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Little Bustard Breeding Project
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On Friday 22nd September, 2006, the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, (LPO) inaugurated the breeding centre for Little bustards in Saint-Blandine (Deux Sevres). This is an opportunity to remind people of the extent to which this bird is threatened in France! The breeding centre for this bird is unique, both in France and in Europe, and its goal is to reinforce the migratory populations of the Little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) in France as part of the European conservation program "Life". This big bird of the plains, standing 40 to 45 cm tall, and with a wing span of 105 to 115 cm, could be on its way to extinction in France, where its populations have declined by more than 80% in twenty years! The agricultural intensification of the cultivated plains is the main reason of decline of the bustard and Poitou-Charentes is the last region in Europe to welcome several hundred migratory bustards. For this reason, the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, with support from their donors, the EU, DIREN Poitou-Charentes, the regional Council of Poitou-Charentes, the general Council of Deux Sevres and the National Museum of natural history, Chizé CNRS, have put in place a large action program of to save it.
Photo. Little bustard chick, France The Little bustard breeding centre that has been started at Saint-Blandine, has been managed by the LPO since May 2005. They locate, collect and save eggs from breeding fields when agricultural work is taking place, they are then placed in incubators and the chicks are raised for 35 days. At this time, the bustards are placed in aviaries to enable them to get used to the landscape of the surrounding plains prior to being released, this occurs two weeks later when they join the groups of wild bustards that are close by, enabling them to leave with the migration which starts in October. At the present time, more than 50 bustards have been released. This success is extraordinary, as it is well known that this bird is extremely difficult to raise. Some of the released birds went to the Iberian Peninsula over winter and returned to Poitou-Charentes the following spring, this was tracked by transmitters using Argos, and some of these same bustards have reproduced with success, which gives positive hopes for the continuation and success of the project. Some numbers 2005 and 2006. In 2005, the test year, 22 bustards were released and 14 have been kept at the breeding centre to prepare for reproduction in captivity. Of the 22 released birds, at least 8 came back to the region in the spring of 2006. In 2006, 55 bustards have been raised at the centre, of which 33 were released between August 22nd and the beginning September. The remaining young birds have been kept by the National Museum of Natural history, locally, for the captive breeding programme which should start in 2007. |
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