IRKUTSK, November 15 (RIA Novosti) – Experts will release a group of rare falcons, which were recently rescued by Russian authorities while being smuggled abroad, back into the wild by the end of the year, wildlife protection services said Friday.
Traffic police discovered 16 rare falcons in boxes in a car they stopped early last month in the Siberian republic of Buryatia, near Russia’s border with Mongolia.
The 15 saker falcons and one peregrine falcon were starving and exhausted, police said.
Wildlife experts will release the birds near the Mongolian border, where it will be easier for them to adapt and find food than in the colder north, a representative for wildlife protection services in Russia’s Irkutsk Region said.
“Snow has already fallen in the Irkutsk Region,” he said. “The birds must be released as soon as possible.”
Police detained the two men transporting the falcons, who they said included a Syrian citizen, and opened a criminal case against them for poaching.
The men did not have proper documentation for the birds and told police they had bought them from a stranger. Experts estimated the birds’ value at 13 million rubles ($400,000).
Both peregrine and saker falcons are included on Russia’s list of rare and endangered animals protected under international treaties.
Russia is a major supplier of rare hunting birds for Arab countries, where they are in high demand with local nobility, according to groups that combat wildlife trafficking.
In June, the lower house of the Russian parliament approved amendments to the law on poaching and trafficking of rare species, introducing tougher punishments and closing loopholes in the law. Before the change, lax and cumbersome legislation had made it almost impossible to initiate a criminal case against poachers, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic.
