Ice To See You: 30,000-Year-Old Flower Revived (via Simon Reames) update from earlier post

Fruit and seeds hidden in an Ice Age squirrel's burrow in Siberian permafrost have been resurrected into a flower by Russian scientists.

Using a pioneering experiment, the Sylene stenophylla has become the oldest plant ever to be regrown and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds.

The seeds date back 30,000 to 32,000 years and raise hopes that iconic Ice Age mammals like the woolly mammoth could also eventually be resurrected.

The researchers, who published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, said the results prove that permafrost serves a natural depository for ancient life forms.

"We consider it essential to continue permafrost studies in search of an ancient genetic pool, that of pre-existing life, which hypothetically has long since vanished from the earth's surface," the scientists said in the article.

For photo of flower:  http://news.sky.com/home/strange-news/article/16174136

Ancient plants back to life after 30,000 frozen years

Scientists in Russia have grown plants from fruit stored away in permafrost by squirrels over 30,000 years ago.

The fruit was found in the banks of the Kolyma River in Siberia, a top site for people looking for mammoth bones.

The Institute of Cell Biophysics team raised plants of Silene stenophylla - of the campion family - from the fruit.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they note this is the oldest plant material by far to have been brought to life.

Prior to this, the record lay with date palm seeds stored for 2,000 years at Masada in Israel.

The leader of the research team, Professor David Gilichinsky, died a few days before his paper was published.

In it, he and his colleagues describe finding about 70 squirrel hibernation burrows in the river bank.

Read on :  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17100574

Man's best friend for 30,000 years: Canine skulls discovered in two separate digs reveals historic relationship Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091192/Dog-skull-Siberia-33-000-years-old--hints-mans-best-friend-didnt-come-single-ancestor.html#ixzz1kwlrxhlz

Dogs have been a loyal companion to mankind for more than 30,000 years, findings reveal.

Scientists believe that two 33,000-year-old skulls unearthed in digs in Siberia and Belgium show dogs were domesticated long before any other animal, such as sheep, cows or goats.

Researchers from the University of Arizona said the skulls had shorter snouts and wider jaws than undomesticated animals such as wolves, which use their longer snouts and narrower jaws to help them hunt.

The researchers think dogs could have been the first species of animals to be domesticated by humans, long before farm animals were bred for their meat and skins. 

This offers a possible explanation for why breeds such as pugs and huskies look so different, despite being the same species.

The scientists used carbon dating to determine the age of the two skulls, then looked at the bone structures and concluded that claims the dogs had been domesticated were ‘pretty solid’.

Study author Dr Greg Hodgins, whose findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE, said: ‘Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological [structural] characteristics.

‘Essentially, wolves have long thin snouts and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth.

‘The interesting thing is that typically we think of domestication as being cows, sheep and goats, things that produce food through meat or secondary agricultural products such as milk, cheese and wool and things like that.

‘Those are different relationships than humans may have with dogs. The dogs are not necessarily providing products or meat.

‘They are probably providing protection, companionship and perhaps helping on the hunt.

‘And it’s really interesting that this appears to have happened  first out of all human relationships with animals.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091192/Dog-skull-Siberia-33-000-years-old--hints-mans-best-friend-didnt-come-single-ancestor.html#ixzz1kwlw2yWc

Snow leopards photographed in Siberia for the first time

December 2011. Cameras equipped with motion sensors have captured the first images of elusive snow leopards in a remote mountain range in Siberia. The cameras captured photos of two snow leopards in October as they walked along a ridge in the Altai Mountains along the Russia-Mongolia border.


"To get a picture is really a big deal," said Dr. James P. Gibbs, a conservation biologist with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, New.York. "The signs that the species is in this region are definitive but a picture is irrefutable."

The photos were taken at an altitude of about 4,000 metres at a location called Chikhachyova Ridge in the Altai Republic, a semiautonomous region in southern Russia. Gibbs said the animals are probably part of a larger population that extends into Mongolia.

Argali sheep
Ten cameras were installed in the area as the result of evidence that was found when Gibbs and some colleagues made an expedition there this past summer. The main reason for the trip was to survey the population of Argali sheep, the world's largest wild sheep species that is threatened by hunting and habitat loss. But the researchers did double duty, searching at the same time for evidence of snow leopards.

