Great bustard numbers boosted by wooden egg decoys

The eggs were used for the first time during last year's breeding season

Wooden decoy eggs have helped raise great bustard numbers to their highest level yet on Salisbury Plain.

Conservationists replace a real egg in a nest with a dummy egg, so they can rear a chick to release back into the wild. Bustard numbers are up to 75.

During the last breeding season the Great Bustard Group was allowed for the first time to use decoys in four nests.

Typically the bird lays three or four eggs, but usually only one chick survives in the wild.

Group director Ruth Manvell said: "We quickly nip in, swap an egg, so she [the mother] doesn't get frightened.

"She has one, we have one, then we have two chicks (which survive) rather than just the one."

All four eggs taken by the group were successfully hatched at Birdworld in Surrey.

The chicks were returned to Salisbury Plain to be hand-reared until they were old enough to be released.

All four eggs hatched successfully and the chicks have been released into the wild

The world's heaviest flying birds were hunted to extinction in the UK, with the last one being shot and killed in 1832.

Over the past 14 years efforts have been made to create a self-sustaining population by re-introducing birds reared from imported eggs.

Executive officer David Waters said: "It took a long, long time to get to 25 birds, but once you're there and there is some maturity, it does become easier to add to it.

"We're hoping 2019 will be a year we can get some eggs from Spain - this would be our last year of doing that.

"If we can manage that it would be great to be standing here and maybe we will have over 100 birds - that has always been the target."

The project began by importing eggs from Russia and more recently from Spain.