AltSU nursery for rare birds received 5 new incubators for breeding Red Book falcons

The laboratory of the AltSU nursery for rare birds "Altai-Falcon" received five new incubators. They will be used to improve the technology of incubation of the chicks of the Red Book saker falcons.

The new incubators will be located in the reproduction laboratory of the commissioned laboratory building, which is located on the territory of the nursery. Just before the new year, the laboratory building was thorough overhauled. At present, the staff of the nursery is waiting for the delivery of furniture to place the technological equipment necessary for breeding chicks.

“Taking into account the five new incubators we received today, their number has increased to 10, of which we bought five last year. This equipment allows to use an individual approach in incubation technologies. Every egg, laid by a female saker falcon, we measure weekly, weigh and, depending on the parameters of the embryo development, change the conditions in the incubator – reduce or raise the temperature. Everything is the same as with people - for every pregnant woman, the doctor takes an individual approach, prescribes procedures and drugs if necessary. So, it is with birds - in one batch of eggs, the processes of embryo development are different. Having several incubators, we will be able to sort the eggs to create all the suitable conditions,” said Lydia Mendel, Head of the laboratory of the rare bird nursery “Altai Falcon.”

Incubators will be launched already in the spring. Given the weather conditions, saker falcons usually start laying eggs in mid-March, this process continues for about three months.

“The new equipment will allow us to continue our work on reproduction of the saker falcon population in captivity at a higher level. Let me remind you that Altai State University for the first time in Russia initiated selection and breeding work with various morphotypes of the Altai Saker Falcon. Previously, no one in the world has tried to purposefully do this. Last year, thanks to the new incubators, 75 young birds were obtained, of which, taking into account the chick mortality, 70 matured. The survival rate was 93.3%. This is a very good indicator. It was possible to avoid the appearance of limb defects that occurred earlier and led to the culling of chicks. This was facilitated by the expansion of the range of feed, the use of a complex of vitamin and mineral supplements of imported production and an increase in technological discipline,” said Director of the AltSU Zoological Center, Doctor of Biology, Professor Sergey Snigirev.

Now all the efforts of the workers and specialists of the nursery are aimed at wintering and ensuring the safety of birds. One of the problems is the imperfection of the aviaries for keeping birds, which were built more than a quarter of a century ago. This year, a project has been prepared for the construction of two new aviary complexes for 14 breeding pairs each, which will improve the conditions for keeping birds, increase the number of livestock and organize work to improve it.