March 17, 2023
Omid, the last survivor of the Siberian cranes that wintered in Iran, flew back home to Siberia March 5-traveling with his new female companion, Roya, who was introduced to him from Europe over the winter in hopes that they would take to one another.
The pair left Fereydunkenar International Wetland in Mazan-daran on the shore of the Caspian Sea heading north, Hassan Akbari, an official with the Department of the Environment, said.
In Persian, Omid and Roya mean Hope and Dream, respectively.
After losing his first spouse, Arezoo (Wish), almost two decades ago, Omid came back almost every year to the Fereydun-kenar International Wetland for wintering.
Considering that Omid is the last survivor of the western population of Siberian cranes, the Department of the Environment decided to introduce him to a young female Siberian crane from the Cracid & Crane Breeding and Conservation Center (CBCC) in Belgium.
They appear to have been attracted to one another as they stayed together in Fereydunkenar and have now flown north together. Environmental experts hope Omid and Roya will return to Iran next year.
According to the International Crane Foundation website, the only other site where Siberian cranes are found is in Far Eastern Russia.
That population breeds in northeastern Siberia and winters at Poyang Lake in the Lower Yangtze River Basin in China. In the Western population, only Omid continues to winter along the south coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran. Omid summers just south of the Ob River in Russia.
The oldest documented crane was a Siberian Crane named Wolf, who died at the age of 83.