Great Crane Project, Somerset
Since 1981, cranes have nested or attempted to nest in East Anglia and on the Humberhead levels, but the population still has a tenuous foothold in the UK.
Through the Landfill Communities
Fund, Viridor Credits has given the Great Crane Project £700,00
over the last three years to re-introduce a population of
common cranes into the Somerset levels and moors, to help secure
its future as a UK breeding species.
The project is a partnership
between the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust.
Viridor Credits' funding will build a hatching and rearing facility
for crane chicks at the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre - the
starting point for the Great Crane Project and a release enclosure
in the wetlands of Somerset. The rearing facility builds on the
knowledge and expertise gained over the past three years at WWT's
hugely popular Crane School exhibit. Here, crane chicks have been
raised by aviculture staff wearing specially created crane suits
and fed using customised crane head litter pickers to finely tune
the techniques for raising crane chicks prior to release.
This spring, UK conservationists
will travel to Germany to carefully collect the first crane eggs
for release with the help of their German colleagues and transport
them back to the new Crane School rearing facility at WWT
Slimbridge in the UK. Once hatched, the chicks will learn how to
forage for food, interact with other cranes and avoid predators at
Slimbridge. The first release of cranes into the wetlands of
Somerset is planned for autumn 2010. Dr Debbie Pain, the WWT's
director of conservation said: "Cranes are magnificent birds that
were driven from their wetland habitats and hunted to extinction
long ago. Now with Viridor Credits' support we are determined to
give them another go at survival."
In 2012, Viridor Credits was
pleased to award a further £600,000 to the Great Crane Project,
enabling the good work to continue until 2015.
For more
information
Press Release -
April 2013
The
Great Crane Project (External site, opens in new
window)
Viridor Credits' Crane
page!
Swampy (External site, opens in new
window)
Main Image Copyright Nick Upton