"Snow leopards leave clear signs that you see readily if you look for them," Gibbs said. "You can find scat and places where they scratch trees with their claws. And you see their scrapes, circular depressions made in the gravel that are slightly discoloured. They maintain these scent marks. If you see fresh ones, you know snow leopards are in the area."

The snow leopard population is threatened by poachers who hunt the animals for their distinctive spotted coats.


Pallas cat
Gibbs said ESF supplied the high-tech cameras through a $20,000 grant from Panthera, a conservation organization that focuses on saving wild cats. In addition to the snow leopards, the cameras caught images of a rarely seen Pallas cat, also called a manul, a thick-furred feline about the size of a domestic cat.

The expedition that installed the cameras was sponsored jointly by Arkhar and Altaisky State Biosphere Reserve. Staff members from the reserve were accompanied by staff from Ubsunurskaya Basin Biosphere Reserve in Tyva Republic and Mongolian specialists from Silkkhemin Nuru National Park and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Mongolia.

In addition to aid from ESF and Panthera in supplying cameras, the expedition received support from the Snow Leopard Conservancy and WWF-Russia. The cameras will track snow leopard movements on the ridge throughout the winter and help scientists evaluate the number of animals in the population.

This news comes in the same week that a Persian leopard was photographed in Afghanistan

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/siberia-snow-leopard.html

Yeti Evidence Falls Flat: Scientist Says Local Officials Staged Siberian Snowman Hunt For Publicity

A group of international scientists made headlines last month after suggesting they were "95 percent" certain they'd found evidence that the elusive Yeti -- or fabled Siberian Snowman -- really exists.

But one scientist who was part of the big snowman hunt tells The Huffington Post that local Siberian officials staged the entire snowman scenario -- all for publicity.

"It was a very awkward feeling because here I was a guest and this was clearly orchestrated," said Idaho State University anthropologist and anatomist Jeffrey Meldrum.

And now, as researchers claim that twisted tree branches are possible proof of the Yeti's existence, Meldrum is offering a word of caution.

"Since nobody has demonstrated to me any corroborating evidence, like footprints in direct association or hair intertwined in any of these [tree] structures, I'm much more inclined to think the majority of them are just natural occurrences," he said.

Meldrum was among a handful of scientists and investigators invited to Russia's Kemerovo region -- about 2,000 miles east of Moscow -- in October to look at possible evidence of a large, hairy primate, known as the Yeti or Siberian Snowman.

"I was happy when I learned there was interest by Russian government authorities to promote and sponsor the organization of a [Yeti] institute," Meldrum said.


Read more and see video here ...

Siberian region 'confirms Yeti exists'

A Russian region in Siberia on Monday confidently proclaimed that its mountains are home to yetis after finding "indisputable proof" of the existence of the hairy beasts in an expedition.

The local administration of the Kemerovo region in the south of Siberia said in a statement on its website that footprints and possibly even hair samples belonging to the yeti were found on the research trip to its remote mountains.

"During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the 'Snow Man'," the Kemerovo region administration said in a press-release.

The expedition was organised after Kemerovo's governor invited researchers from the United States, Canada, and several other countries to share their research and stories of encounters with the creature at a conference.

"They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The collected "artifacts" will be analysed in a special laboratory, it said.
Yetis, or Abominable Snowmen, are hairy ape-like creatures of popular myth, that are generally held to inhabit the Himalayas.

But some believe Russia also holds a population of yetis, which it calls Snow Men, in remote areas of Siberia.

Kemerovo region's Shoria is a sparsely populated territory in Western Siberia that has historically been a territory of coal and metal mining.

The region, the administrative center of Kuznetsk coal basin, has pursued the elusive Yeti for several years as it tries to develop tourism into its mostly industrial economy.

Considering the latest findings, the region may "create a special research center to study the Yeti" in the regional university and "create a journal" dedicated to the science of the Yeti, the administration's statement said.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/siberian-region-confirms-yeti-exists-134034822.html

Unhappy snaps

A photographer has been quizzed by police after the crocodile he brought to a lake for happy snaps with holidaymakers escaped terrifying hundreds of swimmers.

