Vehicular Pursuit of Fishowls in Eastern Russia

In relentless pursuit, a hearty rig filled with chasers moved steadily across the wild and mysterious lands of eastern Russia. The men within were searching for data, the grail of research findings.

The blue Kamaz was driven rough deep snows and to frozen rivers. The crew within included gear, fare and endless thoughts of some pairs of Blakiston’s Fish Owl (Bubo blakistoni).

Reports from the wilderness were recently issued that revealed the drama and times after these owls which feed in fish from rivers such as the Tunsha or Amgu Rivers, in the Primorsky Krai district, or Primorye, a federal subject of Russia.

It is a tale of owl research and high-tech trackers that denoted the neighborhood used by a breeding pair of the birds under study, under the direction of Jonathan C. Slaght, with field research just completed, and reported in three updates available at a Fish Owl's home on the web.

Traveling among the places in wintry March, a trusty vehicle, brand name Kamaz - new this season to owl research crew - made every destination and returned safely to base. It was the place for the researchers to dwell while making to owl territories and tempting the owls with an easy catch. Again and again.

The trackers were recovered, and the birds are back flying free, after providing newly discovered details on range and habitat for the mighty-big owls.

These are some images of the great Kamaz, courtesy of Jonathan C. Slaght from his recent research, and used with his permission.

Kamaz, taken in the middle of February 2010, on the bank of the Amgu River, on the outskirts of the village Amgu.

Kamaz, taken in late March 2010, on the 23rd, probably on the bank of the Tunsha River, about 20 kilometers north of Ternei, Russia.

Slaght is now writing reports, dealing with the relics of business from the research trips. Next comes analysis of the myriad of gathered data, he said in an email. He hopes to achieve his PhD. by the end of 2010.

"The Wild Russia series that aired on Discovery and Animal Planet channels in the United States (and National Geographic channels elsewhere) is shipping 11 May 2010. The Primorye episode features footage of several of our fish owl study animals, including Avdei and Manya of Saiyon Territory, and Genri and Yanna of Mineralnaya Territory." - J.C. Slaght, www.fishowls.com

Original Notations of Blakiston's Fish-Owl Date to Mid-1880s

Each species of bird has an origin in some account of its features or occurrence, based on observation at some particular place and time, and this also applies to the magnificent Blakiston's Fish Owl (Bubo blakistoni) where it lives in its homelands of eastern Asia.

The particulars though are somewhat obscure.

Captain Thomas Blakiston, a visitor to what for him was a foreign land, was instrumental in identifying the birds in the northern region of Japan in the early 1860s. His efforts documented numerous occurrences of birds and was perhaps first in adequately documenting the variety of species in northern Japan. Details of this ornithological history were issued in several authoritative articles in appropriate journals.

A subsequent reference to Blakiston's paper on the Ornithology of Japan, issued in 1883, included an account of "Bubo Blakistoni, Seebohm, antea, p. 42. (Plate VI.)."

Bubo blakistoni as illustrated in the Ibis, 1884, Plate 6.

The verbage discussed an immature species, designated to Bubo coromandus, and as being distinctly different from Bubo blakistoni, with a reference to a figure which illustrated the species.

This dates the literature for this huge owl of eastern Asia to 1883, when a terse few words did not include any type of description for the species, where it occurred or, actually, anything other than it being a new species based on the views of the contributor.

"Mr. Seebohm exhibited an example of a new species of Owl from Yezo, the north island of Japan, which he proposed to call Bubo blakistoni. It was most nearly allied to B. coromandus from North India, which it resembled in general style of coloration; but was much larger, and had the toes entirely bare of feathers, thus forming a link between the genera Bubo and Ketupa." - Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London

Further details - in the online archive - indicate Henry Seebohm named the bird after Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen in 1883 at Hokkaido, Japan.

Seebohm was an English steel manufacturer, but more significantly, an amateur ornithologist and oologist. His interest in birds of the pertinent region were based on travels to Siberia, which were issued in 1880 and 1882.

The next tidbit of information was in 1886, also was presented in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. In its entirety, it reads:

"The Secretary exhibited on behalf of Mr. L. Taczanowski, C.M.Z.S., the skin of an Owl from the south-east of the Ussuri country, on the frontiers of Corea, which appeared to be referable to Bubo blakistoni, Seebohm, P.Z.S., 1883, p. 466, and Ibis, 1884, p. 42 et p. 183, pl. vi.

"Two adult females of this Owl had been obtained by Mr. J. Kalinowsky, during his recent stay in Kamtschatka, from the environs of the river Sidemi in Russian Mantchuria, on the frontiers of Corea, where they were collected in the latter part of May 1885. They appeared to agree with Japanese specimens of B. Blakistoni in the National Collection, where Mr. Sharpe had kindly made the comparisons."

