We are on the road to our lovely ecocenter Djeyran, where our favorite project has been finished. The way together with the Committee members is gliding – we are talking about different aspects of the program work and about trifles of life. Behind the car window everything is quickly changing – the landscape, police posts, dusty whirlwind and everything else, the life is flying by.
Suddenly, not far from the road we noticed griffons and black vultures sitting in a dignified way – the species which are included in Red Book of Uzbekistan. The birds were not afraid of people and it was pleasant to see that the relationship between them and people has become normal… But one cannot be too careful. Still, they are wild birds… Here they have started running like heavy airplanes along the takeoff runway and in several minutes we saw them ascending without any flap of the wings, having caught the spiral of an invisible thermal stream rising up from the earth.
Photos by Rustem Djemilev
We came to Bukhara, to the ecocenter. We have come just in time so that the members of our grant Committee could take part in the annual counting of djeyran gazelles. It is an amazing view and no one could remain indifferent. We are not going describe our impressions again. It is better to read our previous stories.
The counting was excellent, everyone was happy. In spite of a very difficult year and unavailability of desert vegetation because of draught, the ecocenter team under the tender force of Natalya Vasilyevna Soldatova has saved a lot of lives. Thanks to the help of many people the fodder was purchased. The fodder was scattered in the deserts and the animals could eat it. Because of the difficult year not so many animals died and the general data are as follows:
According to data of 2009 the number of animals in comparison to 2008 has increased as follows: 902 units of djeyran gazelles, 67 units of wild donkeys and 21 units of Przewalski's horses. According to data of 2010 the number became as follows: 794 units of djeyran gazelles, 22 units of horses and 79 units of wild donkeys.
