The hunt is more than captivity

The Baloban Geno Fund in Russia and other countries are threatened: annually, birds are illegally caught by thousands and resell for falcon hunting in Arab countries, where it is extremely difficult for them to survive and even more to continue the clan. How great is the danger and what can be done? With these issues, I turned to Elena Schneider , the chairman of the Novosibirsk branch of the Russian Bird Security Union. Additional comments were given by members of the Russian network of study and protection of birds of predators (RRRCN): Director of the Siberian Ecological Center Elvira Nikolenko and coordinator of the Monitoring program Igor Karyakin . Now they are in Tanzania - they are watching the birds that have arrived from Russia.

Handsome and perfect family man

More recently, the Baloban ( Falco Cherrug ) could be found in fact in all open ecosystems: from semi -deserts to high -mountain steppes. Unless in the tundra his ecological niche is occupied by a close relative, a representative of the same jacket of large falcons, - Krechchet.

Baloban hunts for everyone who suits him in size: from larks to partridges, from mice to hare -like ones. Unlike most predatory birds with their favorite hunting method, the Baloban is universal. He will sing the prey sitting on stones or trees, waiting for it at the hole on the ground or runs, bending and hiding in the grass; It can grab another bird on the fly, or it can soar, looking out for food from above.

Balobans are also not picky with nesting. They themselves do not build nests, but with pleasure they occupy other people's nests on the rocks, and on trees, and on man -made structures, and even on Earth. In addition, balobans are able to postpone up to seven eggs. Only small falcons (for example, emptyness), which are fewer a baloban five times, can boast of such fertility.

Also, these birds are characterized by a responsible attitude to parental duties. The most amazing for the world of wildlife is that the child -loving balobans are ready to take care of not only their blood relatives, but also about any over -year -olds who accidentally fell into their territory.

Women are to blame for everything

Until 1970, the Baloban range was a wide strip coming from Europe to the Far East, from the steppe zones of Russia to the foothills of the Tien Shan. Today, according to various estimates, in only 6 to 15 thousand pairs of these predators lives in various estimates. The range narrowed to several spots in hard -to -reach places.

The story about why suddenly such an adapted bird became rare, Elena Schneider begins from afar - with a story about Cantaridin. This is the venom of the non -head nature that beetles produced: first of all, nipes (for example, the span flush) and some barbel.

Not all birds can eat insects producing cantaridin. Bustard-beautiful is one of the rare exceptions. Moreover, as it turned out, for the male, the tattoos are not just food, but also the key to the heart of the ladies. In the wedding period, the male Drumph is especially actively eating navels, trying to get rid of parasites and increase the chances of success in the female.

Such a diet unexpectedly led to unpleasant consequences for the Droof. For a person, 40–80 g of cantaridine per kilogram of weight will become a deadly dose. Once on the skin, this substance causes severe irritation, ulcers, abscesses. But its concentration in the meat of males of the bref in the wedding period is such that the poison turns into an aphrodisiac. Elena believes that initially precisely because of this, a falconry for a rampant became popular in the Arab countries. One of the last peaks of the popularity of this fun came in the 1970s, a period of economic growth, when many wealthy Arab men were able to afford their own predatory bird.

Sokolina hunting is possible not only with the Balobans, but it was they who turned out to be perfect birds for hunting in the countries of the Persian Gulf. For example, the gyrfaller lives in spacing areas, and therefore in the climate of the Arab countries survives worse. Sol-Sapsan can live in a hot climate, but he has a different tactic of hunting, and therefore he is also far from ideal. So for hunting in Arab countries, it is traditionally that Balobanov continues to use.

Sad statistics

It is noteworthy that through the Arab countries the Balobans migrated to the masses only until 1990, while the East-European population of the species remained. But at the same time, about 7 thousand birds are sold for falconry in this region. Only 500 licenses for capture around the world are issued, 2 more are bought from nurseries. Alas, the remaining 4.5 thousand birds are caught by poachers.

The main countries-buyers are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE. Black export leaders are well known to scientists and countries: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Syria.

