The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) on Wednesday, January 19, announced the death of a giant rare bird.
This is after a resident of Mugon Village in Baraton, Nandi County discovered the dead white stork bird in their area.
In an interview with local media, the resident claimed that the bird was electrocuted.
"It rammed into power transmission cables and was electrocuted," he narrated.
On one of its legs was a metallic tag, which prompted the man to take the carcass to the nearest Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) offices.
"It had a collar on one of its legs, which indicated that it was from Poland. I found it rather unfortunate after it had travelled 7,000 kilometres," the resident stated.
This was confirmed by KWS officers, who identified the writing on the tag, Gdańsk, as Polish.
It is synonymous with the Museum and Institute of Zoology in Gdańsk, Poland. White storks are rare in Poland, hence the tag on its leg.
KWS stated that the bird would be preserved through taxidermy and will be used for future learning.
In March 2021, another white bird that had flown into Kenya from the Scandinavian country died in quite a similar incident in Kitale.
Residents claimed that it was part of a flock of around 200 birds that flew near power lines in the area.
In 2020, an Osprey bird that had flown 7000 kilometres from Finland was also found dead in Kisumu. KWS attributed its death to long-term starvation that caused massive organ failure.
"Despite all efforts to rehabilitate and eventually release it back to the wild, the four-year-old bird of prey died at the weekend while under the care of KWS veterinarians and a KWS-licensed Raptor Rehabilitation Centre in Karen Nairobi.
According to zoologists, birds migrate from Europe to escape harsh winter conditions. Most of them end up in Kenya, which is situated along the migration route.
