LifeTrack of White Stork, DER AP924, tag 2757, Ciconia ciconia 2013 to 2013 Sex: Born: approx. 24 th April 2013 Nest location: Hovtashat South of Eriwan, Armenia Tagging Date: 16 th June 2013 Ring no.:DER AP924 Tag no.:2757 Mother: Siblings: 2 (3021 & 2670) Died in: Iraq Date of death: approx. middle of October 2013 Cause of death:Unknown – no access, military zone Sponsors: Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (Germany) & AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Special info:

Movements and flight routes, dated 20th September 2013

Photo of nests under the Ararat in Darbnik / stork 2557

Photos

Flugroute

Sent 30 th October 2013 Dear Omar Fadhil and the team from Nature Iraq, We are asking for a collaboration to find a dead white stork with a transmitter in Iraq. As part of a study on survival and migration of young white storks (Ciconia ciconia), juveniles were fitted with advanced GPS transmitters last summer in Yerevan in Armenia. One of them died in Iraq about 20 km south of Baghdad. We have the exact location of this stork, which is sent to us continuously from the transmitter. We are interested in a collaboration to find the stork and the transmitter in order to estimate the cause of death and to re-use the transmitter. We will be happy to share the information about this stork which was wintering in Iraq and to launch future cooperation in our study. Of course we are willing to pay for the time and travel costs. We ask for your cooperation on this or for a recommendation of someone else who can help. Thank you very much in advance. Kind regards, Brigitta Keeves Correspondence

Sent 2nd November 2013 Hi Brigitta, Being part of our mission, it would be our pleasure to help you in this issue, and to coordinate for future work with your respected institution. Our team already did help in recovering some alive and dead birds with sat tags from different places in Iraq. So, please, do send us the details of this Stork and the coordinates where it keeps sending the signal from. It would be more appreciated if you send them in DMS formula because this is the standard that we use in locating places. I also would like to inform you that Omar Fadhil is no longer NI staff. Best regards, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mudhafar A. Salim Program Director Protected Areas FP. Nature Iraq Correspondence

Sent 4th November 2013 Dear Brigitta, Thank you for sending the coordinates. From the first glance, it looks that the bird is in some kind of protected area (military or something similar !). It is clear from the surrounding trench and embankments as well as the watching towers at the corners.. Anyway, we promise to do our best to get any useful information and will get back to you. Best regards, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mudhafar A. Salim Program Director Protected Areas FP. Nature Iraq Correspondence

14th of November 2013 Dear Brigitta, I'd like to inform you that based on our knowledge of this site being part of an area of bad security conditions, we've set our plan to recover it but it did not work due to its being one of the spots that still has unstable security conditions, and all of the people whom we've asked did advice our team not to be there. I'm very sorry to tell you this, but it was out of our control ! We've done some successful recoveries of birds with sat device from different places in Iraq, but it seems this time differs, while the safety of our team comes first! Many thanks for your understanding, and we still eager to know/help more with your great project. Best regards, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mudhafar A. Salim Program Director Protected Areas FP. Nature Iraq Correspondence