“Ordinary Baloban on wintering and flights was caught almost completely,” says Elena. - The Arab economic miracle survived only settled populations or those that migrated at short distances (there are such birds in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan).

Catch, bird, big and small

Most of all, Arabs are appreciated by females up to two years old. The highest prices are for one of the extreme plain colors: a female white or dark color. The motley birds were lucky in this regard, and this also has an explanation. In European, or ordinary, falcons, with which the Arab sheikhs initially dealt, the color of the back was plain, without painting. The trouble is that the European Balobans were practically caught, and the love of plain birds remained. Rare steel not only evenly painted white or dark birds, but also of the balobans with a plain back. And their rarity in nature increases the price even more.

Love for females is also explained simply: females of the Baloban are larger than males. (So ​​all predatory birds.) The male weighs from 700 g to 1 kg, and females - from 1 kg to 1300, young people are chosen because they are easier to train. As a result, 93% of birds imported into the Arab countries are females, of which 70% are young. It is not surprising that in the wild in the population there is a gender bias. Elena said that she and her colleagues have been watching for several years how several males cannot wait for the female, and young females strive for reproduction, not reaching four years of age.

“We find couples where a two -year -old female is trying to start a family,” Elena sighs. - Naturally, most of these attempts are unsuccessfully.

With the question of how great the threat to the Balobans is, I turn to Elvir Nikolenko.

“I can’t say that the Baloban is on the verge of disappearance,” the ornithologist replies. - Most of the survivors from the point of view of Sokolina hunting is not interesting. An ordinary Baloban (or European) Baloban was interesting - he was already caught. The Altai morph is interesting; She, too, almost ceased to meet in nature. The extermination of falcons, without a doubt, impoverishes the gene pool of the species. Is it possible to justify this at least? Of course not! Baloban over the past half a century is the most rapidly reduced species of birds of prey.

Genotype and phenotype

More than ten years ago, a group of Austrian scientists tried to find differences between different groups of falcons at the genetic level [ 1 ]. They took samples of balobans and other large falcons: Lanner ( Falco Biarmicus , Africa), Laggar ( Falco Jugger , India), Krechetov ( Falco Rusticolus , north of Russia). The authors failed to find genetic markers that would distinguish one species from another. Analysis of the frequency of alleles suggested that large falcons originated in Africa, and from there spread in separate waves to Asia and Eurasia.

This work was the first genetic study of large falcons. However, after her there were more questions than answers. In addition, the authors poorly imagined the geography of Russia and Kazakhstan, and the labels on the samples were not always filled in detail.

Igor Karyakin had to work additionally with the results of the Austrian study: to clarify the specific places for obtaining samples from those who collected them, to draw up a real map of the haplotypes of Sokolov. As a result, it turned out that among all the examples studied, the same European subspecies is held apart (it is highlighted in the work as a haplotype B). At the same time, both haplotypes (A and B) are found in samples from the eastern population. Hatlotype A is also found at Creacket, Lanner and Laggar. This suggests that all four types are connected with each other, that is, their genetic separation in the process of evolution has not yet occurred.

In 2016, similar studies were begun in Russia. Lyudmila Zinevich and Daria Rozhkova (Institute of Biology of Development named after N.K. Koltsov RAS) investigated 116 samples from the Alta-Sayan region. It turned out that the birds of the Altai morphs contain both haplotype A and the haplotype V.

“So the genetic analysis of the D-Petli, according to which the haplotypes are allocated, does not help to understand what subspecies the Altai morph belongs to,” Elena Schneider summarizes the work with geneticists. - But now in Hungary, work is underway to study the full genome of Balobans. I think the result will be interesting.

Maniac is released

“But where does such a huge annual demand come from?” - I can't resist. - How many balobans do you need to saturate the Arab market, taking into account their high price?

My interlocutors smile bitterly: "Do not saturate this market!"

In the Arab countries, there is a tradition at the end of each season to let the falcons into the wild, but from a biological point of view it is rather a joyless news.

