Great Bustard arrives at Heathrow (1 Viewer)

[DJ Sideboard]

Arguably the Bustard would still be indigenous if it hadn't been hunted out of existence. Is there any evidence that it's introduction is likely to have a detrimental effect on other species within the release area? Re-introductions can be quite successful...

Richard

My feeling is that this reintroduction is likely to fail.....I just can't see that there is enough suitable habitat for a viable population of birds this size. England is a very, very different place now to what it was when Bustards last bred. The species is struggling in huge area of plains in areas like Zaragoza in Spain, which are much more extensive then anything we have.

Love to be proved wrong though!.

 

[ground-roller]

Hi saluki,

If it's not a joke then it should be - but it would be in very bad taste!

Can't you just imagine a poultry farmer pulling a stunt like this in an attempt to use aversion therapy to train his chickens to avoid foxes? If he did, the whole farm would soon be surrounded by uniformed employees from the self-styled 'Animal Police' (aka the RSPCA). Each officer would be vying with the others to hype up the 'Aahhh' factor (got to think of the donations!) and be at the forefront of the rescue operation, while at the same time posing for the camera and answering pointless questions from a snivelling television presenter. Later the full weight of the RSPCA's own 'Prosecution Department' could be brought to bear on the miscreant, with a costly private prosecution alleging unnecessary cruelty by subjecting the chickens to the sight of a fox and then further illtreating them by squirting them with a water pistol. And I'll bet the 'wicked' farmer hasn't got a licence for the water pistol either!

I can't see your point. Such adverssion technqiues are an established part of bird re-introduction techniques in acclimitising captive bred birds to a wild situation. Similar techniques are used for e.g. Echo Parakeets in Mauritius and various Crane spp. Why you then go into a rant about something or other (albeit probably jokingly) in unclear :h?:

 

[ground-roller]

My feeling is that this reintroduction is likely to fail.....I just can't see that there is enough suitable habitat for a viable population of birds this size. England is a very, very different place now to what it was when Bustards last bred. The species is struggling in huge area of plains in areas like Zaragoza in Spain, which are much more extensive then anything we have.

Love to be proved wrong though!.

Whilst well thought out and planned re-introduction are a very valid conservation tool and have worked in a number of occasions I agree that for Great Bustard it is likely to be very difficult. Much of the problems with Great Bustard conservation concerns their exploded leking breeding behaviour in particular lek inertia (whereby traditional leks are maintained and new leks rarely formed) and con-specific attraction – big leks grow and small leks are likely to get smaller. For example in Spain suitable habitat still exists for Great Bustard leks (see Lane et al 2001 Journal of Applied Ecology 38:193) but is un-used due to the above factors (although whether these areas are suitable for chick-rearing by females is unclear – this is the stage when Great Bustard ranges are largest as young feed on insects during the first 3-4 months of there lives). These factors which result from intrinsic aspects of Great Bustard biology mean they are very difficult to conserve with ‘conventional’ methods e.g. improving habitat etc. A interesting challenge for the re-introduction team!

 

[Strandman]

Whilst well thought out and planned re-introduction are a very valid conservation tool and have worked in a number of occasions I agree that for Great Bustard it is likely to be very difficult. Much of the problems with Great Bustard conservation concerns their exploded leking breeding behaviour in particular lek inertia (whereby traditional leks are maintained and new leks rarely formed) and con-specific attraction – big leks grow and small leks are likely to get smaller. For example in Spain suitable habitat still exists for Great Bustard leks (see Lane et al 2001 Journal of Applied Ecology 38:193) but is un-used due to the above factors (although whether these areas are suitable for chick-rearing by females is unclear – this is the stage when Great Bustard ranges are largest as young feed on insects during the first 3-4 months of there lives). These factors which result from intrinsic aspects of Great Bustard biology mean they are very difficult to conserve with ‘conventional’ methods e.g. improving habitat etc. A interesting challenge for the re-introduction team!

Do I rightly recall reading that the Little Bustard population in La Crau has responded well to conservation efforts based around encouraging the most favourable pattern of agriculture (which seems to result in improved breeding success compared to straight steppe/desert)? I may have imagined it- it is cetainly unusual to see a good news bustard story and of course it does not follow that the Salisbury experiment will necessarily work, but I wish it well. It sounds quite well worked out compared to previous efforts.

 

[saluki]

I can't see your point. Such adverssion technqiues are an established part of bird re-introduction techniques in acclimitising captive bred birds to a wild situation. Similar techniques are used for e.g. Echo Parakeets in Mauritius and various Crane spp. Why you then go into a rant about something or other (albeit probably jokingly) in unclear :h?:

Initially, it might have been better to reduce the population of foxes in the area before releasing the bustards. In which case a .223 would have been rather more effective than a water pistol . . .

saluki

 

[Hotspur]

Update, foxes eat 2 of the 28 released birds and another 6 already dead with 2 still to be released due to wing injuries. That leaves 18 then. Hmmm. Doesn't seem like a great start.

