Siberian locals have rescued two flamingoes in separate incidents in recent days, the frostbitten birds apparently having fallen victim to climate change, according to local news outlets.
One bird literally plummeted from the sky, landing at the feet of a hunter not far from the Arctic Circle, in the Evenkia district, local authorities said Thursday.
The hunter wrapped the flamingo in clothing and rushed home, where his wife did her best to nurse it back to health with carrot pulp and exercise for its wings and feet.
The flamingo was handed over to a zoo in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, though vets remain unsure whether it will recover.
The young bird was on its first migration, and was likely lured away from the regular route by unusually warm winds, a local wildlife expert was cited as saying.
It was negative 5 degrees Celsius in Evenkia last week, up from the negative 30 degrees typical for the season.
Another flamingo was found on the ice of a lake in Tomsk region in western Siberia by local fishermen, Sibnovosti.ru news website said Thursday.
The female bird was also warmed up, fed and sent to a zoo, where vets are nursing her back to health.
There are natural flamingo populations close to Russia's territory in the South Caucasus and the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan.
They appeared in Siberia before, including in Evenkia in the 1990s and the Tomsk region in 2011. In both cases the birds were found by humans, but tragically died of frostbite.
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