约炮视频 Magazine / Winter 2021

Behind the Mystery of Armenia’s Oil-Covered White Storks

In the half decade since oiled birds were first spotted, volunteers and conservationists have raced to care for the iconic animals鈥攁nd pushed the government to address pollution sources.
In the bottom right of this photo stands a three-foot-tall white stork, its orange bill and feet nearly the same shade as the cord running along the ground in front of it. The white feathers of the bird are covered in an a dark, oily substance. The bird is walking on the street, where a white car is parked, and crossing in front of a sandstone building.
This summer, as in the past, volunteers gathered in a field next to Hovtashen鈥檚 town hall (pictured here) to treat oiled birds, like this one. Photo: Biayna Mahari
By Nyree Abrahamian
Reporter, 约炮视频 Magazine
Published Winter 2021

In 2017 residents of Armenia鈥檚 Ararat Valley region began noticing a strange phenomenon: White Storks that nest in their villages were covered in a thick, oily substance. Villagers alerted BirdLinks Armenia, an organization that monitors birds and butterflies, which assembled a team to wash the iconic waders and nurse them back to health before releasing them into the wild. With each passing year, Armenians have seen more oiled storks, which indicates that, rather than being an isolated incident, the issue is complex and systemic. And as the problem has gotten bigger, so has the response. Conservationists, community leaders, and volunteers across Armenia have been treating affected storks, as well as working to find the sources of the pollution and advocating for the government to address them.

Exalted in legends and folklore, storks hold a special cultural significance for Armenians. They are bearers of good fortune (not just of babies, as the universal trope holds). One of Armenia鈥檚 most well-loved folk songs, 鈥淏ari Aragil鈥 (鈥淕ood Stork鈥), implores: 鈥淐ome live by my house, good stork. Weave your nest atop my poplar tree.鈥 Nowadays, while telephone poles are the more common perch of choice for the birds, Armenians still celebrate the appearance of a nest near their home. This sense of kinship has no doubt played a role in residents鈥 concern for the birds. This summer, as in the past, volunteers gathered in a field next to Hovtashen鈥檚 town hall to treat oiled birds. 

Suren Mkrtchyan, a former Hovtashen mayor, has helped lead the charge to protect storks in his community. He鈥檚 been aided by bird lovers of all ages, including Mari Sharimanyan, six, and her mother, Margarita. Throughout the summer volunteers capture oiled birds, many of which are severely malnourished and injured from failed attempts to fly. They transport the roughly three-foot-tall, nine-pound waders to cleaning sites, where they scrub them with two detergent solutions before rinsing and drying them. Then they take the cleaned birds to protected, semi-wild environments, where they hand-feed them sliced pieces of fish and observe them until the storks fully regain their strength ahead of fall migration. A portion of Armenia鈥檚 White Storks winter in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. 鈥淭hese birds are sacred,鈥 Mkrtchyan says. 鈥淭hey have lived alongside us, always.鈥

Many Armenians share his sentiment. More than 1,000 families take part in BirdLinks Armenia鈥檚 鈥淣est Neighbours鈥 program, which started in 2006, long before the oil mystery. 鈥淪torks are an excellent indicator of things that are going wrong in the environment because they鈥檙e very sensitive and they鈥檙e at the top of their food chain,鈥 says executive director Karen Aghababyan. 鈥淭he other thing they have going for them is that people really care about them. We found a way to channel that love and care into data collection.鈥 

Participants monitor nests near their homes, keeping track of the storks鈥 arrival and nestling survival. While the species isn鈥檛 deemed threatened, tracking storks provides early warning signs of potential risks.

Those careful observations have revealed that, over the past decade, some stork nesting areas in Armenia have had notably lower rates of breeding success than others. Aghababyan and his colleagues sampled the soil in these areas and found high concentrations of DDT and other banned pesticides, which may be linked to the decline.

Exposure to oil is a newer, yet no less worrisome, development. For the past three years the researchers have been observing 33 villages where the contamination is most prevalent; they鈥檝e seen the percentage of affected nestlings grow from 5 percent in 2019 to 58 percent in 2021. They also identified a likely major culprit: a sturgeon farm that鈥檚 been documented illegally dumping waste from gutted fish into a nearby canal, which causes clogging. Storks foraging for invertebrates and small vertebrates at the site pick up the fatty residue, which they transfer to their chicks.

Amid the public outcry, the government has taken action. Companies responsible for illegal dumping鈥攊ncluding the Hovtashen sturgeon farm, multiple canneries, and a potato chip factory鈥攈ave been fined, and now, under strict monitoring by the State Inspectorate Body, are required to transport waste products to the municipal dump, says Voskehat Grigoryan, head of the Department for Protected Areas in Armenia鈥檚 Ministry of Environment. What鈥檚 more, the country鈥檚 waste management legislation and enforcement mechanisms are undergoing an overhaul. 

While it鈥檚 still too early to gauge the effectiveness of these measures, the recent attention has amplified the cultural significance of Armenia鈥檚 legendary White Storks鈥攖hey鈥檙e not just a sign of luck, but also a call to attention, to caution, and to care.

This story originally ran in the Winter 2021 issue as 鈥淔ortune-Tellers.鈥濃 To receive our print magazine, become a member by .鈥