Spoon-billed sandpiper “headstarting” success 04 October 2012 |
News story With only about 100 breeding pairs remaining in the
wild, the Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) is in
crisis. To help save this species from extinction, SOS – Save
Our Species, in which IUCN is a partner, is supporting an
innovative conservation project to boost the numbers of juvenile
Spoon-billed Sandpipers at their summer breeding grounds in
Chukotka, Russia. Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) an IUCN
member, working in partnership with Moscow Zoo and Birds Russia
has achieved incredible success by hatching, rearing and
releasing nine Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks, a species listed
as Critically Endangered on The IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species™. The nine chicks hatched from 11 eggs carefully taken
from breeding grounds on the tundra of the Chukotka region in
eastern Russia. Next they were carefully monitored, hatched and
nourished in the nearby village of Meinypil’gyno before being
released. This intense phase in t