TYUMEN, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – An endangered bird that once took migration lessons from the Russian president will be examined for gunshot injuries that could have prevented it from going south this fall, an environmental official said Monday.
The Siberian crane, named Raven, had no visible injuries when he was found stranded without his flock in western Siberia’s Tyumen Region earlier this month.
But the bird could have taken a lead shot from a hunter, leaving him with no visible marks, and will be X-rayed for pellets, said Yury Markin, head of the Oksky wildlife reserve in Russia’s central Ryazan Region, where the crane was bred and where he was returned to for examination last week, having been flown by plane to Moscow from the Tyumen Region.
Environmentalists have so far been perplexed as to why the bird did not migrate with the rest of his flock this season.
The extremely rare Siberian cranes are bred in the Oksky reserve, situated some 250 km southeast of Moscow, and then reintroduced into the Siberian taiga.
The released birds are shown migration routes by a human in a hang glider, whom the cranes take for their leader.
President Vladimir Putin personally flew a hang glider last year to lead in flight six Siberian cranes, all tagged by rings on their legs that later made it possible to identify Raven. However, the birds did not go south that year.
No information was available on the present whereabouts of Raven’s five fellow students.
