The Park has had for quite a while now a lonely Male African Crowned Crane and two Female Demoiselle Cranes. It was decided that as these birds are becoming rarer in captivity and not many collections are breeding them that we should pair them up....and this is what the trip was all about!
It was no easy task as we couldn't find any surplus cranes of the right sex in this country, so that is why Craig ended up going all the way to the Netherlands to a specialised crane breeding farm, where he chose the two new birds.
The two Cranes Craig collected were only bred last year so they are juvenille birds. They will probably be too young to breed this season but we have high expectations and hope that they will breed in the near future.
Whilst on the continent, Craig also collected a Male Greater Kiskadee flycatcher. We have a female in our Tropical House so it is also a relief to find her a mate and hopefully we can breed from this pair. It is important that we do this as we are one of the only Zoos/Wildlife Parks in the U.K to house these birds, so breeding them would be an incredible achievement.
