Students help reintroduce endangered saker falcon in Tatarstan

Biology students intern at Kamskoye Ustye District of Tatarstan at the first ever falcon reintroduction center in Russia.

The project is sponsored by Sibur Holding and Kholzan Center for Rehabilitation of Birds of Prey. Volunteers take care of saker falcon chicks and observe their environmental adaptation.

Master’s student Ivan Chaplashkin comments, “Ten chicks were brought from a nursery farm in Moscow Oblast. Two comfortable handmade nests were installed for them on a tree. Each of the nests can house 10 birds.”

Chaplashkin notes of the ongoing observation, “We have to look at the birds’ growth in this ideal environment – a comfortable home and everyday feeding. One of them has basically been out of the nest all the time already. In the end, all of them must leave for the wild to hunt individually. We don’t yet know whether they choose to leave Tatarstan for overwintering. However, they can return for their own nesting because they already see this place as their home. If they have enough resources, they can stay because they are adapted to cold climates.”

The volunteers have an encampment and everything they need for work. Each shift comprises three or four students. They observe and feed birds from dawn till dusk. Overall, there are 27 students who have enrolled in the project. Before the end of July, all birds should become autonomous and leave the nest.

Saker falcons used to live in Tatarstan but were extirpated – both by poachers and by pigeon breeders.