 

[ground-roller]

Do I rightly recall reading that the Little Bustard population in La Crau has responded well to conservation efforts based around encouraging the most favourable pattern of agriculture (which seems to result in improved breeding success compared to straight steppe/desert)? I may have imagined it- it is cetainly unusual to see a good news bustard story and of course it does not follow that the Salisbury experiment will necessarily work, but I wish it well. It sounds quite well worked out compared to previous efforts.

Yes. Wolff et al 2001 "The benefirs of extensive agriculture to birds: the case of the little bustard" in Journal of Applied Ecology. They documented how Little Bustard had colonised La Crau following the conversion of steppe to fairly low intensity agriculture with birds apparently favouring areas of a mosiac between agriculture and steppe. However they also found low densities in areas with "more intensive agricultural habitats" e.g. hay meadows and grain crops as oppossed to the more 'extensive' farmland e.g. fallow, grazed crops, legumes. Unfortunately with various CAP policies the former type of farming was (still is?) favoured and areas of extensive farming were rapidly being converted. Similarly in Spain various of the birds which inhabit the agricultural pseudo-steppe, for which traditional agriculture is beneficial, have been shown to decline with irrigation and various other intensive agricultural activity.

The big challenge for conservationists is to prvent this happening in the tropics. Currently the mjaoirty of the emphasis is of protection of pristine forested habitats whilst areas of traditional extensive agriculture, which are often rich in biodiversity, are ignored. Quite a lot work done on shade coffee in the Neotropics - hopefully the emphasis will also turn to extneisve agriculture in Asia as well.

 

[Keithec]

Today, from telegraph.co.uk

Twenty-eight chicks were under close observation last night after a plane journey that conservationists hope will herald the reintroduction of a species last seen nesting in Britain 172 years ago.
The Great Bustards, aged between six and eight weeks, landed at Heathrow on flight BA0873 from Moscow - the first of a series of batches that, it is hoped, will see the establishment of a population of the world's heaviest flying bird.

Until it was hunted out of existence shortly after 1830, the Great Bustard, Otis tarda, was an impressive sight from the West Country to the Scottish Borders.

Males can weigh up to 50lb and have a 7ft wingspan. With only 35,000 left in the world, yesterday's arrivals are seen as an important first step to safeguarding the future of the species.

The chicks arrived at their new home on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, last night after a the road and air journey from the Saratov region, 600 miles south east of Moscow, where they were hatched.

British conservationists travelled to Russia in June to collect the eggs from nests threatened with destruction by farm machinery after the Government gave the go-ahead for the reintroduction plan last year.

David Waters, the conservationist who has led the drive to re-establish the bird, expressed delight at the arrival of the chicks but said a lot of work was still needed to establish a wild population successfully.

Mr Waters, who gave up his job as a police officer to form the Great Bustard Group in 1998, said: "It's wonderfully exciting. It's marvellous to have got this far. However, I'm aware that this is only the end of the beginning. Now it's all about rearing the birds and ensuring they are able to survive in the wild. There is still an awfully long way to go."

The chicks will spend 30 days in quarantine and then several weeks' "predator awareness training", being targeted with a water pistol or jets of air if they fail to show fear when confronted by humans and a tame fox.

The birds will be released into the wild in about two months. Further batches of chicks will be imported annually for the next five to 10 years until a sustainable wild population has been established.

The £100,000 project is being mainly funded by the Government, the EU and the University of Stirling.

Am I right in thinking that this was tried once before about twenty or so years ago? I think the location was the same, Salisbury Plain but I have no idea if that reintroduction had any success or why it eventually failed which it presumably did.

Any ideas?
Keith

 

[Chris Monk]

Foxes kill great bustard chicks

Update, foxes eat 2 of the 28 released birds and another 6 already dead with 2 still to be released due to wing injuries. That leaves 18 then. Hmmm. Doesn't seem like a great start.

From the BBC web site:

Foxes kill great bustard chicks


The great bustard was hunted to extinction in the 1830s
A month after being reintroduced to the Wiltshire countryside, two of the world's biggest flying birds, great bustards, have been killed by foxes.
A total of 28 chicks were brought over from Russia in the summer to be reared on Salisbury Plain after an absence of more than 170 years.

Twenty birds were then released into the wild.

David Waters, project manager, said: "To lose two within a month is a lower death rate than we had predicted."

