Some of the Critically Endangered spoon-billed sandpipers 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.
Find out more and donate money towards our mission to save this species here - http://www.wwt.org.uk/support-us/dona...
These latest chicks are part of an emergency conservation breeding mission to insure the species against imminent extinction in the wild.
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.
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.
