News from Living Coasts
Conservationists need airline to help save species
Conservationists are sending out an SOS to international airlines to help save an endangered species.
Animal experts from Living Coasts, a coastal zoo in Devon, plan to import the eggs of bank cormorants - an endangered species - from South Africa, but are being thwarted by red tape.
Living Coasts Director Elaine Hayes said: “We have the go-ahead from the UK government and the South African authorities. We have the paperwork from DEFRA. All we need now is an airline willing to allow a portable incubator in the cabin. One of the problem seems to be the batteries and wires – they are worried the incubator looks like a bomb!”
Torquay’s coastal zoo already has two male bank cormorants - currently the only ones in any zoo anywhere in the world. Now the zoo is aiming to become the first to breed the birds.
Living Coasts senior head keeper Tony Durkin is poised to travel 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) to South Africa with a portable incubator to collect eggs rescued from the wild. Once there, Tony will link up with local conservationists including Dr. Rob Crawford, from the University of Cape Town, and Bruce Dyer and vet Nola Parsons from the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SAANCOB).
Tony said: “As many eggs as possible – perhaps 30 – will be rescued from the wild. They will be taken from places where the construction of harbours and coastal development is pushing the birds out. Bank cormorants have a limited distribution, so they are at greater risk from things like oil pollution – one bad incident could wipe out the bulk of the species.”
The first thing conservationists have to do is to candle the eggs – hold a light behind them to check fertility. They also need to make sure the embryos are well developed, as early stage embryos could be damaged on the journey. After that it will be a race to get the eggs home before they hatch.
When the eggs arrive in the UK they will go into 30 days’ quarantine at Paignton Zoo and be hand-reared there in the Zoo’s special quarantine facility. No one will know what sex the birds are for some time after they have hatched.
Tony is excited about his mission, but it’s a big responsibility: “We have been learning how to care for the adult birds. Now we are taking on an even greater challenge – to hatch and rear them. It’s a long way to go for two dozen eggs, but it will be worth it. We are covering all the costs of staff time and travel to bring the eggs to this country, incubate them and hand rear the chicks. It is an investment in the future of the species.”
The bank cormorants that came to Living Coasts in 2004 were saved as eggs by South African wildlife charity SANCCOB and transferred to Devon due to lack of room.
Living Coasts director Elaine Hayes had to get special approval from a DEFRA minister before the eggs could be imported. Staff have had to obtain a special license to bring the eggs into the country. She explained: “There’s always a lot of paperwork involved – moving animals around the world is a serious business, you have to do things properly.
“We have a special egg import license issued by the Animal Health Import Team (part of DEFRA), then there is the health certificate, modified for eggs rather than birds.”
The bank cormorant, Phalacrocorax neglectus, also known as Wahlberg's cormorant, is endemic to Namibia and the western coastline of South Africa. The birds feed on a variety of crustacean and fish, including the Pacific goby. They may breed at any time of the year, laying two or three chalky-white eggs in a nest of seaweed and guano.
Numbers have declined sharply recently due to commercial fishing, increasing human disturbance and the number of kelp gulls feeding on the cormorant eggs and chicks. The world population is probably now around 4,000 birds. They are on the IUCN Red List as endangered.
ENDS
Further information
Philip Knowling, Living Coasts Press Officer, 01803 697568
Telephone: 01803 697568
Fax: 01803 523457
www.paigntonzoo.org.uk
www.livingcoasts.org.uk
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