Ten cranes from the nursery will soon be released into the wild in the Amur region

In the spring of this year, employees of the Reintroduction Station of Rare Bird Species at the Khingan Reserve (Amur Region) plan to release nine Japanese cranes and one Daurian crane into nature. This was announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia on its website.

"The cranes that we release into the wild successfully take root, create pairs, and bring offspring," the agency quotes Nadezhda Kuznetsova, a leading zoo engineer at the Khingan Reserve.

The station for the reintroduction of rare bird species has been in existence since 1988. This is one of two nurseries in Russia that release rare species of cranes into the wild. So, from 1991 to 2023, 200 pupils of the station found themselves in their natural habitat.

"There are also old-timers at our station who have long become symbols of the Khingan Reserve. For example, the station's oldest Japanese crane, named Gongor, is 35 years old. He was given to us to create a parent stock from the Moscow Zoo. We picked up a pair of cranes, but, unfortunately, a female Argali that came to us from the wild with a broken wing turned out to be infertile. We offered Gongor other "girlfriends", but he turned out to be 100% faithful to his chosen one. As a result, this couple became excellent foster parents. We put fertilized eggs in their aviary, and the cranes incubated them, and then brought out and raised the chicks," Kuznetsova said.

According to her, cases of creation of pairs of released cranes with wild relatives and their successful reproduction have been recorded in the Khingan reserve. "For example, for a Japanese crane named Bomnak, a successful migration from 2019 to wintering in China, nesting in pairs with a wild crane on the territory of the Khingan Reserve has been confirmed. In four years, this couple has successfully raised 7 chicks," the message says.