email information Sep 13, 2026, 12:39 PM Bad news ...
I have no words .... Such a sad loss. A reminder of how precarious survival can be during their first year of life.
youtube chat:
10:55 AM @slavikklyuk6310 Urmas wrote to me and sent a photo. The transmitter shows that Tibu died yesterday at 7:30 p.m. Today, they found only his leg ring and a piece of his leg. They say that a predator ate Tibu.
11:45 AM @slavikklyuk6310 But the bird with ring number 72-02, which was together with Tibu, is alive. It was seen — it flew away. This is very good news.
3:39 PM @slavikklyuk6310 Когда Дима приехал проверить Тибу, оказалось, что Тибу был уже мёртв — его съели хищники. А другая птица, 72-02, улетела. Дима успел увидеть её номер.
(When Dima arrived to check on Tibu, he found that Tibu was already dead—eaten by predators. The other bird, 72-02, had flown away. Dima managed to see its number.)
3:47 :47 PM @slavikklyuk6310 Светлана Клюева, я же вам здесь пишу информацию, которую мне передал Дима. Именно Диму я попросил поехать и проверить Тибу на месте.
(Svetlana Klyueva, I'm writing to you here with the information Dima gave me. I asked Dima to go and check out Tiba on site.)
A juvenile black stork from the nest of Kergu and Kerli — adults tracked on the migration map. Tibu was the only offspring in the nest (two eggs failed to hatch) and hatched relatively late (on June 14). This meant there was a risk the adults might depart on migration before the chick became fledged. The chick was fitted with rings and a transmitter on August 17, but by August 19, we had to remove it from the nest because both adult birds had left for migration.
Since August 20, the chick has been staying at the same fish basket where Lembe had also fed. One of the local black stork fledglings had not yet migrated and took it upon itself to look after the second foster chick like an older foster brother. The two young black storks fed well for ten days before deciding to set off on migration themselves on September 1. The weather deteriorated significantly after that, making the timing of their departure very opportune.
The migration proceeded smoothly as far as southern Belarus. On September 5, Tibu reached the Tremlja fish farm, and the following day, it settled in the forest southeast of the fish ponds. However, instead of flying further, it walked northward over the next six days, making both short and long stops. On September 12, news of the chick's strange behavior reached the Brest Stork Rehabilitation Center. They were prepared to go and check on the chick and help it if necessary. Unfortunately, by the next morning, Tibu had fallen victim to a predator; it was no longer possible to determine why he had lost his ability to fly, as only fragments of the rings, feathers, and the inedible transmitter remained. Those who found the remains suspect a wild boar was the culprit.