Tagged eagle resurfaces in Kazakhstan, conservation gets a boost

Energy Tuesday 24/July/2018 21:50 PM
By: Times News Service
Tagged eagle resurfaces in Kazakhstan, conservation gets a boost

Muscat: A Steppe Eagle, electronically tagged in Oman, has reappeared in Kazakhstan, it has been reported.
The eagle, which belongs to an endangered species, was last traced to Uzbekistan about three-and-a-half months before being rediscovered on July 5.
Earlier, the eagle most likely flew into an area from which the signal could not be received, researchers said. They added that another Steppe Eagle that had been tagged was 60 kms from the bird that resurfaced, revealing a somewhat similar migration pattern.
This information was disclosed by Bernd Meyburg Foundation for Raptor Research and Conservation, on a blog that it maintains. They, along with their partners, including the Environment Society of Oman (ESO), tagged two Steppe Eagles in January 2017.
While being monitored, these birds have been found to spend their winters in Arabia and summers in Central Asia, migrating to countries such as Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and even Russia, along the way.
“We last heard from the Steppe eagle wearing transmitter 105 on March 22. At that time, it was in Uzbekistan and seemed to be near the end of its migration. It had spent the winter near Abha, Saudi Arabia, summered in 2017 in western Kazakhstan, and was caught by us in January 2017 near Muscat, Oman.
“It turned up today, located about 30 km north west of Yekadin, Kazakhstan. The gap in data was due to the bird being outside the area of the GSM network. Hopefully, it will stay within the network for some time, so that the stored location data from the past months can be downloaded. In any case, it is great to know it is alive,” said officials at the Bernd Meyburg Foundation.
“Interestingly, this bird is located only about 60 km from the other Steppe Eagle we are tracking, which is currently about 60 km south west of Yekadin,” officials added in their blog.
The tagging programme is expected to yield information that could help in the conservation of this endangered eagle.