This little Shoebill chick was brought to the Project staff by a concerned person from a village near to its nest. This villager had heard there were people talking about destroying the chick and nest site. Out of fear for this chick’s survival he thought it best to remove it and then decided to hand it over to the Bangweulu Wetlands Project. A better option would have been to inform the project staff and we would then have local people to guard the nest as part of our Shoebill guard program, through which we also educated people on the importance of these birds.
Bangweulu staff have committed to raise this little chick who we estimate to be 3 weeks old and release it back into the wild when ready. We will keep updating you on its progress.