Ladislas Taczanowski, of Warsaw, according to his obituary, had an appreciation of birds which dated to his childhood. His first studies were focused on his Polish homeland, yet expanded with the access to further information and details about species in other regions of the world. He visited Algeria in 1866-1867. As a result of his network of contacts, he wlrked on bird specimens from Peru and Siberia.

In 1884, he was coauthor of a list of the birds of Kamtschatka and the Commandores Islands, issued by the Societe Zoologique de France. Another endeavour was compiled the bird species for Corea, now known as Korea.

Scientific Origin of a Species

The type specimen for this big fish-owl is apparently in the British Museum, which, based on online sources considered, reportedly has numerous specimens:

"blakistoni - Bubo blakistoni Seebohm, 1883.

"Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1883: 466. Holotype, Adult. Reg. no. 1884.1.23.1. Hakodadi, Yezo, Japan. Dec. Collected and presented by Capt. Blakiston."

The known history for the owl continues to be notably brief in subsequent years. Once the species was recognized, there were apparently few accounts, based on searches on the vast amount of online journals, accounts and other publications available on the global internet.

One particularly terse account - decades later - has these details in a list of Japanese birds issued in 1922, which included:

374. Bubo Blakistoni blakistoni Seebohm ... Shima-fukuro.

1883. Bubo blakistoni Seebohm, P.Z.S. p. 466 (Hokkaido, Japan).

Blakiston's Eagle-Owl.

Hab. Saghalin, Hokkaido.

These details convey so few tidbits for the first history of Blakiston's Fish-Owl, yet there is so much unknown in its history.

Even in the modern era, the species is known based on studies of just a few years, which none-the-less, indicate in a profound and essential manner the status of this species, which is classified as being endangered.

The owls don't care how they are classified, as in this case it makes no difference how they can catch a fresh fish during a harsh winter, but the legacy of knowledge is something which studious humans are cognizant of and give attention.

Blakiston was obviously instrumental in the recognition of the owl which was named in recognition of this man. Several other species were also named in his honor.

In an 1892 account of his demise, an article in the Auk, said: "no man has done so much towards the thorough understanding of the ornithology" of Japan. The captain had spent two decades in the northernmost region of the country, on Yezo Island. In 1879, in collaboration with Mr. Pryer, "Fauna Japonica" was issued, and was the first authoritative catalogue of birds for Japan.

Captain Blakiston's ornithological endeavours included studies done in the early 1860s at the interior of British North America, which was Canada. His legacy includes a natural history survey conducted along the Yangtse River, in China.

Blakiston's efforts in ornithology shall never be forgotten though they may now be little known, and worthy of greater awareness.

Further efforts are now underway to understand Blackiston's Fish Owl, which add so much to the knowledge and lore of the species, and hopefully to its ongoing survival in its distinctive range in a land where the birds are little known.

Fish Owl Featured in Animal Planet Episode

The Blakiston Fish Owl was recently featured in an episode about Primorye in the "Wild Russia" series on Animal Planet.

A short video clip shows the "Mineralnaya pair and their chick," according to Jonathan C. Slaght, the researcher working on this species. "The resident male is currently wearing one of our GPS dataloggers," he said.

Slaught will be returning to check on the featured owls in a few weeks.

Efforts Underway to Understand Rare Owl in Far-east Russia

Adult Blakiston's Fish Owl. Picture taken in 2007. All images courtesy of Jonathan Slaght.

Rare and elusive in a wintery lair, some few Blakiston’s Fish Owl (Bubo blakistoni) exist in the remote Sikhote-Alin Mountains of far-east Russia. Here on the frontier, a team is working to document the distribution and discover how to conserve this endangered species with an estimated population of about 5,000 birds.

"Sergei Surmach, an energetic ornithologist with Vladivostok’s Institute of Biology and Soil Science, has chased these brown ghosts around Primorye’s rivers for more than ten years," Jonathan C. Slaght wrote in his article about the owl and his research, for Wildlife Conservation Magazine, March-April issue. "In 2005, Sergei and I began collaborating on a telemetry project to collect ecological information that will be the basis for the conservation plan."

Seven pairs have been monitored thus far during the 2009 survey underway in recent weeks for the Amgu portion of the owl survey, in the Amgu river drainage, including the Leonovka, Granatnaya, and Saiyon Rivers.

The party consisted of Slaght, Andrei Katkov, Shurik Popov and Kolya Gorlach. They started west of Amgu, a town on the frontier, arriving on March 9th.