The six foot long reptile - at Lake Shira in Siberia, eastern Russia - gave his owner the slip as he haggled with tourists over the price of a souvenir photo, reports local media.

Horrified swimmer Anna Luneva said: "I was swimming and suddenly realised there was a crocodile in the water. I was so frightened I almost lost my mind.

"Everyone was panicking," she added.

A special police wildlife unit eventually recovered the crocodile, which is recovering at a nearby aquatic centre.

"It was quite a young crocodile and there is plenty of food in this lake - swimmers. We didn't want him to escape and grow any bigger," commented an officer.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/croodile_snaps

Ancient dog skull unearthed in Siberia

A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.

But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.

The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists.

The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.

The study is published in the open access journal Plos One.

Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from 1,000 years ago, its large teeth resemble those of 31,000 year-old wild European wolves.

This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study.

"The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process," explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada.

But for this to happen required settled early human populations: "At this time, people were hunting animals in large numbers and leaving large piles of bones behind, and that was attracting the wolves," she said.

The most curious, least fearful wolves tended to have more juvenile characteristics with shorter, wider snouts and smaller, more crowded teeth, features that, over generations, came to define the domesticated dog.


These early dogs would have been useful to people in cleaning up scraps and fending off other predators such as bears, but after the ice age, over the last 10,000 years, they became key members of the team, believes Oxford University archaeologist Professor Thomas Higham, a co-author on the study.

"When you've got hunting dogs, all of a sudden it's a game changer. Hunters with dogs are much better than sole hunters," he told BBC News.

Intriguingly though, this much older early Siberian dog seems to have hit an evolutionary dead end. While people continued to occupy the Altai through the depths of the last ice age, they seem to have done so without their dogs, perhaps as food became more scarce.

"What the ice age did was to cause people to move around more," said Dr Crockford, halting the process of domestication and setting wolves and people back into competition for perhaps 20,000 years.

Fortunately, the closest modern dog, the Siberian Samoyed bred to herd and guard reindeer, seems to have taken up where its ancient predecessor left off.

By Hamish Pritchard

Science Reporter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14390679

Ancient humans, dubbed 'Denisovans', interbred with us (via Dawn Holloway)

Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species.



The ancient humans have been dubbed Denisovans after the caves in Siberia where their remains were found.

There is also evidence that this group was widespread in Eurasia.

A study in Nature journal shows that Denisovans co-existed with Neanderthals and interbred with our species - perhaps around 50,000 years ago.

An international group of researchers sequenced a complete genome from one of the ancient hominins (human-like creatures), based on nuclear DNA extracted from a finger bone.

'Sensational' find
According to the researchers, this provides confirmation there were at least four distinct types of human in existence when anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) first left their African homeland.
Along with modern humans, scientists knew about the Neanderthals and a dwarf human species found on the Indonesian island of Flores nicknamed The Hobbit. To this list, experts must now add the Denisovans.


The implications of the finding have been described by Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London as "nothing short of sensational".

Scientists were able to analyse DNA from a tooth and from a finger bone excavated in the Denisova cave in southern Siberia. The individuals belonged to a genetically distinct group of humans that were distantly related to Neanderthals but even more distantly related to us.

The finding adds weight to the theory that a different kind of human could have existed in Eurasia at the same time as our species.

Researchers have had enigmatic fossil evidence to support this view but now they have some firm evidence from the genetic study carried out by Professor Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany.


"A species of early human living in Europe evolved," according to Professor Paabo.

"There was a western form that was the Neanderthal and an eastern form, the Denisovans."

The study shows that Denisovans interbred with the ancestors of the present day people of the Melanesian region north and north-east of Australia. Melanesian DNA comprises between 4% and 6% Denisovan DNA.

David Reich from the Harvard Medical School, who worked with Svante Paabo on the study, says that the fact that Denisovan genes ended up so far south suggests they were widespread across Eurasia: "These populations must have been spread across thousands and thousands of miles," he told BBC News.

