A team from the Russian Raptor Research and Conservation Network thought they had a great idea when they attached SMS text-based tracking devices to 13 steppe eagles. The hope was that the birds would send back valuable information about their behavior.

When one of them tried to send the messages during the summer in Kazakhstan, it was out of range of the network. The bird flew to Iran (where the roaming charges are super high -- Rs 54 per SMS) from where it sent all the messages accumulated during the summer. She ended up using the whole tracking budget of the project.

They had to start crowdfunding on social media to pay off the huge debt accumulated due to the hundreds of text messages sent with roaming charges.

When the Russian mobile operator Megafon learned about it, it offered to cancel the debt. It also offered to put the project on a special tariff that would be cheaper.