Chill eagles rack up giant text message bill for Russian researchers

Roaming charges are such a pain. 

A group of Russian researchers were feeling that reality hard recently, after a group of eagles fitted with tracking devices hit them with a serious cellphone bill. After summering in an area of Kazakhstan with no cellphone service, the steppe eagles began their expected migration — but not all of them took the expected route. 

According to volunteers at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, tracking devices on the eagles had attempted to send out multiple SMS messages per day all summer long. It’s how the researchers keep track of the raptors’ location, but none of the messages were going through. So, when a group of birds detoured into Iran and finally connected to a cellphone tower, the messages were all sent at once. 

The problem for the researchers being that SMS messages from Iran cost just a tad bit more than ones sent from Russia. 

Image: screenshot / Russian Raptor Research and Conservation Network

“At 49 rubles per message … all messages accumulated over the summer, and this is about 4 SMS per day, from May to September,” reads an Oct. 24 social media post (translated from Russian via Google Translate) from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center explaining the situation. “As a result, shortly after the start of the autumn migration, the budget of the eagles was completely exhausted.” 

Forty-nine rubles is roughly equal to $.77. 

Image: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / getty

To cover the costs, researchers asked for donations from the public — who, thankfully, responded with financial assistance to top off the eagles’ SIMs. 

“The money collected is now enough to pay for SMS messages not only before the end of the year, but also until the end of the migration,” wrote research volunteers in an Oct. 26 update (translated via Google Translate).  

Several mobile providers reportedly decided to hop on the goodwill train, offering to provide the eagles’ service free of charge. 

Steppe eagles, it seems, will continue to text from wherever they want.