“In this case, letting go of the will means sending to certain death,” Elena explains. - After all, they produce Balobanov in the same countries of the Persian Gulf, in the middle of the desert, in places where the balobans cannot live.

According to the observations of scientists, falcons released to the will most often die of hunger, dehydration or high temperatures or can even eat each other if they were grown in the incubator and did not capture the image of parents.

“If the falcon by some miracle does not die from the heat and dehydration, the relatives can kill him,” Elena explains. - Unfortunately, these are birds in great stress, with a broken psyche aimed at murder. In human society, we would call such individuals maniacs. As a result, the female released in all her gentlemen sees only prey and is simply dangerous for the population. There is no benefit in such a release at all.

Dark, aggressive and stress -resistant

Altai morphs can boast of a dark color, which means they are popular among Arab buyers. Dark -colored birds have undoubted advantages. In 2011, the publication of [ 2 ] scientists from Lausanne University, which considered the effect of color on the physiological characteristics of the body, was published. It turned out that melanists are more resistant to stress and ... more symmetrical.

Chicks behave differently in the nest. More calm feathers grow more evenly. So, these birds stand more. Scientists from Switzerland showed that in dark individuals humoral immunity is better pronounced, they are less susceptible to bites of blood -sucking insects, better regulate the energy balance and more resistant to hunger - beneficial properties from the point of view of carriers and balobans.

Another plus for lovers of falcon hunting is the aggressiveness of melanists.

“Because of their aggressiveness, we get a significant percentage of birds who died in contractions with other feathered predators,” says Igor Karyakin. - This has already been described many times in scientific articles, and we are constantly observing this in practice. When, for example, an eagle, for example, an eagle, tries to hide and wait for the hunting area to the Baloban of a variegated color. The dark Baloban is trying to get into a fight even with a larger rival. We know several cases when the Altai dark stains tried to catch kite and kurganniks as food. Such a hunt is successful in only 50% of cases. Very often, the falcon is left without eyes, which, of course, does not contribute to its successful survival.

The range of ordinary Baloban (the most valuable for Arab buyers) over the past 30 years has decreased by 96%. In other nuclei of the population, according to my interlocutors, the number is also reduced, but not so intense.

“As a result, Baloban has lost his role in many ecosystems,” says Igor. -Somewhere the role of the Baloban was taken by other predators, and in other places it remained unoccupied. About three percent of the liberated range, in mountainous areas, the Baloban was replaced by the sappsans. In the forest -steppe and the steppes, where the Baloban was the only falcon, the eagles remained - burial grounds and kurganniks. But often the niche of the Baloban remains unoccupied: there are a number of rodents in which the eagles do not hunt due to the features of their behavior. As for the owls, they control the number of only twilight and night rodents. A number of daytime species after the disappearance of the Baloban are controlled only by diseases. As a result, the frequency of epizootics increased in such places.

What to do?

"What to do?" - I ask the eternal Russian question. The answer of my interlocutors seems to be well thought out.

“Of course, at first it would be good to exclude threats,” says Elena Schneider. - But the fight against poaching is not in our competence, this is an interstate level. And how are things that you can imagine: recently, the President of Russia in Saudi Arabia gave the local king of the crew. Therefore, we do what we can ...

In 2006, the Siberian Ecological Center initiated a project to protect and study the Baloban. Today it is supported by the funds of WWF Russia and the “world around you” Corporation “Siberian Health”. The most beloved by journalists, part of the project is the release of birds from nurseries, an attempt by scientists to "pour fresh blood into the population." In Russia there are about ten falcon nursers, in two of which in the 1990s they opened the uterum of the Altai Balobans and since then they have successfully bred rare birds.

“We work with the birds of the Altai morph: we buy chicks and plant them in wild foster families,” says Elena Schneider. - For the alignment, we choose specially protected natural territories, reserves, national parks or border areas (where the access of poachers is difficult). In addition, we produce birds in areas where they can lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Preference is given to males: firstly, they are less interesting to poachers; Secondly, males can spread their genes wider.

