First British born great bustards for 177 years!

Great news from the BBC springwatch programme, 3 great bustard chicks have been born, the first in the UK for 177 years.
Born to two different females, (clutches of 0.2 and 0.0.1).

These birds are part of a reintroduction programme based on Salisbury plains, on part of ministry of defence owned land.

The UK Great Bustard reintroduction project

 

That is a historic event of national importance. It is testament to the fact that species recovery programmes with a reintroduction component do have a role to play in species recovery. It can be done, .... it is basically a numbers game. Bring in as many individuals as possible and even with a high percentage mortality sufficient individuals will mature and become sexually active and produce the next generation of first wild-borns.

 

Excellent news . I recently read that the Hawk Conservancy at Weyhill now have a Great Bustard Exhibit with some birds that cannot be released into the wild .

 

Tbh, i have never heard of a bustard but it is still great news

 

Further good news, the EU has made a grant of £1.8 million to the reintroduction project on Salisbury plain, Wilts.
The cash will cover 75% of the scheme's costs, including monitoring the birds with GPS satellite transmitters.

BBC News - Salisbury Plain great bustard project EU funding boost

 

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There has been critisism in some ornithological circles about whether the Russian population in Saratov, where these birds come from, can sustain the removal to the UK of these batches of artificially-raised young birds which would otherwise rejoin the population. There has also been a high mortality rate among the released birds, many of which have been killed by Foxes. About 18 birds have survived to date, plus the recent chicks that have been bred.

Great Bustard males take about five years to mature and become fertile breeders-so I believe this project depends very much on just two mature males they have at present, for continued breeding until more males mature. The Hawk Trust at nearby Weyhill a few miles away holds one additional mature male that is unfit for release-possibly he may have a future role to play as a breeder though as the birds lek(breed) in the release pen which is presumably fox-proof..

 

An update on the reintroduction programme.

BBC News - Russian great bustard eggs hatched in Wiltshire

 

That's good news- in this awful summer they may have a much better chance of growing up than any that have hatched naturally this year in the reintroduced population.

I don't think any UK hatched chicks(as apart from reintroduced birds) from the previous seasons survived more than a few weeks/months and fox predation still seems the major problem with both chicks and released adults, though I believe they are working on that.

 

It will take a considerable time for any reintroduction to really take root.
In the M.E. they did loads of anti predator habituation of young chicks hatched in captivity.

 

Up till this year they have only used juvenile birds sent over from Russia in the autumn after they hatch, for release. They have done at least some anti-predator(fox) avoidance/habitutation with them but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

This year they have also hatched imported eggs for later release.

In 2009/10/11 some of the(established) reintroduced birds from previous years have hatched chicks but I don't think any have survived more than a couple of months to date.

 

Up till this year they have only used juvenile birds sent over from Russia in the autumn after they hatch, for release. They have done at least some anti-predator(fox) avoidance/habitutation with them but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

This year they have also hatched imported eggs for later release.

In 2009/10/11 some of the(established) reintroduced birds from previous years have hatched chicks in the wild too but I don't think any have survived more than a couple of months to date.

 

New boost for the re-introduction project :
Zoo News Digest: A new phase for the Great Bustard Reintroduction

 

This does seem a good move forward. I don't think that there's anything to suggest that our indigenous Bustards migrated.

 

Originally they said the Russian birds were genetically closest to the extinct UK population. Now its been determined the Spanish race is actually closer.

Certainly they have a better chance of staying put, being less/non-migratory, as some birds from the previous years' releases have 'migrated' but not returned. Overall mortality from either nine or ten years of releases has been high too. Currently there are (I think) only nine adult birds of Russian stock(4.5) of various ages living wild on Salisbury Plain and the hens nearly all made failed breeding attempts again this year. I'm wondering if they will be allowed to interbreed with the new Spanish birds in the future or what will be done in that respect of having the two races intergrading.

Whether they have been/will be able able to overcome the hurdles of Fox predation on both newly released birds and natural-hatched chicks remains to be seen. I believe a programme of Fox control is already in place around the release sites, but its more difficult to control them all over the Plain.

The project has not really prospered this far but hopefully this will mark a turning point.

 

What is puzzling me: why have not at the outset of the project any research been done on museum specimens of the species that could have demonstrated what population was nearest genetically to the erstwhile UK population? This is usually the first step in formulating a reintroduction strategy … Was genetics not that well advanced at the time (2004)?

The tendency of the Russia / Saratov population to migrate is not surprising given climatic factors locally. The Iberian population is far more sedentary given favorable winter climes there.

Whether the UK population did migrate or was sedentary is certainly a question worthy of further research!

 

Good point. Climate not as severe as in Russia, but not as nice as Spain- for a Bustard, somewhere in between I guess.

As to why the two different races weren't examined genetically for the nearest match, I do not know. Maybe they were but the findings then were in favour of the Russian/Saratov birds? Or possibly the link with Russia was established as they could use the eggs (only)from disturbed nests, so that is how the project went ahead.

I don't know whether the Spanish eggs are only from disturbed nests also, but they take care to stress the Spanish population is very large and increasing, so possibly they can spare some for this project(56 eggs I think it was this year).

It does seem with only such a small number of surviving birds established, that they are pretty much starting from scratch again, though those established birds may still play an important role in 'holding' and educating the new young birds to the immediate area.

What I'm not sure about is if they are just going to let the two races intergrade in the future. I am also concerned the predation problem may still be the ultimate deterrent to overall success though.

 

Predation …., also a good point. Whether applicable here, I guess they could learn from the anti predator bustard training in the houbaras released within the Arabian Peninsula. They had the same high predation on young inexperienced birds post release.

 

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As far as I know, both Spanish and Russian birds belong to the same subspecies - Otis tarda tarda. The East Asian population, with its headquarters in Mongolia, is O.t.dybowskii.

 

In that case presumably there wouldn't be a problem allowing them to 'mix'. The most mature males in the project ('pink5', I think it is, the oldest male, is about seven years old now) are obviously among the small group of Russian birds they already have and they would naturally be the first to breed with any Spanish females when they reach maturity.

Predation. It appears Foxes may be responsible for the continued nesting failures as well.