Since 2019, JSC "Zarubezhneft" has been supporting the "Business and Biodiversity" initiative of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia as part of the "Ecology" National Project to conserve and restore the Siberian Crane (white crane) population. The project executors, FSBI "VNII Ecology" and FSBI "Oka Nature Reserve," plan and implement activities for breeding, nursery rearing, and adapting Siberian Crane chicks to natural wild conditions. Additionally, annual activities are carried out to release year-old Siberian Crane chicks, raised in the Rare Crane Species Nursery at the Oka Reserve, into the wild.
In July 2023, an expedition from FSBI "VNII Ecology," led by Senior Researcher A.P. Shilina, in collaboration with specialists from the Research and Development Coordination Department of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO) Department of External Relations and the GAU YNAO "Arctic Research Center," carried out another release of Siberian Cranes bred in the Rare Crane Species Nursery of the Oka State Nature Biosphere Reserve into the wild.
For release at the historical Siberian Crane nesting site in the "Kunovatsky" State Regional Nature Sanctuary, six young Siberian Cranes — three females and three males — were delivered. They were raised using a special technique that involves minimal human contact. Before their release, they were placed in an adaptation enclosure located in an open marsh, which allowed them to preen their feathers after the long journey and establish initial contact with local common cranes and other inhabitants. All cranes were tagged with solar-powered GSM transmitters to track their migration routes. On July 20, the cranes were successfully released from the enclosure, beginning their independent lives. The vast, impassable Kunovat marsh will easily allow the cranes to transition to a natural diet, which includes plant and animal food (rhizomes, fruits and seeds, insects, fish, frogs, mouse-like rodents, etc.).
They will have at least a month and a half before their expected departure for wintering, during which they will grow strong enough and acquire the necessary flight skills to complete a 5,000 km migration.
For reference: the Siberian Crane is one of fifteen crane species living on our planet. Due to active extermination along migration routes in the middle of the last century, the Siberian Crane is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as an endangered species and in the Red Data Book of Russia.