Igor Shpilenok (born 28 February 1960) is a Russian wildlife photographer, founder and first director of the Bryansky Les Nature Reserve, author of several books, and environmental inspector.

Shpilenok was born in Bryansk Oblast, and his father was a passionate hunter who tried to make his son interested in hunting.

During the winter he collected the money and in the next spring he returned to the same meadow with a new camera, only to find scorched terrain and chopped trees.

He wrote essays about the forest and its fragile beauty and sent them with his own photos to the local newspaper, Bryanskiy Rabochiy (Bryansk Worker).

[4] In the early 1990s, when almost no governmental financial support was given to the Bryansk forest, Shpilenok managed to attract international donors through WWF and promote conservation ideas among the locals.

[5][6][7] After 10 years of working in Bryansk forest, Shpilenok left the director post and decided to pursue his other childhood dream — discovering Kamchatka.

Tikhon Shpilenok assembled a team of state inspectors that included his uncle Dmitry, brother Peter, father Igor and the best specialists from different nature reserves of Russia.

His step-mother Laura Lynne Williams was forced to leave Kamchatka because due to her American citizenship she was the easiest target for the threats.

[9][10][11] 13 years later the story of their struggle to eliminate poaching was shown in Dmitry Shpilenok's film Sockeye Salmon, Red Fish [ru].

[15] He wanted to use the blog as a tool to attract wide attention to Russia's unique wild nature and the threats it has due to human intrusion.

[2][27] Shpilenok drove 60,000 km, visiting more than 50 nature reserves and national parks, where he shot several series of photo stories, such as Virgin Forests of Russia.

Impressed by his son's passion, Shpilenok's father ceased hunting and joined the ranks of Bryansk forest inspectors fighting illegal poaching.