Each year, experts of the Siberian Ecological Center order about 20 chicks in nurseries. To release into wild nature, the nursery prepares the chicks in advance: only the female will certainly feed them - no incubators and artificial tops. Meanwhile, ornithologists find foster families.

“It is important that the family is small, both parents are alive and good, and the age of the chicks is important,” Elena lists. - We plant chicks at the age of three weeks to chicks of the same age or slightly younger.

But the subspecies and phenotype of future foster parents are completely unimportant: the balobans will accept any baby into the family.

Specialists must help foster families with food.

- We sometimes plant two chicks! But the female lays eggs based on the conditions and the presence of food this year, ”Elena explains. - Once every three days we go around the nests and lay out the food.

Scientists are ringing scientists; If possible, the transmitters are installed in order to track the movement of planted individuals; Hidden cameras are installed in the nests. When the chicks stand on the wing, nature defenders try to organize anti -coloronier camps nearby. The very fact of the presence of people who follow birds scares away poultry. My interlocutors recalled several cases when poachers, seeing a tracker on a bird, did not catch her.

- The tracker indicates an email by which you can report on the find of the bird. Once they wrote to us from China, ”recalls Elena. - The poacher who caught the bird decided that it was private. And according to the secret code, Sokolniki try to return other people's birds. We connected the Chinese colleague who took the baloban and let him go into the wild.

Igor Karyakin does not evaluate the results of this part of the project: during the release of the Altai Morpha chicks in nature (about 50 chicks in four years), ecologists are not known a single case when the bird survived to sexually matured age.

“We cannot say this for sure,” Elvira does not lose hope. -reliably we track the fate of only three or four chicks annually, those on whom the trackers were installed. Unfortunately, there is not enough money for a larger amount.

“This part of the project is primarily the testing of methods for preparing birds from a nursery to life in the wild,” Igor explains.

According to Igor and Elvira, the most important and successful part of the project, which really influences the number of these predators, is the installation of platforms and boxes for nesting. As already mentioned, in nature the balobans do not build nests themselves, but occupy the old nests of other birds. These nests, who lasted all winter on trees, rocks or artificial buildings, can fall in a strong wind along with the chicks. Из маленьких гнезд птенцы зачастую выпадают. А если гнезда не нашлось, балобаны просто не будут выводить потомство.

Перед началом сезона орнитологи готовят новые крепкие «квартиры»: устанавливают специальные ящики, которые могут защитить птенцов от ветра, дождя и града; бортики не дают птенцам случайно выпасть. А еще на птиц в таких ящиках реже нападают другие хищники: филины и беркуты.

Установка специальных платформ и ящиков проводится с 2006 года. Осенью 2020 года было поставлено 40 ящиков и 20 платформ, в 2019 году — в общей сложности 100 ящиков. Далеко не все искусственные гнезда заселяются сразу балобанами: во многих сначала живут другие виды. Ученые подсчитывают количество балобанов на той или иной территории и ставят ящиков в 10 раз больше.

— У птиц должен быть выбор, — объясняет Эльвира. — Он среди прочего зависит и от близости к кормовой базе. Угадать предпочтения птиц мы не можем. Но ящики в любом случае не пустуют — зачастую один и тот же ящик из года в год обживается разными видами.

Эльвира вспоминает, что первые платформы в 2006 году они установили на территории, где балобанов уже почти не осталось — гнездилась лишь одна пара. Сейчас там 20 занятых участков. Но к сожалению, не на всех происходит размножение: часть самцов заняли гнезда, держат охотничий участок, но их самочка попала к браконьерам, а новая слишком молода или ее нет вовсе.

