Hatched on 17th July, this chick is one of only three bank cormorants in the country and the first to be hatched in the UK. It is the first success of a conservation programme being run by Living Coasts, Torquay’s coastal zoo.
Living Coasts was granted special permission by government agencies to collect bank cormorant eggs from the wild. Ten eggs were collected from nests on Robben Island, off the South African coast near Cape Town, and brought to the UK.
Living Coasts is home to the only bank cormorants in any zoo anywhere in the world.
The chick is now out of quarantine and is being cared for by staff at Living Coasts. Senior head keeper Tony Durkin said: “The chick has gone from being tiny, naked, blind and helpless to having downy feathers, open eyes and a loud call. It still needs a lot of care and will do for some time to come. Quarantine is a routine requirement in these situations. Vets have checked it and given it the all-clear.”
Tony and colleague Lois Rowell, both experienced bird keepers, spent 40 days – and 40 nights – hatching and hand-rearing the chick. It is currently fed every three hours from 8:00am on a mixture of mashed-up sprat, smelt and whiting.
Tony: “Establishing a new species in a zoo environment is very hard. It is always slow and painstaking, with a mixture of setbacks and victories. That’s the nature of breeding rare species. This is trail-blazing work. It is important that we save the less attractive, less charismatic species, too – we mustn’t let them slip into extinction while we concentrate just on the charismatic creatures.
“Once it has adult feathers then we will be able to do a DNA test and find out what sex it is. We really hope it is a female, but we won’t know until the results come back from the lab.”
Living Coasts Director Elaine Hayes said: “We will keep working on this project – we are talking about saving the species. This might be Britain’s rarest bird – as far as I am concerned, it is certainly Britain’s most precious bird.” The bank cormorant is an endangered species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
Living Coasts, Torquay’s coastal zoo and discovery centre, is a registered charity. For more information go to www.livingcoasts.org.uk or ring (01803) 202470.
ENDS
Philip Knowling01803 697568
