The Satyr and Temminck's tragopans inhabit high Himalayan mountain
slopes
A group of rare and endangered birds is being
taken from the Highlands to India in an attempt to kick-start a recovery programme
for the species.
The nine tragopans are members of the pheasant
family which normally inhabit the foothills of the Himalayas.
They have been bred in captivity by experts in
the UK and donated to the conservation project.
The Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie has
provided special quarantine facilities to hold the game birds.
The Indian government and its wildlife
authorities have made efforts to ensure that some of the country's most
endangered species do not slip further towards extinction.
They have made specific plans for more than
seventy different species, two of which are the Satyr tragopan and the
Temminck's tragopan.
But wild birds are difficult to capture and
breed so UK enthusiasts who have been successful have offered nine of the birds
from captive-bred collections here to be sent to India.
The role of the Highland Wildlife Park in this
case is to act as the pre-export quarantine facility for the two species of
tragopan pheasants”
Douglas RichardsonHighland Wildlife Park
They have been collected and quarantined at the
Highland Wildlife Park ahead of their journey which is due to begin on
Wednesday.
Douglas Richardson, animal collection manager at
the park, said: "The specialist skills and resources developed at wildlife
parks and zoos to manage captive species are increasingly the solutions of
choice when trying to address species conservation in the field.
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