The red-billed chough (pronounced chuff), the rarest member of the British crow family, once called Kents coastline home, and could be found throughout the British Isles. Changes to farming practices and persecution have caused a catastrophic decline in the chough opulation, and there are now only 23 breeding pairs left in England.
The story of the chough has long been interwoven into the culture of Kent. Chough are even featured on the coat of arms for the city of Canterbury. Yet these iconic birds have been missing from the county for the last two centuries.
With animal and plant extinctions taking place across the world, we must act now to restore vital habitats and return lost species before it's too late. The chough is the rarest British member of the crow family and is a protected species, but the chough story is far from over, and there is the chance of a new beginning.
Wildwood have been breeding chough for several years as part of the National breeding programme coordinated by Paradise Park in Cornwall, and are now working in partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust and Paradise Park to return this iconic species to the Kent coastline. Our long term vision is to restore chough across southern England, and Dover is the perfect place to start.
Dover's chalk grasslands and White Cliffs provide nest sites and a rich diversity of insects on which choughs feed. As suitable coastal habitat and grazing practices are being restored, and persecution is no longer a threat, now is the perfect time to return the chough to the skies of Kent.
This new Kent population will be the first in a series of planned chough reintroductions along the south coast of England acting as stepping stones to join up remaining isolated and fragmented populations, bringing new genetics into the existing population, making them more sustainable and resilient.
In order to produce enough birds for reintroduction, the project has the full support of Paradise Park in Cornwall who have been managing a diverse captive population for many years and techniques including creche rearing have been developed.
Wildwood Trust plans to hatch and rear chough chicks, which will then be released into the wild to settle and breed. There will be subsequent releases each year to bolster the population until our target population size is reached. We're confident that the chough will develop a healthy, self-sustaining population in this area, but to begin with, this fledgling group will need our special care.
Although these birds will be prepared, as much as possible, for life in the wild, we will closely monitor them after release to ensure their welfare and track their progress. We will be able to see where they have settled and monitor the success of their foraging and nesting.
You can help us to make this happen by making a donation today!
We promise to spend any money raised in this appeal on getting chough back into wild. Your donation will help cover the wide range of costs to enable this historic reintroduction to happen. Once we meet our target, donations will no longer be matched, and but any additional donations will still support the restoration of the chough in Kent and will help us to make it a success. We really couldn't do what we do without your support and we can't thank you enough!
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