One mystery is why the Denisovan genes are unique in modern Melanesians and are not found in other Eurasian groups that have so far been sampled.

'Fleeting encounter'
Professor Stringer believes it is because there may have been only a fleeting encounter as modern humans migrated through South-East Asia and then on to Melanesia.

"It could be just 50 Denisovans interbreeding with a thousand modern humans. That would be enough to produce this 5% of those archaic genes being transferred," he said.


"So the impact is there but the number of interbreeding events might have been quite small and quite rare."

No one knows when or how these humans disappeared but, according to Professor Paabo, it is very likely something to do with modern people because all the "archaic" humans, like Denisovans and Neanderthals disappeared sometime after Homo sapiens sapiens appeared on the scene.

"It is fascinating to see direct evidence that these archaic species did exist (alongside us) and it's only for the last few tens of thousands of years that is unique in our history that we are alone on this planet and we have no close relatives with us anymore," he said.

The study follows a paper published earlier this year by Professor Paabo and colleagues that showed there was interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals as they emerged from Africa 60,000 years ago.

By Pallab Ghosh

Science correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12059564

Ancient humans, dubbed 'Denisovans', interbred with us (via Dawn Holloway)

Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species.



The ancient humans have been dubbed Denisovans after the caves in Siberia where their remains were found.

There is also evidence that this group was widespread in Eurasia.

A study in Nature journal shows that Denisovans co-existed with Neanderthals and interbred with our species - perhaps around 50,000 years ago.

An international group of researchers sequenced a complete genome from one of the ancient hominins (human-like creatures), based on nuclear DNA extracted from a finger bone.

'Sensational' find
According to the researchers, this provides confirmation there were at least four distinct types of human in existence when anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) first left their African homeland.
Along with modern humans, scientists knew about the Neanderthals and a dwarf human species found on the Indonesian island of Flores nicknamed The Hobbit. To this list, experts must now add the Denisovans.


The implications of the finding have been described by Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London as "nothing short of sensational".

Scientists were able to analyse DNA from a tooth and from a finger bone excavated in the Denisova cave in southern Siberia. The individuals belonged to a genetically distinct group of humans that were distantly related to Neanderthals but even more distantly related to us.

The finding adds weight to the theory that a different kind of human could have existed in Eurasia at the same time as our species.

Researchers have had enigmatic fossil evidence to support this view but now they have some firm evidence from the genetic study carried out by Professor Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany.


"A species of early human living in Europe evolved," according to Professor Paabo.

"There was a western form that was the Neanderthal and an eastern form, the Denisovans."

The study shows that Denisovans interbred with the ancestors of the present day people of the Melanesian region north and north-east of Australia. Melanesian DNA comprises between 4% and 6% Denisovan DNA.

David Reich from the Harvard Medical School, who worked with Svante Paabo on the study, says that the fact that Denisovan genes ended up so far south suggests they were widespread across Eurasia: "These populations must have been spread across thousands and thousands of miles," he told BBC News.

One mystery is why the Denisovan genes are unique in modern Melanesians and are not found in other Eurasian groups that have so far been sampled.

'Fleeting encounter'
Professor Stringer believes it is because there may have been only a fleeting encounter as modern humans migrated through South-East Asia and then on to Melanesia.

"It could be just 50 Denisovans interbreeding with a thousand modern humans. That would be enough to produce this 5% of those archaic genes being transferred," he said.


"So the impact is there but the number of interbreeding events might have been quite small and quite rare."

No one knows when or how these humans disappeared but, according to Professor Paabo, it is very likely something to do with modern people because all the "archaic" humans, like Denisovans and Neanderthals disappeared sometime after Homo sapiens sapiens appeared on the scene.

"It is fascinating to see direct evidence that these archaic species did exist (alongside us) and it's only for the last few tens of thousands of years that is unique in our history that we are alone on this planet and we have no close relatives with us anymore," he said.

The study follows a paper published earlier this year by Professor Paabo and colleagues that showed there was interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals as they emerged from Africa 60,000 years ago.