Огромное количество птиц гибнет на ЛЭП от удара током. Чаще всего причиной трагедии становятся линии средней мощности с железобетонными опорами с металлической (заземленной) траверсой и штыревыми изоляторами. В безлесной местности ЛЭП становятся единственным удобным местом для посадки. Да и при наличии деревьев птицы предпочитают устойчивые отдельно стоящие опоры, которые обеспечивают им отличный обзор. Конечно, построенная по всем правилам ЛЭП безопасна для птиц. Поэтому RRRCN многие годы ведет большую программу «Птицы и ЛЭП». В рамках этой программы, например, в сентябре 2020 года были осмотрены, совместно с чиновниками, ЛЭП на самых проблемных участках Хакасии. По результатам проверок Министерство природных ресурсов республики начало административное делопроизводство. Параллельно была проведена встреча с руководством Хакасэнерго, в чьей собственности находится большинство наиболее опасных для птиц ЛЭП: были согласованы планы по реконструкции наиболее «убийственных» линий. По этим планам к весне, когда редкие пернатые хищники начнут возвращаться в Хакасию, ЛЭП уже будут безопасны.

— Самая печальная ситуация с гибелью птиц на ЛЭП, если брать Алтае-Саянский регион, — в Алтайском крае, отмечает Эльвира Николенко. Там выше плотность населения, чем в республиках Алтай и Хакасия, соответственно и большая плотность ЛЭП, в том числе опасных для птиц. Ухудшает ситуацию и то, что в этой местности обычно ставят железобетонные конструкции, тогда как в соседней республике Алтай устанавливают деревянные столбы, не проводящие электричество. Отвечая на мой вопрос, сколько же именно соколов гибнет на ЛЭП, Эльвира вновь напоминает, что экологи могут отследить только судьбу птиц с трекерами. По этим данным, балобанов на ЛЭП гибнет примерно 8%.

Работают мои собеседники и с силовыми структурами.

— В первую очередь мы помогаем им консультациями, сотрудничаем с директорами заповедников и национальных парков и помогаем наладить контакты между сотрудниками охраняемых территорий и силовых ведомств, — объясняет Эльвира.

Кроме браконьеров, по пути на зимовку балобанов ждет еще немало опасностей. Например, очень показательна катастрофа в Монголии 2001–2003 годов. Тогда для борьбы с полевкой Брандта активно использовали яд бромадиолон. В результате численность полевки удалось снизить незначительно и лишь локально, а вот популяция мигрирующих птиц пострадала существенно. Причем удар пришелся как на зерноядных, так и на хищных пернатых. В результате такой борьбы с грызунами численность балобанов в Монголии уменьшилась на 70% по сравнению с 1998–2002 годами. И таких случаев отравления немало.

Далеко не во всех бедах балобана виноват человек. Свою лепту вносит и изменение климата. Специалисты отмечают усиление и учащение гроз с градом в гнездовой период. Из-за изменений в количестве осадков и средней температуры в степях трава становится выше, и балобанам сложнее охотиться.

Я слушаю моих собеседников, а сама думаю о подсаженных птенцах, из которых ни один не дожил до половозрелого возраста. С чем связана такая высокая смертность? С тем, что они принадлежат к редкой и притягательной для браконьеров алтайской морфе? Или всё же птицы из питомника менее приспособлены к жизни на воле? А может, им мешает передатчик?

— Мы снабжаем трекерами не только птенцов из питомника, но и нативных птенцов, — поясняет Игорь Карякин. — По нашим данным видно, что на ЛЭП одинаково гибнут и те и другие. Значительная часть алтайских темных птенцов попадает к браконьерам или гибнет от хищников. Так что это скорее вопрос генетики и спроса.

Когда я уже завершала заметку, стало известно, что в Астраханской области, Калмыкии и Крыму планируют открыть «центры репродукции и сохранения редких видов птиц». Проект уже обсуждался в администрации президента [ 3 ]. Эксперты полагают, что вопреки красивому названию в этих центрах планируется развивать соколиную охоту, и «одна краснокнижная птица будет бить другую краснокнижную». Не исключено, что наличие таких центров (См. комментарий орнитолога Сергея Ганусевича на стр. 7. — Ред .) лишь подстегнет незаконный лов балобана и других крупных соколов.

Так что судьба редких птиц по-прежнему остается под вопросом.

Julia Black