The British Museum's colleagues has found and interesting item in the recent past. The fridge of the institute's nature sciences branch's contained a great bustard. This bird specie is known by the nature protection agreements as an seriously endangered bird, which is protected in Hungary since 1970 and it is the symbol of our organisation the MME.


The bird called Mary was delivered from the Zoo of Bedfordshire to the museum in 1995. The bird died in 1994 when she was 12 years old and it is home land was indicated as Portugal by the institute.
Thanks to the curiosity and endurance of the British scientists they founded out that the birds origin is Hungarian. They contacted the MME Bird Ringing Central where the investigation of course was based on Mary's bird ring ("BUDAPEST 600235") and it came out that the bird was born in Hungary. According to the documentation the bird was relocated with two another layers to the Great Bustard Saving Base in Dévaványa. While she couldn't't manage it's life in the nature she became the ambassador of it's specie in he Bedfordshire Zoo.
The research is still continuing and it shows the importance of the finding that even the preparation work hasn't even started yet but Mary has a new owner. After the great bustard's long term museum „seek and hide" game she would find it's worthy peace in rest in the Museum of Natural History in New York.