В Якутию едет соучредитель Международного фонда по охране журавлей Джордж Арчибальд

Спасение стерха: В Якутск едет соучредитель Международного фонда по охране журавлей Джордж Арчибальд .Реализация программы фонда Арчибальда – это первый большой финансируемый проект по изучению и сохранению якутского стерха за последние годы.

Как рассказал заведующий лабораторией орнитологии Института биологических проблем криолитозоны СО РАН Николай Гермогенов, Международный фонд по охране журавлей выиграл грант Всемирного фонда Диснея по сохранению природы на проект по изучению и сохранению восточно-сибирской популяции журавлей, а именно якутского стерха.

"Проект рассчитан на 10 лет и начнется в 2016 году. Фонд Диснея финансирует проекты по охране редчайших животных по всему миру.  В этом проекте кроме нас, Института биологических проблем криолитозоны,  участвует китайская сторона, поскольку стерхи зимуют на юго-востоке Китая, в местности Поянху в долине реки Янцзы", - сказал ЯСИА Николай Гермогенов.

Как отмечает якутский орнитолог, численность стерха сейчас составляет около 4000. "Но происходят перемены, и появились угрозы для выживания стерха: деятельность людей, заболачивание тундры и множество других проблем в комплексе.  Все это должно изучаться. И этим мы будем заниматься", - сказал ученый.

Известно, что Джордж Арчибальд сотрудничает с Институтом биолигических проблем криолитозоны СО РАН по изучению якутского стерха уже более 20 лет. Он прилетал в 1992 году в Чокурдах на своем самолете, проводил облеты мест, где гнездились стерхи. Работа с самолета планируется и в следующем году. 

 

Dr. George Archibald is one of the two Co-founders of the International Crane Foundation (ICF), headquartered in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Dr. Archibald is considered one of the world's leading authorities on cranes. 

George Archibald was born July 13, 1946, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a youngster, he had a keen interest in birds, and bred waterfowl, pheasants and chickens at home. One of his earliest memories, in fact, is of crawling after a female duck and her brood. Later, during his undergraduate years, he spent two summers working as a bird caretaker at the Alberta Game Farm, where he was introduced to cranes. 

Dr. Archibald received his undergraduate degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1968, and completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1977 under Dr. William Dilger in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. His doctoral thesis was titled, "The Taxonomic and Evolutionary Relationships of Cranes as revealed by their Unison Calls." 

In 1972, Dr. Archibald went to Japan to study wintering Red-crowned Cranes on the island of Hokkaido. This flock, which winters at feeding stations, was thought to breed in Siberia. George and his Japanese colleagues, however, discovered that the entire flock was nesting in a marsh on the north end of Hokkaido. Much of the area was scheduled for development, so he led a public awareness campaign to save the wetlands. The effort culminated in an audience with the royal family, and a significant portion of the marsh was later preserved. 

Along with Ronald Sauey, a colleague from Cornell, Dr. Archibald established the International Crane Foundation in the spring of 1973, as the world center for the study and preservation of cranes. Earlier that year he had traveled to Australia to confirm the presence of the rare Eastern Sarus Crane - a subspecies which had recently arrived in Australia and was later thought to be extinct in its former range of southeast Asia. Dr. Archibald captured six Eastern Sarus Cranes in Australia and brought them to ICF for captive breeding. 

One of Dr. Archibald's first goals for ICF was to establish a "species bank" of captive cranes. Under his supervision, ICF has now built the world's largest and most complete collection of cranes, and has also been credited with the first captive breeding of two endangered species, the Hooded Crane and the Siberian Crane. 

In the winter of 1974, Archibald received permission to live with the South Korean army and observe cranes near the Demilitarized Zone. He discovered that a large percentage of the world's White-naped Cranes and the rare Red-crowned Cranes staged and wintered on the Han River Estuary and the Cholwon Basin adjacent to the DMZ. The estuary was being diked and drained, so Dr. Archibald alerted the South Korean people through the media and by meeting with officials. Thanks to his efforts and the interest of the Korean Ministry of Culture and Information, 400 square kilometers of the wetland of the Han River Estuary are now protected as a natural monument. Since 1976, Dr. Archibald has master-minded an extensive international program to save the Siberian Crane - for years considered the most endangered of all cranes. The USSR Ministry of Forestry collected eggs from nests in the wild so captive flocks could be established at ICF and the USSR's new Rare Crane Breeding Center. Key wintering areas were protected in India and China, and ICF began restocking Siberian Cranes into the USSR using offspring from its captive flock. 

