February 17, 2023
The last surviving West Siberian crane, Omid (Hope), has flown thousands of kilometers back to Iran for the 15th year to spend the winter in Fereydoonkenar on the Caspian coast of Mazandaran province.
Omid, the only known survivor of what was once a vast flock of such cranes in central Russia, arrived at his winter habitat in mid-October after a 6,000-km journey. The bird usually spends four months in the Fereydoonkenar wetland by the Caspian Sea.
Ever since illegal hunters in the north of Iran shot down his mate, Arezou (Wish), back in 2007, Omid has been migrating to and from Iran on his own. He has come to Iran every winter except for 2009 and 2015. It isn’t known where he went those two winters.
Siberian cranes are known as monogamous birds. If a mate dies, the survivor usually continues alone. But Iran and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) hope to change that.
A young female Siberian crane named Sibe has been raised at the ICF reproduction center in Belgium. Keramat Hafezi, a member of the Iran Bird Registration Committee, said Sibe is being brought to Iran. A special cage will be placed near Omid’s habitat so that Sibe can be released gradually while observing the possible attraction or repulsion of the two birds, he explained.
Sibe was raised by her parents and has had minimal contact with humans, so it is hoped she will fit back in with the environment, he said.
According to the Tehran Times, some 12 other cranes have been sent to Iran from the Russian breeding center of Oka with the coordination of ICF; some of which did not migrate, and some did, and even one of them migrated to the western shores of the Caspian Sea. The Siberian crane, also known as the Siberian white crane or the snow crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae. They are distinctive among the cranes for the snowy white color of the adults. The only other breeding population is based in far eastern Russia and winters in China.