The authors of the book asked themselves questions: what are the origins of the characters of the Russian bestiary? Is it only the bizarre fantasy of our ancestors that gave rise to images of mermaids, swamp kikimors, goblin, Baba Yaga, the Serpent Gorynych and other mythical and mysterious animals and humanoid creatures? Where did the cult of the lizard-corcoder come from in Rus'? Is it acceptable to assume that this entire bestiary coexisted with man in the same territories for centuries and even millennia? A long-term search for these our "neighbors on the planet", cooperation with other "hunters of relics", the study of materials about unknown animals - all this allows us to shed new light on the nature of the Russian bestiary.