Since 1980, Dr. Archibald has also initiated a series of research and habitat protection programs for cranes in China. He assisted with the development of China's first field station for ornithological research, and led an extensive research program on the bird life of the Zhalong Nature Reserve in northwest China. In 1984, he began working with the Chinese to establish two additional crane research and public education centers in southeastern China in Jiangxi Province, winter home of the world's largest flock of Siberian Cranes and in Jiangsu Province, where Red-crowned Cranes winter. 

Many aspects of his international work culminated in 1983, when an International Crane Workshop convened in Bharatpur, India. Dr. Archibald served as General Secretary for this conference, which was attended by 200 delegates from 22 countries including China, Iran, Pakistan, and the former USSR. One of his most treasured personal goals is to use cranes as a vehicle for cooperation between politically polarized nations. Another International Crane Workshop was held in 1987 in China, equally as well attended as the workshop in 1983. 

In 1984, Dr. Archibald presented to Princess Somsavali of Thailand six young Eastern Sarus Cranes raised from eggs he brought to Baraboo from Australia. The Government of Thailand works with ICF on a program to reintroduce the Eastern Sarus Cranes back into the wild in Thailand. In 1985, as an expression of goodwill and to import to ICF a pair of Black-necked Cranes, Dr. Archibald orchestrated the exchange of captive cranes with China. That year a pair of Black-necked Cranes were exported from China to ICF marking the first time this endangered species had ever been exported from China. 

For 27 years Dr. Archibald served as the President of ICF. In the year 2000 he passed the leadership to his former Deputy Director of Programs, Jim Harris. Today Dr. Archibald continues to be employed full time by ICF and works on programs of his choosing. His current programs involve work in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Cuba, China, India, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, South Korea, and Russia.

Ironically, the "man on the street" would recognize Dr. Archibald not as a leader in international conservation, but as the man who danced with a crane. He successfully bred, through the use of artificial insemination, a human-imprinted Whooping Crane named Tex by imitating the courtship dancing and behavior of a male crane. The "offspring" is the celebrated male Whooping Crane named Gee Whiz. Today, Gee Whiz has several offspring. 

Dr. Archibald is a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission, and has been the subject of numerous television, radio and newspaper features. 

Dr. Archibald is an honorary member of the Russian Ornithological Society and the Chinese Ornithological Society, and is the Honorary Inspector of China's Zhalong Nature Reserve. 

Over the past decade, Dr. Archibald has received the following awards: 

1983 - Order of Golden Ark, from the Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands 

1984 - Fellows Award from the MacArthur Foundation 

1985 - Gold Metal from the World Wildlife Fund 1985 - Conservation Award from the Ryerson Nature Center, Chicago 

1987 - 500 Roll of Honor for Environmental Achievement of the United Nations Environment Program 

1987 - National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation 1993 - Conservation Award from the National Audubon Society 

1994 - Gold Seal Award, National Council of State Garden Clubs, Inc. 

1995 - Honorary Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University - Dallas, Texas 

1998 - Honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Allison University - Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada 

2001 - Commendation for Service Award, State of Wisconsin National Resources Board and Department of Natural Resources 

2002 - Honorary Doctor of Laws from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada 

2004 - Honorary Doctor of Science from University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 

2004 - The John T. Curtis Award for Career Excellence in Ecological Restoration from Friends of the University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum 

2005 - Wildlife Conservation Medal, from the Zoological Society of San Diego 

2006 - Induction to Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame - Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame Foundation 

2006 - Frances K. Hutchinson Medal - The Garden Club of America 

2006 - Lilly Medal and Indianapolis Prize - Indianapolis Zoo 

2007 - Aldo Leopold Award for Distinction in Environment and Conservation - The Wisconsin Historical Society 

2007 -- The Douglas H. Pimlott Award - Nature Canada Dr. Archibald now lives in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Although he is usually traveling at least four months each year, he enjoys gardening and is active in his church.