The book of memoirs covers more than half a century from the life of the author. It describes the history of the creation of his other twelve books from the birth of the plan to their publication. The main character of these memories is zoology. The author talks about how his scientific views were formed and developed, recalls extraordinary expeditionary adventures, his teachers, colleagues, friends, wives and all those who, in one way or another, contributed to the accumulation of his biological knowledge and their incarnation into scientific works. The book will help introduce students to the specialty, will help young scientists, and will also enable the general reader to learn "first-hand" how science was done in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.