After an "interesting" week in tweeters, here is a story of hope.


Rare cranes found wintering in Iran-Afghan border

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuter) - It's hard to imagine a safe haven on the troubled
Iran-Afghan border, but the area's political instability may have provided a
refuge for endangered cranes. Self-made conservationist Farrokh Mostofi found
rare cranes, including endangered Siberian Cranes, wintering in a border area
63 miles long and two miles wide. The 45-tear-old Mostofi, a businessman
whose hobby is birdwatching, proudly showed a congratulatory letter he
received from George Archibald, director of the Wisconsin-based International
Crane Foundation. ``Words cannot express the joy your great news brings to us
that two Siberian cranes have been spotted among Eurasian cranes along the
Iran-Afghan border,'' the letter read. The rugged terrain is a no man's land,
normally the preserve of armed drug smugglers and Afghan mujahideen
guerrillas. On the Afghan side, mines remain from the time of the
Soviet-backed Kabul regime that fell in 1992. Iran has evacuated its side,
pulling back villagers several miles, apparently for better control of drug
traffickers. ``These hostile moves by both countries have unintentionally
created a safe heaven for the cranes in the last four years,'' Mostofi told
Reuters. Among hundreds of the more common Eurasian Cranes, two rare Siberian
Cranes were sighted, raising hopes that the rare birds can be adopted by their
more numerous brethren. Fereidoun Afshar, an official of Iran's
Environmental Protection Organization, said he overcame initial scepticism and
let Mostofi persuade him to visit the area, near the Hari Rud river. ``I
could not believe my eyes when I saw the first flock of about a hundred
cranes,'' said Afshar, who estimated a thousand cranes were wintering in the
area. Local villagers told him the cranes had been coming to the area for the
past four winters. ``I had a hard time convincing my superiors. I had to rely
on Mostofi's camera to prove the cranes were really there,'' he said,
complaining about inadequate support from the government. Russian and American
scientists beganresearch in 1990 into the movement of cranes from the marshes
of Siberia's Ob River to their wintering grounds.

Experts explain the success of the Eurasian Crane primarily by its ability
to glean food from agricultural fields, while the pickier Siberian Crane feeds
on roots in shallow waters. The growth of agriculture and drainage of
wetlands appears to have helped the Eurasian Cranes and harmed the Siberians.
In 1994, scientists slipped a Siberian Crane egg into the nest of a Eurasian
Crane and observed the foster parents hatch the egg, rear the juvenile and
migrate south with it. The Eurasian pair and their foster chick were joined
in their migration by a Siberian crane, raised in captivity, that had been
released earlier. Experts believe that the two Siberian Cranes sighted at the
Iran-Afghan border could be the birds adopted by the Eurasian pair in 1994.
This would mean that Siberian Cranes can learn to feed on fields, raising new
hopes for their survival. Meanwhile, efforts continue to confirm that Siberian
cranes can be adopted by Eurasians, after a second group of conservationists
sent to the border area failed to spot the rare birds among the hundreds of
Eurasian cranes wintering there. Plans to save the Siberian Cranes will be
discussed at a Moscow meeting in mid-May with delegates from nine Asian
countries -- Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan,
Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan -- which are the native habitat of
Siberian Cranes, Archibald said. ``Perhaps the Siberian Cranes can be a
strong vehicle for international cooperation and thus peace,'' Archibald told
Reuters by telephone from Baraboo, Wisc., where the crane foundation has its
headquarters.


Stuart MacKay