Rearing and releases
Rearing chicks for the UK
The Great Bustard chicks are all reared at a field station in Saratov, Russia. Project staff wear special dehumanisation suits to avoid the chicks imprinting on humans and associating them with food.
Upon hatching, chicks are fed with a puppet for their first few days, before they learn to feed for themselves. Their only contact with recognisable humans is during veterinary checks as this helps to reinforce their natural aversion to man.
When the chicks arrive in the UK fromRussia they are subject to the statutory requirement of 30 days quarantine. During this time they continue to receive all the necessary veterinary health checks and examinations. They carry on being fed through hatches to avoid seeing project staff.
Release in the UK
On the day of release all Great Bustard chicks are fitted with wingtags that display a unique number and a colour according to the year of release. The wingtags allow each Great Bustard to be identified individually from a safe distance once they have been released. They are also fitted with electronic transmitters which help project staff to track them in the wild.
UK Great Bustard wingtags
UK Great Bustard wingtags. The colour indicates year of release.
The release
The exact number of birds and the date of releases changes each year, depending on how many eggs are rescued in Russia and when the chicks hatch. It is usually between late August and mid October. The Great Bustards are taken from the quarantine facility to a release pen on Salisbury Plain.
The purpose of the pen is to provide the birds with a chance to acclimatise to the outside world safe from predators, namely foxes. It is 7 hectares, sown with various crops that are palatable to Great Bustards with additional areas of grass tussocks to provide cover and food. Once in this pen the birds cease to be fed and have no more human contact. There is no roof on the pen, so it is up to the Great Bustards how long they wish to stay.