Rare gray cranes have been found in a quarry area in the Moscow region.

In the Redkino-2 quarry deforestation zone in the Ruzsky district of the Moscow Region, local residents noticed a pair of gray cranes listed in the Red Book of the region. This was announced on Monday, July 14, on the website of the Ministry of Ecology of the region.

"The grey crane is listed in the Red Book of the Moscow region in the third category — a rare breeding species. According to the Ministry of Ecology, only 150-170 pairs of this bird live in the region," the activists said.

Earlier, local residents stated that in 2021, more than 20 species of Red Book plants and animals were recorded on the territory of the planned logging. However, the re-examination ordered by the subsurface user and conducted in the winter and spring of 2024 did not confirm them.

It is also clarified that residents of 11 villages are concerned about possible damage to the environment and demand that work be suspended until a new independent examination is carried out. According to them, animals are already leaving the forest due to the work of machinery, and the restoration of nature in such cases is often not carried out.

"The most ecologically clean area is turning into a construction site," the residents of the area noted.

Brutal prices: how the smuggling of rare animals works

Almost all the contents of the Red Book are for sale on the Internet.

On July 10, a guilty verdict was approved in a criminal case against a local resident of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), who illegally harvested several individuals of pike, burbot, whitefish, lenka, yazia, taimen, as well as Siberian sturgeon listed in the Red Book.