Great Bustard reintroduced to UK
Dec. 12, 1970 - Great bustard returns after 150 years. The great bustard, a bird an large as a turkey and one of the rarest in Europe, is to be reintroduced into Britain as a breeding bird. Mr. Christopher Marler, who runs a private zoo at Weston Underwood, Bucks, has imported two male and four female great bustards from Portugal and the birds will be released on a leased 10-acre site on Salisbury Plain in the spring. The site will be surrounded by an eight-foot wire fence, and it is hoped that the birds will mature and breed there within three years. A Great Bustard Trust has been formed to run the project expected to cost about 0, 000. Mr. Marler said that the birds which were imported five months ago have settled down well in his zoo, together with a seventh which came from the Shetlands last winter. The great bustard once flourished on the chalk downs in the south as well as in East Anglia and Yorkshire, but was made extinct by hunters about 150 years ago, The last record of its breeding in Britain was in Suffolk in 1832, since then it has only been a rare vagrant here. Photo shows Great bustards at a private zoo at Weston Underwood, Bucks, from where they are to be moved in the spring to a reserve on Salisbury Plain with the object of breeding them
