A satellite-tagged Amur Falcon, named ‘Chiuluan2’ after a village in Manipur’s Tamenglong district, has reached South Africa, completing an incredible journey of over 20,000 km after crossing the Kalahari Desert.
R. Suresh Kumar, a scientist with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), who has been monitoring the bird’s migratory route, confirmed the falcon’s arrival.
“The area in South Africa where ‘Chiuluan2’ landed on Saturday, approximately 360 kilometres west of Johannesburg, is officially called the African Veldt,” Kumar stated.
‘Chiuluan2’ and ‘Gwangram’, another Amur Falcon, were radio-tagged by the Manipur forest department and local residents on November 8 last year before being released into the wild. While ‘Chiuluan2’ is a male, ‘Gwangram’ is a female.
The two falcons were named after roosting villages in Tamenglong, with the primary objective being to study their migratory routes and understand the environmental challenges they face on their journey from Tamenglong.
Kumar added that ‘Gwangram’ has stopped transmitting signals since December 13.
The Amur Falcon, the world’s longest-traveling bird, breeds in southeast Russia and northeast China during the summer months and migrates to Africa for the winter.
This radio-tagging initiative, which began in November 2018, is a part of a broader research programme aimed at understanding the migration patterns of these remarkable birds. cA similar initiative was undertaken in 2019 with five birds.
Amur Falcons are a common sight in northeast India, particularly in Manipur and Nagaland, where they arrive in October before heading to Africa in November after feeding sufficiently for their non-stop journey.
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