More breeding programme success with arrival of two endangered grey crowned crane chicks!

We’re excited to share the news that two endangered African Grey crowned crane chicks have hatched at the zoo as part of the European Breeding Programme for the species, to proud parents, Frasier and Fiona!

One of our crowned crane chicks who hatched on 27 August

The grey crowned crane is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List making this latest breeding news even more special – they’re actually a protected species in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya.

One of our grey crowned cranes

Parents ‘Frasier and Fiona’ have successfully bred before, with some of their other chicks being moved to other animal collections to continue the breeding programme.  We’re hopeful that these two newest arrivals will continue in the same way once they’re old enough to be moved away from their parents.

During breeding, both crowned crane parents share the parenting duties for their young – from sharing the task of building the nest to taking turns in sitting on their eggs. Even though these chicks are precocial, meaning they can walk and move around as soon as they hatch, the parents still spend time collecting bugs and feeding them to their babies who are growing stronger and more confident each day.

Our adorable new arrivals can be seen in the African Aviary

There’s certainly been a bit of a baby boom for the zoo team of late. Not only were keepers able to celebrate the arrival of five Humboldt penguin chicks earlier this year as part of the European Breeding Programme, (the first breeding season success since after lockdown), the team were also thrilled to welcome our first ever Macaroni penguin chick, ‘Ravioli’ too!

Ravioli, our first ever Macaroni penguin chick, arrived earlier this year

There was more success for the primates, with two baby patas monkeys arriving in the last six months.  Young ‘Kelce’ arrived in March to mum Zora, and ‘Taylor’ who arrived in August to mum ‘Zweena’. We’d say our zoo team are doing a sterling job taking such great care of our animals. They certainly seem very content!

Patas infant, Taylor, who is only a few weeks old