Great bustards released on Salisbury Plain
11th October 2008
Great bustards released on Salisbury Plain
Visit the Great Bustard Project on Salisbury Plain
For anyone who wants to see Great bustards in the wild in the UK, the Great bustard project offers guided tours of the release site. The tours cost £7 (Free for members) and MUST be booked in advance.
Bookings: Call 07817 971 327 or email visit@greatbustard.com
The Great Bustard Group released 19 birds on Salisbury Plain at the end of September, the fifth annual release that is part of the UK reintroduction project scheduled to continue until 2013.
September 2008. The globally threatened Great Bustard is the heaviest flying bird in the world and due to habitat loss and hunting became extinct in the UK during Victorian times. Over the last three years, researchers in the Department of Biology & Biochemistry at the University of Bath have been working with conservationists at the Great Bustard Group to manage the reintroduction of the birds to the UK and study existing wild populations in Russia.
This will be the fifth batch of young birds from Russia to be released on the site. They will join the small flock of birds from the previous four years' releases that are still regular visitors to the site at Salisbury Plain.
Expected to breed in 2009
The Great Bustard Group are hoping that the birds will start to breed next year and will be observing them to understand more about their complex mating rituals.
The project has been led for Bath University by Professor Tamas Szekely of the Department of Biology & Biochemistry. John Burnside, a PhD student from his group, will be collecting data on the British and Russian populations and comparing them with existing knowledge of populations in Spain.
Visit the Great Bustard Project on Salisbury Plain
For anyone who wants to see Great bustards in the wild in the UK, the Great bustard project offers guided tours of the release site. The tours cost £7 (Free for members) and MUST be booked in advance.
Bookings: Call 07817 971 327 or email visit@greatbustard.com
The Great Bustard Group released 19 birds on Salisbury Plain at the end of September, the fifth annual release that is part of the UK reintroduction project scheduled to continue until 2013.
September 2008. The globally threatened Great Bustard is the heaviest flying bird in the world and due to habitat loss and hunting became extinct in the UK during Victorian times. Over the last three years, researchers in the Department of Biology & Biochemistry at the University of Bath have been working with conservationists at the Great Bustard Group to manage the reintroduction of the birds to the UK and study existing wild populations in Russia.
This will be the fifth batch of young birds from Russia to be released on the site. They will join the small flock of birds from the previous four years' releases that are still regular visitors to the site at Salisbury Plain.
Expected to breed in 2009
The Great Bustard Group are hoping that the birds will start to breed next year and will be observing them to understand more about their complex mating rituals.
The project has been led for Bath University by Professor Tamas Szekely of the Department of Biology & Biochemistry. John Burnside, a PhD student from his group, will be collecting data on the British and Russian populations and comparing them with existing knowledge of populations in Spain.
