Stork flies off with tracker, charity gets $2,700 phone bill

A Polish environmental charity placed a mobile phone tracker on a stork. The stork flew 3,700 miles before someone found the device and took its SIM. After 20 hours of calls, the charity was stuck with a $2,700 bill.

The plan seems simple: Place a mobile phone tracker on a white stork to study the bird's migration pattern. That's what a Polish environmental charity, EcoLogic Group, planned to do, per Radio Poland.

But then, after the stork flew 3,700-plus miles, nestling somewhere in Sudan's Blue Nile Valley, it disappeared. And so did the tracker affixed to it. Not for long, though: Someone in the Sudan found the mobile device and took out its SIM card, placing it in a phone before racking up 20 hours worth of calls.

The group found this out when it received a phone bill for more than 10,000 Polish zloty — about $2,700 — which the charity must now pay, according to Radio Poland.

White storks faced extinction in Europe amid drained swamps and increasing industrialization some 50 years ago, the BBC reported, the bird is not currently considered at risk.

Tracking of birds such as the stork that flew out of Siedlce, Poland, can help researchers assess their habits to inform conservation efforts.