The hatchlings were born at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge reserve

May 23, 2014 18:35 GMT  ·  By
These cute hatchlings were born at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge reserve
   These cute hatchlings were born at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge reserve

A pair of newly hatched wild crane chicks have given conservationists new hopes about seeing a new generation of these birds in Western Britain.

The cute hatchlings were born to parent birds Chris and Monty, at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire, where conservationists launched the Great Crane Project in an attempt to reintroduce the species in the area.

These two small chicks come with high hopes because, if they survive, they will become the first new generation of wild cranes to hatch in western Britain in centuries.

“They're largely on their own now – we want them to grow up to be wild birds. But they have a good fighting chance, as there seems to be lots of food at their nest, and there are plenty of people watching them,” a spokesman for WWT Slimbridge told the Guardian.

The tall birds were once common in Britain, but for the past 400 years no wild born crane has survived in the area, and the population was nearly wiped out entirely in the 1600s due to large-scale hunting.

Chris and Monty also tried to breed last year, when they laid an egg, but the hatchling died before it left the nest.

However, the new chicks seem healthy and they were even spotted on their first walk away from the nest.