Zoo keepers nurse rare cormorant to health

A RARE chick has come out of quarantine after being nursed into the world by zoo keepers trying to save the endangered species.

The bank cormorant at Living Coasts, the coastal zoo in Torquay, is the first of its kind to be hatched in the UK.

Ten eggs were collected from nests on Robben Island, off the South African coast near Cape Town, better known as the former prison home of Nelson Mandela, as part of a conservation programme to establish a new species in a zoo environment.

The bank cormorant is an endangered species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, and is thought to be Britain's rarest bird.

The chick is one of only three bank cormorants in the country and Living Coasts is the only zoo in the world where bank cormorants can call home.

Experienced birdkeepers Tony Durkin and Lois Rowell spent 40 days hatching and hand-rearing the chick. It is fed every three hours on a mixture of mashed-up sprat, smelt and whiting.

Mr Durkin said: "The chick has gone from being tiny, naked, blind and helpless to having downy feathers, open eyes and a loud call. It still needs a lot of care and will do for some time to come.

"Once it has adult feathers, then we will be able to do a DNA test and find out what sex it is. We really hope it is a female."