Crane chicks hatch after road dash

The first crane chicks set for release into the wild as part of a reintroduction project have hatched – just hours after the eggs completed an "epic" 17-hour road trip from Germany.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Apr 2010, 23:23 BST
Updated 27th Apr 2010, 23:23 BST

Eight chicks have hatched successfully at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire, as part of a bid to re-establish a sustainable population of the "iconic" bird in the UK.

They are part of a batch of 18 eggs which should have been flown back from Germany where they were collected, but the air travel ban caused by volcanic ash forced the conservation team to take turns at the wheel to drive them back to the UK.

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The first chick hatched just hours after their arrival at Slimbridge, followed by seven more.

The chicks will be brought up in "crane school", where their human teachers will dress as cranes and teach them the skills they need to survive in the wild.

Crane "mum" Amy King and "dad" Roland Digby will show the youngsters how to forage for food, swim, socialise and protect themselves from predators, before they are released into the wild on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Nigel Jarrett,the trust's head of conservation breeding who was on the dash back to the UK with the eggs in portable incubators, said: "We knew it would be cutting it fine, but we didn't know how close it was."

Related topics:GermanyGloucestershire