Diverse world of nature surrounding people from the earliest times becomes poorer day after day. The disappearing of rare species of unprepossessing insect takes no notice of but when it goes to happen with forest giant bison or majestic handsome siberian crane, nature-conservation community tackles the problem of these species conservation.
White Siberian cranes are inhabitants of tundra and forest-tundra area of our country. They nest nowhere else that’s why they are called endemics of Russia. However, Russian tundra is a home for Siberian crane family for only four months. During this time cranes manage to occupy extensive area and defend it from other rivals, to construct a nest on the small down among the shoal, to oviposit two brown dotted eggs, to hatch two, and, as a rule, to grow one nestling. Everything is to be done in a very short period of time, because summer in the tundra is very brief.
Siberian crane is a large bird – up to 140 cm by height and to 10 kg of mass. Its dazzling white marking stands on its own. Strong and tall birds do not fear predators; they should not hide themselves with the aid of the allocryptic coloration. Siberian cranes easily demonstrate their superiority on the marsh: the melodious, but loud unison cry of the nested pair notifies everybody: “This nest place is occupied! Look for another one!” The kings of marshes, they first bear the brunt of human civilization without changing their biological essence, but they couldn’t adapt to the main predator of the Earth – a human being.
During many centuries Siberian cranes minimized the time spent for every stage of their breeding. They begin to build the nest and to oviposit immediately after arriving to the native marsh in April, while snow has not melt yet. Most frequently nest is finally constructed near already oviposited egg. Experienced and healthy female begins hatching without waiting until the end of oviposit. This is important for survival of both nestlings. They pip in 29 days of alternating hatching of both parents. Cranes nestlings are able to follow parents in several hours after hatching as soon as they dried. One of the parents takes care of the first little one: removes it from the nest, feeds, gathers small invertebrates, warms the nestling when it gets tired and becomes cold. The second nestling is born in two days. Everything is repeated with another parent. Family keeps together on the small territory among the growing marsh vegetation. Adult birds perfectly see each other and communicate by acoustical signals. But nestlings are separated and do not know about existence of each other. So it can last about the month, until nestlings grow up and can independently explore territory moving away from the parent. Then family reunites and nestlings grow together.
However, things are often moving not under this optimistic scenario. Very often female leaves nest because of the hunger after oviposit of the first egg. If the egg was not noticed and eaten by predators, female laid the second one and began to hatch in two days. Both eggs, after the identical period of incubation, complete it with the minimum difference in the time. Seeing each other nestlings begin to fight and one of them has no chance to survive. This is a cruel but fair way of natural selection.
There’s no surprise that during growth period young Siberian cranes are very voracious. However, they have to increase their height 7 times as much and their mass 50 times as much in 2 months! The answer for the question, how are they able to do it, beat scientists’ brains for a long time. It was impossible to investigate the details of life of free Siberian cranes because these birds keep away from people. It was necessary to combine experience of captivity maintenance and scanty field observations. For nestlings breeding siberian cranes use accessible in that place and at that time forage: insects, their larvas, water invertebrates. This forage is rich in all necessary substances for nestling growth: protein, calcium and phosphorus, vitamins and microelements. One should remember that Siberian crane’s childhood passes in the period of twilight nights in the high latitudes. All the wake time birds search for the forage or consume it. Heavy physical activity plays a positive role in this case. Motion is the necessary factor for normal growth and development of nestlings, as well as the sun, which does not set even at night.
Siberian cranes nestlings grow rapidly in the regime “feeding in motion”. They begin to try their wings before the complete growth of their flight feathers. The small mass of young bird compensates its short wings. Red Siberian cranes accomplish their first flights at 60 days old. They have to be in a hurry as soon tundra will become white with snow. It will hide a “magic table-cloth”. Siberian cranes family soars to southwards in clear and warm noon, when ascending heated air - terma - rises from the earth. They save forces and time, tempered by autumn for the migration. Some time ago they stopped before coming to place of wintering in China, India or Iran in white flocks in the Siberian and Kazakh steppe lakes, in the Volga river delta. Song of Rasul Gamzatov about the transmigration of killed soldiers’ souls is about Siberian cranes. Now only ornithologists can find out separate Siberian cranes in these places. Not ornithologists also can, but practically it can be dismal end for a Siberian crane. People form a habit to hunt birds along their migratory way. A hunter in a thousand will resist the temptation to shoot at this bright and large target.
