Saving eggs from airfields is bringing a curlew boom in the east of England
Project underway as International Biodiversity Day 2021 (22 May) is marked.
From: The project will increase the population of curlew in the area, which has seen a significant decline in its numbers over the past 40 years
An innovative Natural England led partnership project that will boost populations of Eurasian curlew is underway in the East of England.
The project is taking eggs laid by curlew on airfields, then rearing and releasing them in the right kinds of habitats for them to thrive.
One of the country’s most iconic threatened species, the curlew has suffered significant declines over the past 40 years, but the partnership project will increase numbers in the region to help the species recover.
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Saving eggs from airfields is bringing a curlew boom in east of England
An innovative Natural England led partnership project that will boost populations of Eurasian curlew is underway in the East of England.
The project is taking eggs laid by curlew on airfields, then rearing and releasing them in the right kinds of habitats for them to thrive.
One of the country’s most iconic threatened species, the curlew has suffered significant declines over the past 40 years, but the partnership project will increase numbers in the region to help the species recover.
It is the first time that the translocation of curlew from airfields has been undertaken at this scale, with 118 eggs already collected. Of these, 76 are now at Pensthorpe Natural Park where they are being incubated, hatched and reared. The rest will be reared by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) at Slimbridge.