"In the wild, more than 78% of chicks die within the first year," he said.

Hunted to extinction

"It would be naive to suggest we won't lose more: this is a wild bird reintroduction, not a pet or a zoo project."

Six of the chicks died from infections contracted in Russia before getting out of the quarantine unit on the plain.

Two others injured their wings and will therefore remain in captivity.

The Bustards, each of them radio-tagged, have remained on Salisbury Plain as Mr Water's team predicted.


More birds are expected soon

The farthest any of them has ventured from the release point is 2.5miles.

The male birds are still immature, weighing up to 17lbs with wing spans of more than 6ft.

Bustards normally grow to 30lbs as adults, but have been known to reach 44lbs.

The next batch, of around 40, is expected to arrive on Salisbury Plain next June with more due over the next five years.

The problem with foxes - the bustard's greatest natural predator - had been anticipated when they were reintroduced in August.

Keepers allowed the birds to see a fox then squirted them with a water pistol to make them link the animal with danger.

They also placed a stuffed fox in the birds' pen to aid recognition.

The great bustard was hunted to extinction in Britain in the 1830s, partly because its succulent meat was so sought after by the nation's chefs.

 

[Anthony Morton]

I can't see your point. Such adverssion technqiues are an established part of bird re-introduction techniques in acclimitising captive bred birds to a wild situation.

What, first you advocate deliberately exposing the re-introduced birds to a predator and then squirting them with water? That's hardly likely to endear them to their intended new home, is it? Much of that sort of treatment and they'll probably clear off at the first opportunity - but where to? Salisbury Plain is hardly suitable and there's certainly nowhere else in southern England even remotely big enough or suitable for them to roam freely!

Why you then go into a rant about something or other (albeit probably jokingly) in unclear :h?:

Must you always have a 'smiley' attached before you realise that something is meant to be humourous? Yet there was certainly a serious side to it as well, because by deliberately exposing any animal to a predator and then dousing it with water would doubtless be tantamount to cruelty in the eyes of the RSPCA. And not for one minute do I think that all this fanciful talk of 'aversion therapy training' and 'conservation re-introduction techniques' would prevent its Prosecutions Department from commencing expensive legal proceedings against any individual who behaved in this manner.

 

[ground-roller]

fanciful talk of 'aversion therapy training' and 'conservation re-introduction techniques' .

Fanciful in what way?
Re-introductions are difficult and expensive techniques but the results can be spectacular. Many have been failures but this is almost always a result of poor planning and not adhering to a number of techniques which have been developed through trail and error in the past 10-15 years. To dismiss the knowledge gathered by various conservation organisations regarding re-introduction techniques as fanciful is ridiculous.

 

[jurek]

What, first you advocate deliberately exposing the re-introduced birds to a predator and then squirting them with water? That's hardly likely to endear them to their intended new home, is it? Much of that sort of treatment and they'll probably clear off at the first opportunity

Read carefully - the farthest got 2,5 miles away from the release site!

I hope that people in RSPCA are bright enough to understand that in wild animals and conservation, cruelty is inherent part.

Nature is in large part about animals eating and harming each other. If showing a fox to a bustard is cruel, then allowing any bird to live in the wild, with all predators, diseases, starvation, is cruel to the maximum, isn't it? Two bustards were eaten by foxes. Is it bad, because bustards died, or good because foxes were not hungry? Treating it on grounds of "animal suffering" becomes contradictory and plainly stupid.

In Germany there are now about 100 Bustards. They live basically in 3 reserves, 40-80km2. So Salisbury plains should not be too small. However, their numbers started to grow only after intensive shooting of foxes. Foxes killed 96% of young and some adults, too. So possibly, shooting or trapping of foxes canot be avoided in Britain, too.

 

[saluki]

Fanciful in what way?
Re-introductions are difficult and expensive techniques but the results can be spectacular. Many have been failures but this is almost always a result of poor planning and not adhering to a number of techniques which have been developed through trail and error in the past 10-15 years. To dismiss the knowledge gathered by various conservation organisations regarding re-introduction techniques as fanciful is ridiculous.

The only valid reason I can see in using aversion techniques for the bustard reintroduction attempt would be the publicity gained from what many would see as a novel and 'PC' method of helping them avoid foxes. In reality, in this instance, aversion techniques are probably not necessary, although opinions may differ, depending on which side of the 'nature versus nurture' fence one stands on. Aversion therapy may be useful, for instance, in the case of the Californian Condor and power poles. Condors haven't lived with power poles for thousands of years, therefore they have no natural instinct to avoid them.

