I was motivated by wildlife from my childhood that took place in the Haradishcha village nearby Miensk, Belarus. The countryside childhood with still rich wildlife in the village surroundings played an essential role for my further zoological way with a lot of study in the wild. More or less real zoology started for me since 1980, when I was a student of the Belarusian State University in Miensk. At that time I was mostly interested in the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra, minks (Mustela lutreola and Neovison vison) and wolf Canis lupus.
After graduation of the university, while working for the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, I mainly studied semiaquatic mustelids (the European mink, American mink and Eurasian otter) in the habitat conditions of Belarus, first of all, in Naliboki Forest and Paazierre Forest. Population structure, demography, food niche and habitat usage of the species were investigated. Particular attention was paid to the problem of the European mink vanishing in relation to the American mink expansion.
Zoology by Vadim Sidorovich 