New Odyssey - tracking black storks to their wintering grounds

Czech Radio is co-organizer of a project which involves tracking black storks to their wintering grounds in Africa and India. The aim of this project is not just to help establish the various migration routes that these birds take every spring and autumn but to help protect them along the way. The last experiment conducted with three black storks to which zoologists attached monitoring devices in Siberia last autumn shows how important it is to try and ensure their greater safety. Two of them perished - Katarina, a stork that had been monitored for four years, was shot in Pakistan, Peter's flight ended somewhere in the Afghan mountains. The fate of the third stork -Roman -is unknown. Lubomir Peske is a zoologist involved in the project :

"In 1994 we launched the African Odysey project in the course of which we studied the migration of black storks from the Czech Republic to Africa. Last year we decided to go to Siberia to monitor the flight of black storks from this breeding ground. In the spring we attached transmitters to three black storks in the vicinity of Novosibirsk. All three adult birds flew south, they started the migration very soon -in late August or early September - and it came as a surprise to us that they each took a slightly different route."

What was their destination - did they all reach their destination?

"Well, from Siberia they have to fly south, of course. In the winter there are minus forty degree temperatures in the region. Black storks feed on fish so they cannot survive in that area. They have to fly south but in doing so they inevitable meet a big obstacle - the Himalayan Mountains -the roof of the world - so most of them, not just storks but all migratory birds, fly south-west in order not to have to cross the highest mountain ranges but to fly more or less over lowlands and at the last moment they turn south-east and cross the Hindu Kush mountains. One of our storks -Peter - unfortunately died in the Hindu Kush mountains and we decided to undertake a trip to try to find his transmitter and find out what happened to him. By then we knew that Katarina had also perished and we wanted to recover her transmitter as well. From satellite data we knew that her transmitter was probably located in a house near the Indus river somewhere in the Karakoram mountains. We suspected that she had been shot and when we got there we found that this was true. She had been shot and eaten by some of the locals."

Both of those storks were on dangerous territory so to speak. One died in Afghanistan in the mountains, he may have been shot -you are not sure, the other in Pakistan -and I understand that people shoot birds regularly in this region...?

"Yes, yes, the locals hunt migratory birds. In fact they await the migration period with anticipation. The spring migration is fairly fast so it does not provide them with so many opportunities. But autumn migration is a very good time for shooting and on any water basin, even puddles, you will find wooden duck dummies. These dummies attract live birds and when they come close they are shot. It is typical for this region and we can't really complain because it is normal even in Europe. People hunt ducks here as well."

Well, the aim of this project is not just to ascertain what routes migratory birds take but also to help protect them on the way. Were you able to do anything in this respect? Did you negotiate with the local authorities or is it impossible to protect birds that fly over these territories?

"When we arrived in Pakistan we were very surprised to find how active the WWF is in the country. Of course there are serious problems on the basic level and bird protection is something above that. So this is something that the WWF aims to solve in the future. But they invited us and they were interested in Katarina's fate. I think this is something they can use for educational purposes. The true story of a black stork who was shot and eaten."

But do you feel that there is a chance ? Because if these people shoot for food and it is a question of providing for their family-well, do you think they would be considerate enough not to shoot a stork if it were there?

"You know when we met the boy's family - the people who shot the stork and ate it- after a short discussion we were surprised to find that that these people shoot birds like black storks because they don't know anything about bird protection, about rare species. Knowing that they can respect it and even protect such birds. This man, the head of the family, said that he would never again shoot black storks and he was sure that he could explain this to the whole village so that they would spare this species in the future. Everything is only a question of knowledge and education. These people living in the mountains are very close to Nature and aware of the need to protect it. We were told for example that some villages decided not to hunt partridges for two years because they found that their number was reduced. This was their own decision -not to hunt them for two years. So certainly if they had the necessary information they would make this decision for other species as well."

There is one stork still out there somewhere...?

Well, the last bird - Roman - flew very quickly to a wintering ground in eastern Turkmenistan. Unfortunately his transmitter failed about two months ago so we have no way of knowing where he is at this point. But we hope that he is alive and will return to the breeding grounds in Siberia. We hope to see him again there because we plan to return to Siberia and pick out three new storks to which we will attach satellite transmitters. We hope that next year we can follow them to their real wintering grounds somewhere in India."