Traveling black stork Mare now in Turkey

A black stork, whose migration route has been followed since 2016 with a satellite transmitter attached to it, entered Turkey from the eastern province of Hatay 10 days ago.

The stork, which reached Romania via Bulgaria, travels form 15,000 kilometers every year between Africa and Europe.

The life of the endangered species of black stork, named "Mare" by stork observer Maria Marika in Germany, has been followed by satellite transmitters for about four years.

Mare's spring migration started about a month ago. Stating that Mare is a female black stork, Marika noted that in 2016 a satellite transmitter was installed as part of a research project supported by the Max Planck Ornithological Institute.

Marika said that Mare's sister, Bille, was also installed a satellite transmitter to understand whether or not siblings in the same nest were traveling together.

"The data clearly shows that these birds are not doing this. During the first five days of their travel, we followed the distance between both birds. On Sept. 4, Mare's sister was killed by a hunter. Mare's adventure still continues. Mare also had many babies in this process," she said.

In the autumn and spring migration periods, Mare migrates from Europe to Africa, from Africa to Europe via Turkey. Mare's journey in Turkey is being followed by Fikret Can, who is known as the "Stork Father" and the founder of the Leylekel group, and a volunteer Emrah Turan. Mare travels about 15,000 kilometers in every migration period.

Stating that she traveled from South Africa along the Nile Valley and moved from Cairo on March 23, Can said, "For four years, Mare travelled about 15,000 kilometers every year from Africa to Europe in spring and from Europe to Africa in autumn.

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