Male Osprey from Russia dies on way to K’taka
JAIPUR: A male Osprey from Russia had reportedly fallen victim to the a windmill on his way to Karnataka, separating him from the female who is nesting at a wetland near Udaipur in southern Rajasthan, said raptor researchers tracking a couple of the fish eating bird that reached India in October.
The female halted at a wetland near Udaipur in southern Rajasthan, said Nirave Bhatt, who does research on raptors at Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. He was tracking the Osprey couple since it began the migration in September from Russia.
“The male, named Serzhik, and the female, called Usina, were satellite tagged in the Sayano-shushensky State Nature Reserve in Russia. The birds came to India to pass the harsh winter of their homeland. But one of them is dead,” he said.
Ospreys are diurnal, fish-eating birds of prey. Ornithologists say these raptors bond for life and this pair reared its brood before starting the migration.
“Usina is unaware about the death of its male partner. The bird reunite on the same breeding ground when they return from migration, most of the times of the same nest,” Bhatt said.
He was in touch with Russian researchers Igor Karyakin, Elena Shikalova, Urmas Sellis and Gunnar Sein, who are trying to understand the reason for decline of Osprey population in Russia.
At the Second International Scientific and Practical Conference on ‘Eagles of the Pale-arctic: Study and Conservation’, researchers suspected that the problem was the place of their migration to escape harsh Russian winters.
To understand the problem, the researchers for the first time installed satellite linked collars on a pair of ospreys.
“The goal of satellite tagging these birds was to discover the reason for their precipitous decli ne i n t he Altai- Sayan region, one of the most inviolate parts of Russia,” said Igor Karyakin, who visited India after the death of the male Osprey.
Rajasthan-based conservation biologist Dr Dharmendra Khandal, who visited Udaipur wetland, where the bird was nesting, said “she was doing fine.”
“Nirav, who was in touch with the Russian scientists, asked me to track the bird in Rajasthan,” Khandal said.
The researchers said both birds independently travelled about 300 to 400 kms per day for 15 days, approximately 5,000 kms to reach their wintering grounds.
The male osprey, Serzhik, went further south and reached Madhya Pradesh where he stayed for about 15 days. He then travelled even further south to Karnataka near the town of Ilkal and mysteriously died there, Bhatt said.
“Last week, Russian researcher Igor Karyakin and Elvira Nikolenko personally visited the area to understand the reason for the death and found that the area had too many windmills and the bird fell into the turbine turbulence zone of the wind turbine, was shellshocked and could not continue the flight, although it remained alive,” Bhatt added.
“It rose from the ground and sat on the support of the power transmission line, where it was killed by electric shock. This detail they recorded because of the satellite tag,” Bhatt said, quoting the Russian researchers.
He said the corpse was missing and may have been taken away and eaten by feral dogs but its feathers were found under an electric pole which was unsafe for birds. The cause of death is assumed to be collision or electrocution.
Ornithologists say wind mills and power lines are an unmitigated menace that kills a large number of local birds as well as migrants.