Keepers have their hands full at Bristol Zoo Gardens

Bird keepers at Bristol Zoo Gardens are being kept busy as they hand-rear tiny endangered ducklings.

The marbled teal ducklings are just two weeks old and are being kept in the Zoo’s special incubation room where they are fed every two hours throughout the day.

Marbled teals have been listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List of endangered animals due to a reduction in their numbers.

This species appears to have suffered a rapid population decline as a result of widespread habitat destruction.Its breeding habitat is lowland, shallow fresh waters.

This duck formerly bred in large numbers in the Mediterranean region, but is now restricted to a few sites in southern Spain and northwest Africa, In the east it survive in Iran, as well as isolated pockets in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq and further to the east in western India and western China.

The Marbled Duck is approximately 39–42 cm long. Adults are a pale sandy-brown colour, diffusely blotched off-white, with a dark eye-patch and shaggy head. Ducklings are similar but with more off-white blotches.

For more information about Bristol Zoo Gardens visit the zoo website at www.bristolzoo.org.ukor phone 0117 974 7300. 

ENDS

For press enquiries please contact Bristol Zoo Press Office:

Lucy Parkinson, T: 0117 974 7306, E: lparkinson@bristolzoo.org.uk

Vanessa Hollier, T: 0117 974 7309, E: vhollier@bristolzoo.org.uk

Bristol Zoo Gardens

• Becoming a ‘Friend of Bristol Zoo Gardens’ costs £65 per adult per year.
• Bristol Zoo Gardens is an education and conservation charity and relies on the income from visitors to support its work. 
• Throughout 2010 Bristol Zoo will be running a series of events to highlight the importance of conserving the world’s biodiversity, as part of the international Year of Biodiversity. For more information visit the Zoo website at www.bristolzoo.org.uk/about/conservation/campaigns/iyob
• To find out more about the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity visit the website at www.biodiversityislife.net
• Bristol Zoo is open from 9am every day except Christmas Day. 
• The Zoo is involved with more than 100 co-ordinated breeding programmes for threatened wildlife species. 
• Itemploys 140 full and part-time staff to care for the animals and run a successful visitor attraction to support its conservation and education work. 
• Bristol Zoo Gardens supports – through finance and skill sharing - 15 projects in the UK and abroad that conserveand protectsome of the world’s most endangered species.
• Bristol Zoo Gardens is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. BIAZA represents more than 90 member collections and promotes the values of good zoos and aquariums.