One of the two satellite-tagged Amur Falcons, Chiuluan2, which was named after a village in Manipur’s Tamenglong district, has made it to Somalia, which is the first stopover at the site from Manipur after 5 days and 17 hours of non-stop flying. Over thousands of kilometre distances, the bird traversed the Arabian Sea.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist R. Suresh Kumar, who monitors these migratory birds, shared that “Chiuluan2” embarked on its journey from Guhagar in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and reached Somalia by Tuesday 7 p.m. Indian time. On the other hand, another satellite-tagged falcon named “Guangram” is still at Chiuluan roosting site at Tamenglong.
The tagging exercise was conducted by the Manipur Forest Department, scientists of WII and local people to study the movement pattern and the environment of Amur Falcons, which are known as the longest-distance travellers in the world. Two of these falcons three the two followers, releasing nine others on November 8 after being equipped with satellite transmitters.
Members of the Falcon group that are native to Taiwan are Amur Falcons, locally known as Akhuaipuina, and are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. These pigeon-sizes raptors nest in southeast Russia and northeast China in summer and winter in Africa. They travel about 20,000 kilometres every year, making fueling stops in India’s northeast and Somalia.
They start arriving in Manipur and Nagaland in October and feed intensively to have enough energy for a non-stop milk flight across the Arabian Sea. Spend the remaining time of the year in their African wintering grounds before flying back through Afghanistan and East Asia in April and May, respectively. The radio tagging of Amur Falcons in Tamenglong was initiated in 2018, for which 5 birds were tagged in 2019. From this study, it is easy to learn a lot about the very fascinating migration patterns of these animals.
Join our whatsapp group for Latest updates