By Pallab Ghosh

Science correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12059564

YETIS VERSUS BEARS IN SIBERIA

An expedition that was looking for the mysterious yeti in Mountain Shoria -- a faraway region in the Siberian taiga - has recently returned home. The expedition's members claim that the forest fires of this extremely hot summer made Altai yetis move to the Kuzbass region, where they have started a "war" with local bears.

Searches for this mysterious creature, also known as "bigfoot" or "snowman", started several decades ago. People look for yetis -- or, at least, their traces -- elsewhere: in Canada, Europe, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Russia. Several times, yetis' traces have been found -- footsteps that resemble that of humans but are too big for a man, flocks of hair or gigantic branch shelters in forests. In 1967, a certain Roger Patterson even filmed a yeti in northern California, but experts still argue whether this shooting is real or fake.

This year's expedition to Mountain Shoria is already the third. One of its participants, the director of the International Center for Hominology Igor Burtsev assures that yetis leave traces of their stay in the taiga and fight with local bears.

"They make strange pyramidal constructions of trunks and branches in the wood -- sometimes 3 or 4 meters, sometimes only 30 cm high. Sometimes they bend huge trees and twist their trunks like wheels. A human being is just not strong enough for that, and there seems to be no need for bears to do this. At first, we thought that yetis do this to make shelters, but then we came to the conclusion that this is a sort of landmark for them. Or, maybe, this is a way for a yeti to say something to its congeners."

Igor Burtsev has talked with local residents who claim that they have seen yetis with their own eyes. Sometimes, farmers take them for wood goblins.

"Folk beliefs say that the wood goblin is the master of the woods. All animals, even bears, submit to him. The wood goblin has a strong hypnotic power, thus he is not afraid of any animal."

Scientists think that these ancient beliefs do have some grounding -- it seems that today yetis in Siberia are competing with bears, and the yetis are winning -- they are obviously stronger and have rudimentary intellect. If this "war" between yetis and bears continues, there is a risk that bears will not sleep this winter because of a shortage of food, instead going to villages in search of something to eat. To prevent this, the region's authorities plan to organize bear feeding.

However, it seems that local residents have already found a common language with the yetis -- they leave candies for them and communicate with them mentally -- yetis are believed to be telepathic. Igor Burtsev even claims that to a certain extent, yetis can imitate the human language. "I would, without doubt, call the yeti another species of man, he says.


http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/10/11/25362914.html

YETIS VERSUS BEARS IN SIBERIA

An expedition that was looking for the mysterious yeti in Mountain Shoria -- a faraway region in the Siberian taiga - has recently returned home. The expedition's members claim that the forest fires of this extremely hot summer made Altai yetis move to the Kuzbass region, where they have started a "war" with local bears.

Searches for this mysterious creature, also known as "bigfoot" or "snowman", started several decades ago. People look for yetis -- or, at least, their traces -- elsewhere: in Canada, Europe, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Russia. Several times, yetis' traces have been found -- footsteps that resemble that of humans but are too big for a man, flocks of hair or gigantic branch shelters in forests. In 1967, a certain Roger Patterson even filmed a yeti in northern California, but experts still argue whether this shooting is real or fake.

This year's expedition to Mountain Shoria is already the third. One of its participants, the director of the International Center for Hominology Igor Burtsev assures that yetis leave traces of their stay in the taiga and fight with local bears.

"They make strange pyramidal constructions of trunks and branches in the wood -- sometimes 3 or 4 meters, sometimes only 30 cm high. Sometimes they bend huge trees and twist their trunks like wheels. A human being is just not strong enough for that, and there seems to be no need for bears to do this. At first, we thought that yetis do this to make shelters, but then we came to the conclusion that this is a sort of landmark for them. Or, maybe, this is a way for a yeti to say something to its congeners."

Igor Burtsev has talked with local residents who claim that they have seen yetis with their own eyes. Sometimes, farmers take them for wood goblins.

"Folk beliefs say that the wood goblin is the master of the woods. All animals, even bears, submit to him. The wood goblin has a strong hypnotic power, thus he is not afraid of any animal."

