SLIMBRIDGE WWT is celebrating new arrivals this spring.
The world’s rarest goose, the Hawaiian nēnē, has hatched a brood of goslings at the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre and visitors can now meet the young birds in the centre’s Hawaiian-themed Mission Possible habitat.
Deputy living collections manager Phoebe Vaughan said: “Hawaiian geese remain one of our firm visitor favourites and our ‘lettuce feeds’ are often a destination in themselves.
“This year we are really pleased for female ‘M24’ to have a chance to be a mother.
“Although their population is now over 3000, Nēnēs remain one of the rarest geese and their story allows our visitors to really understand human impact on the natural world.”
Visitors can meet the goslings and participate in a lettuce feed daily at 12pm.
Once nearly extinct, with just 30 birds remaining in the 1950s, the nēnē was brought back from the brink through conservation efforts led by Sir Peter Scott, founder of WWT Slimbridge.
In 1952, three birds were sent from Hawaii to Slimbridge, where the first-ever captive breeding programme for the species began.
The project was a success and in 1979, 200 nēnēs were released on Maui, one of Hawaii’s islands.
Today, their population has rebounded to more than 3000, though they remain one of the rarest geese.
The nēnē’s survival is thanks in part to its ability to adapt to new environments after much of its natural habitat was lost.
The Mission Possible habitat at Slimbridge is designed to reflect the Hawaiian landscape, complete with a golf course and clubhouse— a nod to the unexpected places where nēnēs now live, such as runways and golf courses.
Visitors can explore the exhibit and learn about Sir Peter Scott’s pioneering conservation work.
WWT’s Living Collection team continue to build upon Scott’s work breeding rare and threatened species. In doing so they’ve produced and contributed to best practice guidelines, which assists conservationists to save species.
