Endangered Stork Survives Russian Wildfire Horror

May 14, 2019

A camera set up by scientists in Russia’s Amur region has captured a rare video in which an endangered white stork remains in its nest while forest fires ravage the surrounding landscape.

The video was shot near the Gil’chin River where the Far Eastern stork was standing watch over its nest. Nests of other birds living in the area may have been destroyed and such incidents are not uncommon, as many chicks and nests fall victim to the forest fires on a yearly basis, the Amurskaya Pravda news website cited the local branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as saying.

The wildfires that are seen in the video have ravaged eastern Russia in recent weeks, most seriously hitting Zabaykalsky, Amur, Irkutsk, Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions.

As of Tuesday morning, at least 49 wildfires covering 29,329 hectares of land are currently blazing in Russia with 121 fires already extinguished, according to Russia’s Aerial Forest Protection service (Avialesookhrana).

Read more about: Environment , Animals

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