I spent the afternoon of Wednesday 25th at Slimbridge, the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust’s (WWT) HQ, in the company of Dr Baz Hughes, WWT’s energetic and enthusiastic Head of Species Conservation. I’ve known Baz on and off for a number of years, though I hasten to add he moves in far more rarefied circles than I do and I haven’t seen him since 2006. Nevertheless, he was - as always - very welcoming and open to my questions.

Which questions would those be then, I hear someone (perhaps myself?) ask?

Well, as regular readers know we occasionally post ‘conservation themes’ - a series of posts devoted to a related subject, eg ‘Parrot Month‘ in Jan 2009, ‘Puerto Rico Month‘ mid-year, and earlier this month we featured the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Just last week I posted a fairly in-depth look at the Critically Endangered Madagascar Pochard (the world’s rarest duck) and the information I was given for the post by Dr Glyn Young of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust led me to follow up on a vague idea I’d had some months ago that a ‘theme’ on endangered wildfowl would be interesting and valuable. Glyn had already mentioned that he’d be willing to provide further up to date information and data, and Baz - whom I’d also contacted - said that he too would be able to help, and invited me up to Slimbridge for a chat.

I won’t go into too many details about what we discussed just yet as it’s at the preliminary stages and there’s a great deal more to be organised, but perhaps it’s suffice to say that Baz has been working on Scaly-sided Mergansers since 1991, got to hold a Brazilian Merganser on a recent trip (one of his most precious experiences, he says), and Chairs the Threatened Waterfowl Specialist Group: it’s hard to imagine someone in a better position to help with a ‘threatened wildfowl theme’ and I’m extremely grateful to him.

That explains part of the title of this post - what about the Great Crane Project?

Thw WWT has undergone a shift in direction over the last couple of years, and is perhaps now more focussed on supporting global conservation projects than ever before. Global, though, does of course include the UK, and I was particularly interested to hear about a local re-introduction project being run by a partnership of WWT, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, and Viridor Credits Environmental Company: the Great Crane Project, an attempt to re-establish a breeding population of the elegant, beautiful Common Crane Grus grus in the south-west of England.

Exciting stuff. A metre tall with a beautiful plume of wing feathers Common Cranes were once widespread in suitable sites in Britain, but drainage of extensive areas of wetlands and over-hunting caused them to disappear as a breeding bird here by the start of the 17th Century. They were then absent as a breeding species for nearly 400 years, until a small population re-colonised the Norfolk Broads – a former breeding site - in 1979. While successful breeding has taken place and there are now about fifteen pairs, the small Norfolk population - which is much visited by birders - remains isolated and vulnerable to predation, disturbance, and climate change.

Common Cranes Grus grus, Germany 2006

I absolutely adore cranes and there are protected areas in the UK which would be ideal for Common Cranes. I last saw them in any number when I visited Jochen Roeder and we birded essentially similar habitats in northern Germany. There were literally hundreds of them there, and their wild, bugling calls will always bring back memories of a really excellent trip. However, cranes of all species need large undisturbed areas of wetland to breed in, and worldwide wetlands are under huge development pressure. There may have been hundreds of Common Cranes in Germany that year (there may indeed have been hundreds again this year, they are apparently adapting to breeding in agricultural land) but surely it’s right that conservationists anticipate populations dropping to levels below which they can’t recover BEFORE it happens rather than afterwards when it’s too late (fill in numerous examples here folks…)?

Re-introduction projects can be extremely controversial - recent plans to ‘re-introduce’ the White-tailed Eagle to Norfolk were vigorously opposed by conservation organisations - but the Common Crane is not a large predatory raptor (well, to a frog I suspect it is of course, but it doesn’t have the potential to take Bitterns which is what many opponents of the eagle scheme were concerned about), and will be a positive enhancement to the UK’s biodiversity.

How soon (and how successfully) might the re-introduction take place? The first group of young cranes will be released into the wild in autumn 2010 in the West Country. To quote from the WWT website:

The Somerset Levels have been identified as the best location in the UK to release the cranes, and techniques for rearing young cranes have been researched and are being perfected.

The precise location will be kept confidential during the early stages of the programme, as cranes are sensitive to disturbance. Any programme would conform to agreed IUCN / Species Survival Commission guidelines for re-introduction projects.

The project will draw on the experience of the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin, which has been successful in re-introducing Whooping Cranes to the wild in the USA (and has a superb website if you’ve never visited it before).

Congratulations to all involved as this is excellent news in my opinion, and a story that 10,000 Birds intends to follow as it develops. It’s worth remembering too that much of the money for the re-introduction project has come from Landfill Tax grants, so is not being spent at the expense of what may be seen as ‘rarer’ birds. It’s also worth noting that just this week the RSPB announced that poisoning has led to huge declines in Europe’s Red Kite Milvus milvus population: a species that has been brought from the brink of extinction in the UK by intensive re-introduction measures. How valuable do the c) 1600 breeding pairs here - which according to RSPB estimates means the UK is now home to seven per cent of the world’s Red Kites, up from five per cent only a year ago - appear now?

Securing the future of the Common Crane in the UK seems to me to be entirely a win-win for birders, nature lovers, and - more importantly - Common Cranes.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust:

Founded in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott, The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is the only UK charity with a national network of nine specialist wetland visitor centres.

With over 60 years experience of wetland conservation, WWT is committed to the protection of wetlands and all that depend on them for survival.

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Slimbridge, Gloucestershire GL2 7BT
T: +44 (0) 1453 891900 E: enquiries@wwt.org.uk
Registered Charity no. 1030884

Website: http://www.wwt.org.uk/