Andrei Katkov, Jonathan Slaght and Shurik Popov in the kitchen of the GAZ-66, during recent field work. Picture taken by S. Avdeyuk.

"The excitement at finding the Leonovka nest," Slaght wrote in the first update sent after returning from the field in early April, "was muted by the realization that our tagged female was sitting firm, and we will not be able to attempt recapturing her until May or June, when her young chick has fledged and a capture attempt is safe. So, we refocused our efforts on her mate. He found our prey enclosure quite quickly, and we set our trap the next day. After scaring a mink away from our enclosure with a stick, the fish owl came in and was easily captured. Like most male fish owls he was calm and docile to handle, and after release he sat in a nearby spruce and hooted at us for an hour or so before flying off."

"Their chosen hunting spot was a wide section of the Amgu River, about 30 meters across, very shallow, and right on the edge of the village itself. There, with a background chorus of baying village dogs, logging trucks and ocean static, the Granatnaya family" hunt in the evening.

The team lived in their GAZ-66 vehicle, which was reliable but tinkered with.

"Kolya was constantly adjusting and tightening some hose ... I am not mechanically-oriented so do not know the exact problem," Slaght said. 

GAZ-66 at Sanyon Camp.

"Although we had been in the Amgu area for almost two weeks, we had not gone into the town itself until the afternoon of 18 March, when we drove to Vova Volkov’s banya (sauna and bath house) for a well deserved wash."

Other locales visited earlier in the season, were the Mineralnaya and Sadoga Rivers at their confluences with the Avvakumovka River, near the town of Olga, and the Serebryanka and Faata fish owl territories at Ternei, Slaght describes in two February updates. Details convey the trials of field research in remote country, and the people and places visited, and it all relates to the known Blakiston’s Fish Owls being visited.

Notable for the season: "We were constantly being harassed by county and provincial game inspectors looking for poachers, and many assumed that we were indeed poachers," Slaght said in an email.  Nothing like staying all night trying to catch an owl, then have a bunch of inspectors wake you up at 7 a.m. demanding to know where we are hiding our poached meat."

Quick Statistics (2009) Of Seven Monitored Pairs, Number Nesting: 2 Of Seven Monitored Pairs, No. With Year-Old Juveniles: 3

The next stop was the Saiyon territory, some 20 km north of Amgu.

"We quickly found where the birds hunted and set our trapless prey enclosures. We were delighted thathere, as at Granatnaya, the pair seemed to hunt in different places, and that their year-old juvenile was with them. On 21 March we set prey enclosures at two sites, and quickly captured the male. He had a wealth of information on his back: 175 locations over six months! We caught the juvenile two days later, weighed him, and gave him leg bands."

This bird is pictured in Slaght's article in Wildlife Conservation Magazine.

Information gathered from the GPS dataloggers, "is unprecedented for the species," Slaght explained. "As of now we have good data on winter, spring and summer habitat use, but because of the limitations of rechargeable dataloggers (only last six months), coupled with the difficulty of recapturing fish owls outside of winter, we do not yet have any autumn habitat use data. At present, we have one six-month datalogger and seven year-long dataloggers on fish owls; all will be retrieved next winter."

Each unit costs about $1700 he said, and since they do not transmit, the owls need to be recaptured to retrieve the unit and its information. Two types, from a company in New Zealand are being used.

At Leonovka, though the nest was found abandoned, the female bird was captured and found to be "quite thin," Slaght said. The team retrieved the datalogger which contained information on her movement during three months and at 52 locations.

The field season ended with a "banya and banquet" on April 6.

"This was a highly successful field season; we captured ten individual owls, which is twice as many as we captured in 2008," Slaght said in his final update for the season. "We placed GPS dataloggers on eight of these birds (the remaining two were juveniles), and next winter will return to retrieve these data."

Slaght was at Ternei, finishing up final details in the country, and then at Vladivostok, before returning to Minnesota about mid-April. He will be back again in August-September to conduct habitat and prey density surveys, and again winter 2010 to check on the same birds and retrieve dataloggers with telemetry information.

"The current focus of the research is the conservation and management implications of resource selection by this species in Primorye," according to the mission statement of the Blakiston’s Fish Owl Project.

Slaght is working for a PhD. degree in wildlife conservation from the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota. His advisor is Dr. Ralph (Rocky) Gutierrez.

Slaght indicated that funding for the 2009 field season has been provided by the University of Minnesota, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, National Birds of Prey Trust, Columbus Zoo, Minnesota Zoo, Denver Zoo, Bell Museum, and a Wildlife Conservation Society Fellowship.

Links to these organizations, previous project updates, an article archive and other information about fish owls are at the project website which is maintained by Slaght.