Nagaland: Satellite -Tagged Amur Falcon 'Longleng' Alive
Guwahati: ‘Longleng' The lone surviving satellite-tagged Amur falcon from Nagaland, has flown through the state after staying for a day.
Informing about ‘Longleng’ Nagaland Chief Wildlife Warden, Satya Prakash Tripathi on Thursday said, ‘Longleng’ came to Nagaland on Oct. 20 and stayed around Hakhezhe area at Nuiland and then flew towards Khasi Hills in Meghalaya on Oct. 21. It has been staying around Khasi Hills for about two weeks now.” He further added that it will soon continue its journey towards Africa.
Among the five birds, Hakhizhe, Intanki, Longleng, Eninum, and Phom that were tagged with satellite transmitters in November 2016, ‘Longleng’ was the only one that survived. It was the second phase of the joint scientific mission to satellite-tag the Amur falcons in Nagaland at Doyang in Wokha. The first phase of that mission which began on Nov. 2013 three birds, 'Naga,’ ‘Wokha,’ and ‘Pangti’ were tagged with satellite transmissions.
With no trace of the rest of the birds, Tripathi had assumed that the transmitters could have been malfunctioning or maybe, the bird had died as migratory birds generally have a lifespan of two to three years.
Tripathi also informed that this year, the birds will not be tagged in Nagaland as it had already been implemented in Manipur.
This year in Manipur, two birds—‘Manipur’ and ‘Tamenglong’— were tagged with GPS satellite transmitters at Chiuluan village along the Barak River in Tamenglong district. However, unfortunately ‘Manipur’ was killed by unknown persons at Kebuching area bordering Tamenglong and Noney district recently.
The Forest department of Manipur is currently undertaking all means to spread awareness among the villagers to prevent the other bird, ‘Tamenglong,’ from being killed.
It is to be mentioned that the birds were fitted with state-of-the-art five gram solar-powered PTT like backpack, using a specially made teflon harness. A senior scientist at Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, Dr. Suresh Kumar, stated that each satellite equipment cost INR 1.5 lakh and an additional INR 1 lakh to retrieve the data of the journey of the birds.
The Amur falcon is a small raptor of the falcon family. It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China before migrating in large flocks across India and over the Arabian Sea to winter in Southern Africa. Males are dark grey with reddish brown thighs and undertail coverts; reddish orange eye-ring, cere, and feet. Females are duller above, with dark scaly markings on white underparts, an orange eye ring, cere, and legs. Their diet consists mainly of insects, such as termites; during migration over the sea, they are thought to feed on migrating dragonflies.