Spring comes early for Max the stork

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Max the stork, currently the oldest animal being tracked by satellite, is flying north after a remarkably short winter sojourn in southern Spain, a natural history museum in Switzerland said Wednesday.

The female white stork -- fitted with a tracking device since it left its maternal nest in July 1999 -- spent only 100 days in an area south of Cordoba before leaving at the weekend, the musuem in Fribourg city said.

That compares to its previous shortest winter sojourn of 117 days, and marked the first time that it has not wintered in Morocco, said biologist Adrian Aebischer, who monitors Max's peregrinations.

It doubtlessly began its spring migration early on account of a relatively mild winter, Aebischer explained.

On Wednesday, Max...