Scientists think that these ancient beliefs do have some grounding -- it seems that today yetis in Siberia are competing with bears, and the yetis are winning -- they are obviously stronger and have rudimentary intellect. If this "war" between yetis and bears continues, there is a risk that bears will not sleep this winter because of a shortage of food, instead going to villages in search of something to eat. To prevent this, the region's authorities plan to organize bear feeding.

However, it seems that local residents have already found a common language with the yetis -- they leave candies for them and communicate with them mentally -- yetis are believed to be telepathic. Igor Burtsev even claims that to a certain extent, yetis can imitate the human language. "I would, without doubt, call the yeti another species of man, he says.


http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/10/11/25362914.html

Rare warm weather lands pink pelicans in Siberia

(Reuters Life!) - A flock of African pink pelicans en route home landed in Siberia on Tuesday, astounding local residents after Russia's abnormally warm weather threw them off course.

"I left home early in the morning and what a sight!" Vladimir Pyagin, a resident of the small village of Suslovo in the Altai region, told Reuters.

"When I got closer, I immediately realised they were pelicans... Everybody in the village started trying to catch them to save the exhausted birds from the dogs."

Residents managed to capture four of the exotic birds, who have been moved to a zoo in the regional capital of Barnaul, 200 km (120 miles) northeast of the village.

The remaining three of the addled flock took flight.

Russia's Bird Conservation Union said the birds were migrating back to their native Africa from neighboring Kazakhstan.

"This is a unique case. Some reports suggest pelicans last flew here over 100 years ago," said union head Alexei Ebel.

Russia, famed for its freezing temperatures, is breaking records for abnormally warm November weather with temperatures in Altai hovering around 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit). In other parts of the country, there have been reports of bears and hedgehogs who had delayed hibernation.

The Barnaul zoo director said the pelicans would remain in the zoo out of fear the birds would not survive the upcoming winter.

"We're not yet talking about letting the pelicans go free... We have already prepared a heated aviary for them and in the spring we'll build a pond," he said.

He added that the zoo would seek advice on how to care for their "unusual guests" from the Moscow City Zoo, but in the meantime the birds were being treated to an expensive diet of pike, perch and carp.

Barely one year old, the lost pelicans still sport fledgling grey feathers. Only later will their back plumage turn into their more famous pink hues.

"They just lost their way and went in exactly the opposite direction: Instead of Africa they somehow chose the Altai region." (Reporting by Kristina Livyer; writing by Alissa de Carbonnel, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6AF3Y220101116

Rare warm weather lands pink pelicans in Siberia

(Reuters Life!) - A flock of African pink pelicans en route home landed in Siberia on Tuesday, astounding local residents after Russia's abnormally warm weather threw them off course.

"I left home early in the morning and what a sight!" Vladimir Pyagin, a resident of the small village of Suslovo in the Altai region, told Reuters.

"When I got closer, I immediately realised they were pelicans... Everybody in the village started trying to catch them to save the exhausted birds from the dogs."

Residents managed to capture four of the exotic birds, who have been moved to a zoo in the regional capital of Barnaul, 200 km (120 miles) northeast of the village.

The remaining three of the addled flock took flight.

Russia's Bird Conservation Union said the birds were migrating back to their native Africa from neighboring Kazakhstan.

"This is a unique case. Some reports suggest pelicans last flew here over 100 years ago," said union head Alexei Ebel.

Russia, famed for its freezing temperatures, is breaking records for abnormally warm November weather with temperatures in Altai hovering around 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit). In other parts of the country, there have been reports of bears and hedgehogs who had delayed hibernation.

The Barnaul zoo director said the pelicans would remain in the zoo out of fear the birds would not survive the upcoming winter.

"We're not yet talking about letting the pelicans go free... We have already prepared a heated aviary for them and in the spring we'll build a pond," he said.

He added that the zoo would seek advice on how to care for their "unusual guests" from the Moscow City Zoo, but in the meantime the birds were being treated to an expensive diet of pike, perch and carp.

Barely one year old, the lost pelicans still sport fledgling grey feathers. Only later will their back plumage turn into their more famous pink hues.

"They just lost their way and went in exactly the opposite direction: Instead of Africa they somehow chose the Altai region." (Reporting by Kristina Livyer; writing by Alissa de Carbonnel, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6AF3Y220101116