Welcome to Crane School...
Who has been in detention this week? Which crane is top of the class?
If you want to find out more about cranes then read our new crane school diary where you can keep a watchful eye over the school's latest fluffy pupils - the Class of 2009!
This year five young cranes are being taught how to behave as cranes in our marsh garden.
Amy King is this years warden and headmistress at Crane School. She's worked at Slimbridge for three years and is helping develop hands-on crane rearing expertise ready for The Great Crane Project release next year. Read her blog for more information on how our young cranes at Crane Schoool are progressing.
What is the Great Crane Project?
Over the past three years, crane school at Slimbridge has provided a valuable shop window on The Great Crane Project (GCP), a wider partnership between the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the RSPB, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Viridor Credits Environmental Company. The project aims to re-establish a sustainable population of common cranes in Britain, securing its future as a breeding species.
Rearing 'wild' crane chicks at crane school allows WWT scientists to finely tune the skills needed to hatch and raise the wild crane chicks. These skills can then be used when rearing cranes for release as part of the GCP Next spring, wild crane eggs will be brought to Slimbridge, incubated, hatched and reared in a scaled-up 'behind-the-scenes' crane school. A release site has been chosen on the Somerset Levels and Moors in preparation for the first wild cranes to be released as planned in autumn 2010.
