Would you Adam & Eve it?

2005 bird flying at Nanquidno - September 2005

It would seem that the chough is back to stay in Cornwall, with numbers increasing every year. The parent birds on The Lizard are going from strength to strength, with the small flock of birds growing annually.

However, what happens in two or three years time when the two parent birds stop breeding, or if one of them is picked off by a peregrine? The view held by the Cornwall Chough Project, is that the young birds will soon be maturing, and will soon start to breed.

The snag with this scenario is that the young birds will only have each other to breed with - all from the same two ancestral parents. This will inevitably lead to all the known problems associated with inbreeding - damning the next race of choughs in Cornwall to be inherently unfit and genetically weak. The Adam and Eve scenario is flawed, and will lead to flawed offspring.

Adult pair in flight

Another argument is that there are plenty of sightings of choughs straying in and out of Cornwall on a regular basis, and that the young birds will eventually find these mystery mates. Having spent many hours researching all reports of chough sightings, I would have to say that this argument is equally specious, and indeed it may be that persons unknown released the original five birds that appeared on The Lizard.

The plain truth is that there is a small group of fit young choughs alive and well on the coast of Cornwall, and that Operation Chough has an almost exact match for these birds, specially prepared for such an eventuality.

Surely the time has now come for both the Cornwall Chough Project and Operation Chough to get together and give all of these birds the chance they deserve?

Paradise Park started Operation Chough almost twenty years ago, and has often been left out of the equation by the RSPB when dealing with the chough's future. The Cornwall Chough Project only actually began in earnest after the arrival of the wild birds, although much of the work done by local agencies may have encouraged the birds to stay.

Both teams have experts whose academic knowledge and first-hand experience would be a huge benefit to the chough's future. It seems odd that even though both groups have been in contact on a personal basis - exchanging reports and sightings - there has been no formal move to create one larger project which will truly enable the chough's return.

Would you Adam & Eve it - I wouldn't?

Ray Hales October 2005

Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary, Hayle Cornwall TR27 4HB, UK
www.paradisepark.org.uk