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Home > Latest News > 2008 > 7 > 7 >

Crane School welcomes new baby cranes

 

This weekend, staff and visitors at WWT Slimbridge welcomed a new year group of baby Eurasian cranes.

 

Crane feeding at WWT SlimbridgeThe newly hatched Crane chicks will be learning basic lessons on 'how to be a crane' such as how to eat, drink and follow the example of older 'cranes' - or as we see them keepers in Crane costumes!

 

Here at Slimbridge's Crane School, you can visit the marsh garden to see the young cranes learning their lessons from our bird experts. As it is crucial the young cranes learn how to behave as if they were in the wild, staff at WWT Slimbridge will be rearing the chicks using crane costumes and crane heads made out of litter pickers so the birds don't become too accustomed to humans. Visitors will view the cranes through camouflage netting and anyone who enters Crane School must wear a specially designed crane costume.

 

Like young humans the young cranes need to be supervised at all times. Visitors to WWT Slimbridge can see these young cranes as they are taken for a walk through the marsh garden at intervals throughout the day. Then twice a day - at 11.30am and 2.30pm - small group of visitors will be able to put on a crane costume and join our experts as they teach the cranes how to survive in the wild. This is where the young cranes will learn how to feed, recognise and protect themselves from predators, and interact with their brothers and sisters to find their place amongst the other cranes.

 

Visits to Crane School are included in the standard admission prices, but places are strictly limited and can only be booked on arrival at the Crane School on the day.