Save the BUSTARD What can we learn from the UK Great Bustard reintroduction?

Dangerously close to extinction, the Great Indian Bustard’s survival depends upon close co-operation, grassland protection and habitat restoration, among other concerns.

- DR NAVEEN PANDEY

Common Name: Great Bustard

Scientific Name: Otis tarda tarda

IUCN status: Vulnerable

Population and distribution: Global population around 44,000 – 57,000, range is across Eurasia from Iberia and Morocco to China.

Behaviour: Male and female have separate groups (droves), slow gait, long and deeply fingered wings, generally silent, sometimes nasal bark when threatened, can’t perch (due to absence of opposable hind claw)

Feeding habit: Omnivorous -- young shoots, leaves, fruits, flowers. Insects and lizards are also consumed. Young birds are mainly carnivorous.

Habitat: Prefer lowland, river valleys, and undulating open country, adapted to agricultural landscapes

Breeding: Females are very selective, males elaborately display, males mature at four years and females at two years, polygamous, the largest sexual size dimorphism in body mass.

Nesting: Males have no role in nesting, female alone takes care of incubation and hatching, nests on the ground, usually two eggs.

“David, how do you ensure that the chicks do not imprint on humans while being raised in captivity?”. David, maintaining his momentum, replied, “A dehumanising suit with no obvious hands and legs helps to avoid human imprinting. Use of a puppet feeder also helps”.

We had been conversing for over three hours about how David Waters (Founder and Executive Officer, The Great Bustard Group) and his team have successfully reintroduced one of the heaviest flying birds, the Great Bustard, Otis tarda tarda (GB hereafter) to the UK.