Russian Crane Project - An Inside Look

By Jim Dunster

This year was the tenth anniversary of the Russian Crane Project and the eighth year that the National Aviary led this reintroduction effort. It was another successful trip, safely transporting 19 eggs from Red-crowned and White-naped Cranes that had been brought in from 11 different zoos from across the country all the way to a Russian nature preserve.

If you think that any international travel is difficult nowadays, imagine a one-way trip involving three flights with half-day layovers, an eight hour train ride, a major language barrier, and a little bit of anti-American sentiment, all the while guarding 19 eggs containing endangered birds that must be kept at a specific temperature. Imagine the destination at the end of this journey - a field station in Siberia with no indoor plumbing and rampant with ticks that can give you the absolute final headache of your life within 24 hours of biting you- and you have not only one of the most stressful travel stories you can come up with, but the reality that staff members face each year on their trip to the Khinganski Nature Reserve.

Iâve done this trip three times, and this is basically how it goes.

Our three-day trek to the Amur region of Eastern Russia started Tuesday, May 20 at 11:00 am, when Chris Munch, a National Aviary Lead Aviculturist, Mark DeLong, a Senior Keeper from the Bird Department at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, and I, the Aviaryâs Curator of Birds, started loading up the eggs for the trip. The eggs are each placed in a small basket and then set on top of a hot water bottle inside an insulated cooler. Basically, through our roles as guardians of the five foam cooler ãnests,ä incubating the eggs and guarding them against predators and air turbulence, we have been transformed into surrogate parents.

The eggs must be hand-checked at the airports because they cannot go through the x-ray machines. Once on the plane, we place the coolers under the seats in front of us. Our next stop was JFK airport in New York where we met an officer from U.S. Fish and Wildlife, who inspected the eggs and checked to make sure our permits were in order. Then it is a five-hour wait for our next flight, during this time we keep a careful eye on the temperature in the coolers. The ideal temperature is 99 degrees Fahrenheit, with an allowable variation of just a few degrees lower to not harm the chick. Too hot, though, and the chick can die. A digital thermometer is attached to the top of each cooler to monitor the temperature so we donât need to lift the lid.

The next leg of the trip is a ten-hour flight from New York to Moscow. During this flight we had to change the water bottles two or three times with the help of flight attendants to maintain the heat. Sleep is not much of an option because we are constantly checking the temperature in the coolers. After our long flight across the Atlantic, we finally arrived in Moscow. On Russian jetliners, each time a successful landing is made, the passengers burst into raucous, and frighteningly genuine, applause. We try not to think about this for the next legs of the trip.

Thankfully we were met at the airport by someone from the Moscow Zoo who speaks English. This is a necessity, since the customs agents do not speak English and we don't speak Russian. Chris, however, did loosely translate ãdumbkoff Americanskiä muttered in German from the long line formed behind him at the currency exchange. But even with translation help, getting through customs is a long and difficult ordeal. Customs agents are often highly suspicious of eggs traveling internationally. Add a language barrier, and some red (square) tape, and the delays can last a Siberian winter. Even though we have all the proper permits needed, the customs agents say we need more paperwork and they send our contact from the zoo off to a government building to fill out new forms. This happens nearly every year. Then the three of us and the 19 eggs sit at customs and wait for her to return, using lukewarm water from the menâs room to fill the water bottles. Finally, after another mind-numbing five hours sitting in customs and a mysterious set of transactions, the customs agents are satisfied with the new forms and we are allowed through, only to wait another seven hours for our next flight.

The flight from Moscow to Kharborov is ten hours, jam packed with less sleep, more water bottle change-outs, and another happy round of applause, adding to our slaphappy bewilderment. One of the researchers from the Khinganski Nature Reserve, Vladimir, found us at the airport and then escorted us to the train station. This is even more important than having a translator at customs. This far into Russia, we would have difficulty even finding our train in the station. From there, it is an eight-hour train ride to Arkhara, where the nature reserve headquarters are located. Vladimir took over watching the eggs for us, and sleep is no longer an abstract concept.

We arrived at the train station in Arkhara at about 1:00 am on a Friday morning, and were then driven to the headquarters at the reserve. Four days from Pittsburgh, with little sleep and still no showers later, we were finally at the Khinganski Nature Preserve in the midst of fields and wetlands. Immediately the eggs are floated to check for signs of life and are then are put into incubators. There is no test for signs of life in us, but at this point we can take a big sigh of relief knowing that the eggs have made it safely to their final destination and the rest is up to Mother Nature.

We spent over two days on the reserve, observing the cranes that had hatched from the eggs from previous trips. The reserve researchers are gracious hosts, and totally committed to raising cranes to join the migrating wild flocks. And, yes, I did get bit by an encephalitic tick the same morning that the reserve researcher, Rimma, was attacked by a crane. She selflessly doused the pinprick hole in my leg with iodine as her hand gushed blood. At the hospital, I was given a shot of human immuno-globin to boost my immune system. Apparently, I found out later that I received eight times the normal dose, and will probably not catch a cold for several years.

Seeing the cranes in their wetlands habitat, and knowing that the Aviary and other zoo cranesâ progeny were thriving here was the most rewarding part of the trip. We kept that thought in our minds as we headed back on the long trip home, basking in each burst of spontaneous applause.