U.S. Scientists Taking Rare Crane Eggs to Soviet Union

The United States and the Soviet Union may be at loggerheads over arms control, but they are getting together on one delicate issue: crane eggs.

Three rare Siberian crane eggs, carefully cradled in a hand-carried box, were on their way Saturday to the Soviet Union, where ornithologists hope to establish a new flock in captivity and reintroduce the birds into western Asia.

“This represents the culmination of years of work with the Soviet Union,” George Archibald, director of the International Crane Foundation of Baraboo, Wis., said Friday at a news conference at O’Hare International Airport before boarding a plane to deliver the eggs.

“And, in this era of bad feelings with the Soviets, this is showing that some good things have happened,” he added.

Archibald is taking the eggs to the Oka State Nature Reserve about 200 miles south of Moscow.

The project is one of several joint environmental and conservation projects arranged under a special agreement signed by the leaders of the two nations in 1972, Archibald said.

The eggs are being transported in hand-carried wooden cases kept warm by hot-water bottles.

The International Crane Foundation, in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund, has been working with Soviet conservationists since 1977 in a breeding program for Siberian cranes, Archibald said.