Longleng nears its destination; Tamenglong loses contact

[caption id="attachment_226218" align="aligncenter" width="565"] EM Graphics[/caption] Our Correspondent Imphal, Jan. 5 (EMN): One satellite-tagged female Amur falcon, which was on its way to the winter destination, has lost contact since Dec. 14, 2018 after reaching Zambia in South Africa, according to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist Dr R Suresh Kumar. The lost satellite-tagged female Amur falcon named after Manipur’s district ‘Tamenglong’ was located last in North Luangwa National Park of Zambia in South Africa, Dr Suresh Kumar said when contacted. However, Dr Suresh felt that the reason for the failure to receive any signal from the bird could be because of the “technical failure.” He ruled out the assumption of the bird being killed there. On the other hand, ‘Longleng,’ another satellite-tagged female Amur falcon named after a district in Nagaland, continues to be active and has reached close to its last year roost site, said Dr Suresh who had tagged many birds in the last few years. Out of the eight Amur falcons that were tagged with satellite transmitters in Nagaland, only ‘Longleng’ survived, according to officials. ‘Longleng’ was satellite-tagged in Oct. 2016 from Nagaland while ‘Tamenglong’ was tagged along with another male falcon ‘Manipur’ in the first week of November last year from Tamenglong district to study their migratory routes. The winged guests started its non-stop migration on November 9 and 19 and reached a stop-over site, Somalia in Africa after covering more than 5,700 km in the third week of November 2018. But ‘Manipur’ couldn’t join them as he was killed somewhere at Keibu Ching area in Tamenglong district four days after it was released. These pigeon-sized migratory birds spend their summers at their breeding grounds in southeast Russia and northeast China. It migrates to its wintering grounds in South Africa, from where it starts the return journey in April-May through Afghanistan and East Asia. In between, it stops in India’s Northeast and African countries. It leaves the north-eastern states in November after having enough food (termites and insects) for its non-stop flight to Africa. In their journey, these pigeon sized birds arrive in large numbers during October in Nagaland and Manipur besides a few places in northeast India. They leave the region in November after having enough food (termites and insects) for their non-stop flight to Africa. Meanwhile Manipur forest department, which had been taking up widespread wildlife conservation activities in association with villagers, is planning to tag satellite radio transmitters to few birds in the upcoming season this year.