I've watched both pheasant and partridge, hatched in incubators and reared in sheds, before being put into release pens. They haven't had the benefit of a parent to teach them what is and what isn't a predator, yet they instinctively hide when a raptor passes over and will play merry hell if a strange dog comes near the release pen. I may be wrong, but I can't see why Great Bustard chicks/juveniles would behave any differently.

saluki

 

[ground-roller]

For something like a Great Bustard you are probably right - my experience is with re-introductions on previosuly predator free oceanic islands.

How much Bustards learn from parents is interesting and almost imposible to know. What is known is that for female Great Bustards the extent of nomadism when with their mother for the first months of life determines there movements/migratory behaviour as adults (not really that relevant for this but interesting none-the-less). I do think that re-introducing Bustards to areas where there are no extant populations is likely to be very difficult. We can all agree I'm sure however that if successfull it would be a wonderfull re-addition to our aviafauna.

 

[Anthony Morton]

Fanciful in what way?
Re-introductions are difficult and expensive techniques but the results can be spectacular. Many have been failures but this is almost always a result of poor planning and not adhering to a number of techniques which have been developed through trail and error in the past 10-15 years. To dismiss the knowledge gathered by various conservation organisations regarding re-introduction techniques as fanciful is ridiculous.

At least we agree on the subject of poor planning, to which I would add lack of preparation and the need for a modicum of foresight and common sense too. As for the knowledge gathered by various conservation organisations regarding re-introduction techniques, it seems to me that this has failed the Great Bustard from the outset. As 'saluki' so rightly suggested, the first step should have been to remove as many foxes from the release area as possible, so as to give the birds a chance to become 'street-wise' naturally. Instead, two of the original 20 chicks released (10%) have already succumbed to the attentions of 'Charlie Fox' - and the project is barely under way yet!

 

[WebBustard]

Morning all,

Interesting set of posts, quite a varied range of thoughts.

If I could do a shameless piece of plugging and point everyone towards the Bustard Group website

www.greatbustard.com

I will apologise for 2 pages that aren't loading for some reason, I will fix this when I get home tonight.

On the subject of planning, I'm not an ecologist and not actively involved in the planning of the project (web site and general labourer) but from what I have seen being involved for the last 4 months or so, the planning has been extensive for this project and has involved discussions between local, University and Russian experts on bustards and I don't see how much more they could have done in preperation work.

As has been mentioned there are losses and that is to be expected, the natural loss in the wild is about 78% so the 10% Anthony Morton mentioned is not excessive, especially on the first attempt. Hopefully the next few years introductions will benefit from this years experiences and so will fare better. The area is already kept very low on fox population being an active farm.

Will keep reading as am interested in everyones thoughts.

 

[helenol]

Hello Webbustard and welcome to Birdforum.net

As you can see, Birdforum.net is the place for lively debate :t:
I did have a look at your website a while back - has it now been updated?

Regards

 

[Anthony Morton]

Read carefully - the farthest got 2,5 miles away from the release site!

So far!

I hope that people in RSPCA are bright enough to understand that in wild animals and conservation, cruelty is inherent part.

It's immaterial whether we're talking about wild or domestic animals - if cruelty is involved, as you suggest, then it's all the same to the RSPCA. Prosecutions have been brought on much flimsier evidence than deliberately subjecting the chicks to a predator and then squirting them with water as in the case of the Great Bustard chicks. Once again I totally agree with 'saluki' that the fear of predators is bred into animals and they instinctively know what they should avoid - you cannot teach them. I would go further and suggest that any contact with humans before they are released will only serve to dull the birds' in-built predator awareness and is precisely why many re-introduction programmes fail.

Nature is in large part about animals eating and harming each other. If showing a fox to a bustard is cruel, then allowing any bird to live in the wild, with all predators, diseases, starvation, is cruel to the maximum, isn't it?

Certainly not, that's perfectly natural. It's only when man gets involved that it become un-natural.

However, their numbers started to grow only after intensive shooting of foxes. Foxes killed 96% of young and some adults, too. So possibly, shooting or trapping of foxes canot be avoided in Britain, too.

Exactly my point - this should have been a priority BEFORE the Great Bustard chicks were released and not an after-thought because some have already been killed. It's a bit late now!

 

[WebBustard]

Hi Helenol,

The website has been updated, my wife and I took it one recently after noticing it hadn't been touched since November last year. We have tried to write it in a more 'simple' format so that non-scientists can understand it. I found it quite heavy work when I read the original.

We have also introduced a 'timeline' with a history of the project on it.

Feel free to have a look and any comments there is an e-mail link on the contacts page for me (Website Queries - [email protected] )

 

[robinm]

Hi WebBustard,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin.

Given your involvement I will be interested to see your contributions on this controversial subject. I'll certainly be looking at the website.