The wintering areas that hospitably received Siberian cranes for several winter months at previous time degrade now. Wintering becomes a difficult test for birds because of low water abundance and dense people’s population on these Asian territories. People also shoot and catch birds for the meat or sport interest here.
Siberian crane is one of the unique species which has a perfect adaptation to live under severe conditions of tundra.
But nature didn’t foresee adaptability to live next to people for the most excellent of its creation. You cannot be bright and independent near the Man, conceited himself as the hub of the universe. People destroy animals by barbarous exploiting nature and, which is even worse, deprive their habits on the Earth. Cities and villages expand; summer-resort settlements grow and widen. The whole planet is covered with the network of roads and other communications. What does remain to Siberian cranes, to recluses that accustomed to live on the spacious and free from the human being earth? The answer is forced upon you.
Fortunately, not all people agreed with this verdict. The Nursery of the rare species of cranes was organized on the initiative of the International Crane Foundation (Wisconsin, USA) in 1979 in the Oksky Strict Nature Reserve, the only one in Ryazan area. Siberian cranes appeared here at first years of Nursery existence. Young male Sovy was found (or taken from parents?) and nestlings were hatched from the natural eggs, selected during the expeditions to Yakutiya, under the direction of professor V.E. Flint. The most difficult step was to form breeding pairs among grown siberian cranes. Indeed people grew them up and cranes imprinted them as parents. After growing up males began to attack the people protecting their cages as nidicolous territory and females selected husband from the Nursery’s staff and only with these elected officials they wanted to build a nest. Time and patience assisted to correct “bad inclinations” of Siberian cranes. The first pairs laid eggs after 10 years of painstaking work. That was especial success for solution of the Nursery basic problem - retention of Siberian crane gene pool under captivity maintenance. Every living being has its continuation in posterity, so the genes as the carriers of biological data continue to exist after withdrawal of parents in their children. The sustainable breeding group of Siberian cranes is that gene pool, a kind of reserve to recruit the fading natural population.
The life of cranes in the Nursery doesn’t resemble that one of the free cranes. There is no large territory, no migrations, but also no danger. All the conditions for normal life and breeding were created for birds. The diverse natural ration is substituted with the mixed feed, which consists of 30 components. Cranes have additive from the cottage cheese, carrot, the couched wheat and the fish for breakfast. They dig from the soil and eat the rhizomes of plants, worms, insects and their larva, tear away green leaves, seeds and berries, and catch in flight quick dragon-flies, gadflies and flies from the first thawed patches in spring and till the snowy winter cover.
Young birds are united into couples, being guided by their own selection. Future partners that live in the neighborhood to each other are observed for a long period of time before joining in one cage. Between-cages door is opened not earlier than they will be pleased to each other, begin to keep together, begin to do together their crane business: to feed, to clean themselves, to rest, to protect territory, to pipe in unison. Only unison pipe of male and female makes them a pair.
Breeding season for Siberian cranes in the Nursery begins earlier than in tundra. It is not amazing; indeed Ryazan region is located in central Russia. The artificial lengthening of light day as in the tundra used in the Nursery for even earlier oviposits. First eggs appear in March.
Siberian cranes are careful parents. They play almost the equal role in hatching, both warm and feed nestling. But male most frequently takes the role of the nest defender.
The years of the Nursery staff work gave the very interesting scientific information about these cranes. But the possibility not only to see, but also to show the life of Siberian crane family for everyone, who is interested has just appeared. Disguised camera was set before the breeding and doesn’t disturb birds. It records everything that happens in the cage. We, participants of the project “From the egg to the flight”, will gather video material and comment everything day after day. You will be introduced to Siberian cranes Kieng and Glass, get to know histories of their long (on the bird view) and not simple life, of their love and histories of their baby-cranes. They will become for you as relatives. And then no one of you raises gun to Siberian cranes flying in the sky.
