First ever spoon-billed sandpiper chicks hatch in the UK

13 July 2012

Gemma Hogg
Media Officer
E-mail: gemma.hogg@rspb.org.uk

Fourteen Critically Endangered spoon-billed sandpipers were hatched in captivity at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire this week, a first for the UK and only the second flock ever to have been born in captivity.

These latest chicks are part of an emergency conservation breeding mission to insure the species against imminent extinction in the wild. 4 further eggs are expected to hatch in the coming days and, if successful, will bring the total flock size at Slimbridge to 30. The size of the flock is critical to triggering breeding behaviour in the birds, which are mature enough to reproduce at two years old.

The birds were hatched from eggs taken from the tiny remaining wild population which breeds on the sub-Arctic tundra in the Russian Far East. They were flown by helicopter and plane on a week-long journey via Anadyr, Moscow and Heathrow before arriving at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) at Slimbridge.

WWT Head of Conservation Breeding, Nigel Jarrett, travelled with the eggs and is overseeing care for the tiny chicks, which hatched the size of bumblebees. He said:

“The spoon-billed sandpiper is a beautiful and unique bird, but whatever it looked like we couldn’t stand by while it went extinct. We hatched the first of our conservation breeding flock on the tundra last year and brought them back when full grown. With all we learned then, it made sense to transport them as eggs this year and the huge privilege for the UK is to have these amazing little chicks hatch here for the first time.”

The dramatic decline in spoon-billed sandpiper numbers was first observed in 2000. Now fewer than 100 pairs are thought to remain. Russian and international field workers travel each year to the breeding grounds in Chukotka to monitor numbers and have been critical in raising the alarm.

Dr Christoph Zockler from ArcCona Consulting led the expedition this summer to Meinypil’gino, the main breeding site on behalf of Birds Russia. He said:

“The number of pairs returning to Meinypil’gino dropped again this year, to fewer than ten pairs. It is very worrying and reflects the wide-ranging conservation problems along the birds’ flyway. We did have some good news though. With more volunteer fieldworkers this year, we were able to search more remote areas away from the village for the first time and we found five further pairs.”

Although the long term decline of the spoon-billed sandpiper is thought to have been driven by inter-tidal habitat loss in East Asia, the roots of the current problem have been identified some 8,000km away in coastal Myanmar and Bangladesh, where the birds spend the majority of the year outside the breeding season. Bird trapping by some villagers is suspected to have driven the steep decline in numbers. Local and international conservationists have had some success in stopping this practice by helping villagers find and fund alternative livelihoods. Once these threats have been tackled, birds from the conservation breeding programme will be returned to the wild to increase the remaining wild population.

Dr Evgeny Syroechkovskiy is Chief Executive of Birds Russia. His studies of spoon-billed sandpipers in Chukotka have been central to the international call for action. He said:

“To see these amazing birds almost disappear has been terrible. But we raised the alarm and people from around the world have responded. I hope that having these chicks – a little bit of Russia – in the UK encourages even more support for the spoon-billed sandpiper.”

Dr Tim Stowe is Director of International Operations at the RSPB, the UK partner in the 117 nation-strong BirdLife International global partnership. He said:

“This is a great example of organisations, experts and individuals from around the world working together to save an animal from extinction. A bird like the spoon-billed sandpiper, with its bizarre little beak, has survived through time and it doesn’t deserve to be wiped out now. All elements of this project – from our work with subsistence hunters in Myanmar and Bangladesh, to efforts in Asia, where the birds’ habitat is severely under threat, and the captive breeding programme here in the UK - will make sure future generations won't have to rely on pictures of a quirky little bird that once was but could have been saved if only we hadn’t let them down.”

As well as support from conservation organisations around the world, individuals and institutions have been donating funds to support the spoon-billed sandpiper. Dr. Debbie Pain, Director of Conservation at WWT said:

“The level of support for the spoon-billed sandpiper has been phenomenal. It is only thanks to donations from thousands of individuals plus a major grant from SOS - Save Our Species, that we are able to put this emergency plan into action. But it is expensive work and we are still £50,000 short just for this year. I urge anyone who is taken by the spoon-billed sandpiper to make a donation however small. The work that it will pay for will have benefits for millions of other birds besides.”

News on the efforts to save the spoon-billed sandpiper can be read at www.saving-spoon-billed-sandpiper.com or search for the hashtag #sbs2012ex on twitter.

Notes

Notes to editors

· Unique in the animal kingdom for being born with a spoon-shaped beak, the spoon-billed sandpiper has declined by a quarter year on year. With possibly fewer than 100 pairs left, it could be extinct within five to ten years.

· The spoon-billed sandpiper is threatened by loss of essential intertidal feeding sites along its 8,000km migration route from Russia to its wintering grounds in South and South-east Asia, and also by trapping on its non-breeding grounds. Although these issues are being tackled, the conservation breeding programme has been started because the population is now so low. At fewer than 100 pairs left, and declining by a quarter each year in recent times, there may be too little time to reduce hunting and habitat loss before the species disappears completely.

· Much of the more recent information about the spoon-billed sandpiper on its breeding grounds has resulted from regular Arctic expeditions to Chukotka, initiated in the 1980s by Pavel Tomkovich and supplemented by the work of Dr Evgeny Syroechkovskiy and colleagues including Christoph Zöckler from 2000.

· Just four years ago, conservationists uncovered the largest, previously-unknown concentration of the birds in the Bay of Mottoma in Myanmar. Almost immediately it became obvious that bird hunting, carried out by the poorest sections of society, could be a major factor behind the recent drastic decline in numbers.

· The work to reduce hunting in Myanmar has been funded by the BBC Wildlife Fund. It builds on work between 2008-10 by BANCA (Myanmar BirdLife International partner) and ArcCona.

· A similar story has played out on Sonadia Island off the coast of Bangladesh. Local conservationists who have been working with villagers to distribute small grants and set up village conservation groups, will now be able to work more closely with groups in Myanmar.

· Major funding from SOS - Save Our Species has made it possible to develop long-term economic and environmental solutions in Bangladesh. It has also supported the 2012 expedition to Chukotka.

· SOS – Save Our Species is a joint initiative of IUCN, the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank supported by Nokia and the Fonds français pour l’environnement mondial (FFEM). Its objective is to ensure the long-term survival of threatened species and their habitats.

· The spoon-billed sandpiper conservation breeding programme is a collaboration between WWT, Birds Russia, Moscow Zoo and the RSPB working with colleagues from the BTO, BirdLife International, ArcCona and the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force.

· The project is supported by WWT, RSPB and SOS - Save our Species, with additional financial contributions and support from BirdLife International, the East-Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership, the Convention on Migratory Species, Heritage Expeditions, the Australasian Wader Study Group of Birds Australia, the BBC Wildlife Fund, the Mileage Company, the Olive Herbert Charitable Trust, the Oriental Bird Club, British Airways Communities & Conservation Scheme, Swarovski Optik and many generous individuals.

· British Airways kindly provided free flights for the WWT team, and helped enormously with the logistics of shipping the eggs from Moscow to Heathrow.