Omid, migratory Siberian crane, hasn’t returned to Iran

The only survivor of a flock of Siberian cranes, named Omid or hope in Persian, has not returned to Iran this year to its winter refuge, the head of Iran's Environment Protection Organization says.

Visiting the Iranian media press exhibition in the capital Tehran, Hassan Akbari told Iran’s Mehr news agency, “Unfortunately, we didn’t attach a tracker to Omid and we didn’t have a special tracker due to the sanctions, so we don’t have any information about the bird.”

Every year, the rare bird spends the cold season in its refuge in the wetlands in the northern Iranian cities of Fereydunkenar and Sorkhrud.

“It has happened in the past years that Omid did not come to Iran,” Akbari also said, adding the failure to return might be due to the warm winter in Iran.

Omid flew all the way from Siberia to northern Iranian Mazandaran province over a distance of 5 thousand kilometers along with his mate, Arezoo, every year.

After his mate died, Omid has kept coming to the Iranian wetlands for 15 years alone.

Siberian cranes migrate to these lagoons from their natural habitat in Siberia after flying across Russia, Kazakhstan and the Azerbaijan Republic before arriving in Iran.

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