Heroic fate is prepared to the nestling of Kieng and Glass if it grows into healthy and strong Siberian crane. It will be one of those going to be set free to nature where the rare white spots of wild nature – Siberian cranes - still remains. Probably it will take place in the South Caspian Region on the known wintering of Siberian cranes in Iran.

The main characters and performers

The head of the family, Siberian crane called Kieng is a male in the prime of life. He is from the native population (Allaikhovskiy region, Yakutiya). Nevertheless, the Nursery is considered to be the place of his born. 12 eggs from the nests of wild Siberian cranes were collected during the expedition conducted by the All-Russian Scientific Institute of Nature Conservation in 1986. Only one egg was taken from each nest in order to reserve one nestling for parents, and so that grown Siberian cranes would not be relatives. This is very important for breeding rare forms of animals in captivity. Egg number 86-1-W/3 hatched out on June 30 being in incubator on its way from Moscow to Brykin Bor - the central farmstead of Oksky Strict Nature Reserve. The number of the egg contains the information: the first number means two last figures of the year. The number, which indicates the form of a crane, is written through the hyphen. Siberian crane is considered as the first number for the Nursery. The second hyphen comes before the number of female. In this case, the female was from the field; so it is marked by letter W (wild) and number indicates the number of the nest, from which the egg was taken. The eggs were brought to the Nursery and placed into the incubator on July, 1. The nestling completely was freed from the shell without help in the evening, till 7:45 p.m. During aerial census of the Siberian cranes nests the participants of expedition also gathered the names of the numerous tundra lakes, on which shores Siberian cranes arranged nests. Our hero was called as a lake Kieng. Marakan, Banyl, Igel, Kyulyumer, Kyuel, Uol, Bakul, Byugyuchen, Usun, Yute, Bute hatched from other 11 eggs. Not all of them are still alive, but five are and bring posterity, which many times exceeded the number of eggs collected in nature.
Kieng grew tamed in the Nursery as all others baby cranes in those years. He lived in the individual cage, walked in the flood-lands forest and to the bank of the Pra river with the individual herdsman (collaborator or student). When he and also his “school-mates” were one month old they lost aggressiveness to each other. Nestlings were joined, first at the walks, and then in the cage. Here is his characteristic, wrote by the students that raised Siberian cranes: “Kieng was introduced into the flock on August, 8. It is practically not aggressiveness, only sometimes in relation to Kyuel. Strong, calm, follows to the walk in the middle of flock, can stay in the raspberry patch, but always gives voice and comes to the call. It eats well, but sometimes decline cottage cheese. Health: to control feet! Character is steady, independent. Sagacious, goes well to the weights. It trusts people. Most likely, it is a male”.
An elegant female Usun was assigned to grown Kieng as a girl-friend in October. Birds lived in one cage for 4 years, but they were not a family. Then Kieng was proposed to make family with female Pra. Again birds lived together for a long time. Also it was necessary to separate them after they fought. Later, they managed to fight being located in the different cages. Pra broke the beak against the wire mesh, which divided them. Kieng stayed alone. His character was corrupted; he protected his cage from everyone for 4 more years.
Glass is Kieng’s wife. She was born from the egg number 6-30-5-94. Common information about the egg is presented in another sequence, as it was received in the Eastern hemisphere. Egg was obtained from the International crane Foundation (ICF), its parents were female Oka and male Dushechka (by the way, the first Siberian crane nestling, which appeared in captivity). George Archibald, the director of ICF brought 10 Siberian cranes eggs from his center for the training by the special isolated method and further release to nature in 1994. An egg number 6-30-5-94 was among them. The strange name of nestling was caused by a joke. An experiment on Siberian cranes growing by the method of isolation was carried out for the first time in 1991 in Kunovatskiy Reservation in Russia. A participant of the experiment, the ornithologist from the USA Mini Nagendran called one of baby-cranes with a popular Russian word “Vodka”. Three years later George Archibald continued the joke: “If there is vodka, there should be a glass”. In Russian transcription glass is quite similar to Russian “glaz” - an eye. Sounds strange… “As you called a boat, so that would be a trip…” We recalled the words of this popular song the following day after Glass birth. She was placed into the play-pen - small reticulated cage inside the bigger one. A little baby-crane Mini had already lived in that one. All small cranes are very aggressive to each other; therefore two week Mini, trying to reach Glass, found a slot and beat her.
