Bird-brained?
No... adults dressed up as substitute ‘mums’ have SAVED the magnificent crane from extinction
DRESSED like modern-day druids and brandishing fake birds’ heads on their sticks, this pair certainly cut a bizarre image as they stride across the English countryside.
But this peculiar activity has played a crucial role in saving the crane from extinction – and now the graceful bird is thriving in record numbers.
The strangely attired volunteers are acting as substitute mothers for newborn chicks. Their outfit provides enough of a disguise to allow them to feed the hatchlings with a spoon to gain their trust.
When the young cranes have to learn to forage for themselves, the ‘mums’ use the phoney crane’s heads, fashioned out of resin, to point out spiders and bugs on the ground for the chicks to eat.
The hooded human surrogates also encourage the birds to exercise, walking alongside them in a netted enclosure to build up their legs and
‘To see them back after all this time is amazing’
ensure they grow straight. And once the birds fledge, the volunteers even show them how to fly, running around and flapping their arms.
Such efforts by the Wetland and Wildfowl Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, have helped the UK crane population swell to 160 pairs, 48 of them breeding – a remarkable comeback for a species hunted to extinction in Britain some 400 years ago.
Its return began in 1979, when a breeding pair settled in East Anglia. Today’s population has grown from those birds, with the aid of breeding programmes.
Damon Bridge, project manager of the RSPB’s Great Crane Project, said: ‘Once, the crane’s echoing call could be heard throughout the English countryside, as well as spots in Scotland and Wales. But it was wiped out more than 400 years ago because of hunting and the draining of its favoured wetland habitat.
‘To see them returning to their former homes after all this time is an amazing spectacle that many more people will be able to enjoy.’
The young cranes raised by the substitute mothers are now being released in the Somerset Levels, while the birds can also be seen elsewhere in the South West, East Anglia, Yorkshire and East Scotland. The first breeding pair to cross the Severn Estuary settled near Newport, South Wales, earlier this year.
Experts now believe there is a chance cranes will soon be seen in other parts of the country. Parents aggressively chase their offspring from their territory after nurturing them through the winter, encouraging the species to spread.