University offers
lifeline to birds
facing extinction

SCIENTISTS could secure the future of several species of endangered birds through a new method of testing their fertility.

It is hoped the research by academics at Sheffield University could make captive breeding programmes more effective.

Experts from the university’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences believe their new method of assessing egg fertility, ensuring pairs are sexually compatible and the males are producing enough sperm, could save bird species on the brink of extinction.

Academics found wild birds suffered exceptionally high rates of embryo death because of inbreeding, while among the captive birds little, if any, sperm managed to fertilise the eggs.