When time to feed nestlings came, Glass was lying on her back upside down, and her eyes were strongly clogged by sawdust. She did not see for several days, eyes were washed, ocular drops were buried. Glass was fed by placing fodder directly into the mouth so that it would only be swallowed. But everything went good, nestling got well.
10 nestlings including Glass were reared by the isolated or costume method. The essence of the method consists in the fact that people, which bring up nestlings, bear the white suits, which imitate adult Siberian cranes, and hide figure and face of a man. This masquerade is necessary for two reasons. First one is a correct imprinting, i.e., imprinting a crane as a parent. Anatomically correct model of Siberian crane’s head, from which the nestling obtains fodder greatly helps in it. The second reason is that a crane would avoid people if a nestling never saw them in the childhood. This quality is also necessary for the life of Siberian cranes, which frequently become the victims of poachers.
Glass was transported to Kunovatskiy Reservation in the group of isolated Siberian crane nestlings and one Gray crane on July 2. There all they were released on the territory of the only known pair of Siberian cranes. Unfortunately, wild Siberian cranes, which had lost their nestling, left their territory before “foundlings” became good in flying. Three of them flew away with the wild Gray cranes, and 5 were returned to the Nursery.
The next chance to become wild was given to Glass during the next summer. Together with 4 nestlings she was sent for Kunovatskiy Protected Area to imprint real, not costume Siberian cranes. She was let out near the nestling cages. The first time Glass was near them, and then she settled separately, rarely joined them at the walks. She joined with the nestling Liberty at the end of summer. Together they inspected marsh, fed, circled territories, contacted with the wild Gray cranes and disappeared on August 28. Glass was caught on September 5, in the Elizarovskiy Protected Area. It is situated in the flood-lands of the Ob river, 400 km to the South of the place of release. The bird was returned to the Nursery.
The attempt to combine Glass with the male India did not succeed in 1997. In 1998 she was proposed to feel out the male Uchur that was saved in Yakutiya. But Uchur liked Samgym. They began to pipe in unison from different cages. They were combined, and Glass got as a neighbor Kieng, pleased to nobody. First there was no sympathy at all. Glass danced for people, Kieng hated everyone. But time created a miracle. We can read a note in the diary of the Nursery’s events dated by March: “Kieng and Glass greased necks by mud.” What a luck! The strange to Siberian cranes problems person doesn’t know, that Siberian cranes begin to grease their necks when they are going to build a nest. However, nest did not come out, but the union did. Glass, according to her “pedagogical” past, was removed from Kieng and placed next to the growing up nestlings for the imprinting in June. Kieng called her all day long. She was returned, and since then they are together.
The first eggs appeared in 2002. Jana hatched from one of them. However, nestling was taken away and reared by complex costume method. Also nestling was accustomed to deltalet, which shows migratory way to siberian cranes. Jana was strong and daring nestling. The price for his carelessness was his life. During the trainings with deltalet Jana fell under the screw of flight vehicle and perished.
An embryo in the second egg of the first laying died. The egg was replaced with a living one from the pair of Bakul-Byugyuchen (these names are already known for you). Kieng and Glass reared hatched Rattsa themselves. Rattsa grew in large and independent nestling. In the group with another young cranes (Onega, Usmanka, Bitug, Dnepr, Yauza, Pronya) he was released in Belozersk Protected Area in the south of Tyumen region. There is a stop at the migration paths of Siberian and Gray cranes. By that time Siberian cranes born in the Nursery were called as rivers’ names.
In 2003 nestling Ural continued the affair of brothers; he was grown by costume method and let out in the group of others young cranes (Kama, Vilyuy, Chunya, Olenek, Istra) in Kunovatskiy Reservation. Moreover Istra was a receiving child in the family Kieng-Glass.
Then there were dead in the infancy Pizhma and Juza. Now the last daughter Lotta lives in the Nursery. She is only one year old.