into their natural habitat , forcibly removed from nature."
Regarding the companies that win tenders for the supply of goods and services to the zoo, Shilo said: “All organizations with which the municipal unitary enterprise “Novosibirsk Zoo named after R. A. Shilo” enters into transactions win in competitive procedures solely by providing the most profitable for the zoo conditions - low prices, quality and terms of service provision."
