The story of the white-winged handsome was told by the journalists of Ishimskaya Pravda. At first, social media users sounded the alarm when they noticed a swan pair with chicks in a pond near the factory. Passersby were confused by the fact that the swans did not leave the lake until the cold weather. Ishim is a city in Western Siberia, located in the south of the Tyumen region. It gets noticeably colder there in autumn, and in winter the conditions for such birds become uninhabitable.
And, unfortunately, fate turned out to be cruel. By winter, the male was left alone, and even with a shot wing. Local teenagers saved the unfortunate man's life, they caught the bird and handed it over to volunteer Natalia Volkova. Locals in the area know her as a person who will always shelter and heal wounded animals and birds.
"That evening, near the reservoir, we stopped the Rosgvardiya car and asked for help, explaining the situation. The young men drove us to the Yunnatov station, where a guard let us through and helped us arrange a swan. They could no longer transfer the bird to heated rooms, there were no places, and he would have frostbitten his paws on the street. He spent the night fighting at the station, and in the morning my husband and I took him home. We'll make room a little, but we'll find a place," says Natalia Volkova.
Marik, as the new guest was called, turned out to be a whooping swan. This species of swans is listed in the Red Book. Natalia Volkova settled him in her courtyard. However, Marik began to live not alone, but with his partner, another hissing swan Tasha. Natalia Yurievna sheltered this female swan four years ago, when the bird got caught in a net and dislocated her shoulder, unfortunately, now she cannot fly. And as it turned out, Marik couldn't do it either.
"When we brought him in and examined him, it turned out that he had a bone sticking out after being injured, and now it was cracking. We have contacted the veterinarian, we will monitor the condition of the swan. He is active, eats well, but behaves cautiously and timidly, stress affects him," Natalia continued her story.
Natalia Volkova has been active in animal volunteering for more than 10 years. She has almost thirty years of experience in the care and treatment of animals and birds. She says that she has not received any special education, she takes care of almost everyone who comes to their home. Wounded or exhausted birds are brought to the Volkovs not only from Ishim, but also from Tyumen and Tobolsk. Most of them manage to be put on the wing and released into the wild.
"If there are babies on overexposure, it means they came to us blind from garbage cans, tied up in bags. I feed these babies from a pacifier every two hours until the age of one month. More than a hundred such tails definitely came out. So, Marik came to us because of a wing injury. The joint is shattered, the wing weighs, but it does not interfere with his life," says Natalia Volkova.
Natalia and her husband live in a private house, they have their own farm, so there is enough room for a bird. Swans live together with poultry, both in summer and in winter. In the summer, they even have an aviary with a swimming pool, and for the winter, Marik and Tasha move to a warm pen.
Photos from Natalia Volkova's personal archive.