Man creates endangered bird figures out of waste

A mosaic artisan is building sculptures of endangered birds by using waste materials, such as scrap metals, plastics and electronic cards to raise public awareness about environmental pollution.

Mervan Altınok, who lives in the Reyhanlı district of the southern province of Hatay, together with his wife collected spoons, forks and sparking plugs. After a painstaking work, which lasted for five months, he created the sculptures of a flamingo, peacock and bald ibis.

"I worked together with my wife on those objects. My primary purpose is to raise awareness about the pollution problem. But at the same time, I wanted to make an example for recycling'," Altınok told Anadolu Agency.

The artist noted that he had previously created objects other than endangered bids species.

"Beside metal and plastics, we utilized electronic cards to build the bird sculptures. We used electronic cards to get our message across that electronics could bring many things, but they could also take away a great deal from us."

Some 15,000 pieces of objects were used to crease three different bird sculptures, according to Altınok.

He intends to display his works on the June 5 World Environment Day.

Turkey is working hard to protect animals facing extinction and those efforts appear to have paid off.

For instance, the endangered generations of northern bald ibises are protected by serious measures as a result of the works carried out by the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks.

The works started in 1977 with two adults and nine young birds gave results and today the number of bald ibis is 244 in the Birecik district of in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.

The colony of the northern bald ibis lives...