Christmas comes early at London Wetland Centre this year!
We are so excited to announce that our Common Cranes have arrived!
From Monday 19 December, meet Insh (female, 3 ½ years old) and Merry (male, 8 ½ years old).
The couple is getting adapted to their new enclosure and neighbours (wildlife) at the centre. Our wardens are treating them to lots of different foods to see what they like – so far bugs, especially locusts, seem to be a firm favourite, along with peanuts!
We tell them apart by their eye colour : Insh has very bright orange eyes, whereas Merry’s eyes are very dark brown.
On your next visit to the centre, don't forget to stop by their new enclosure!
Did you know that cranes were lost from the UK for nearly 400 years?
These birds, the tallest in the UK at 4ft, used to be quite common. They were even frequent fixtures at medieval feasts – Henry II’s chefs cooked up 115 of them at his Christmas feast in 1251, but a combination of hunting and wetland decline led to their extinction in the 1600s.
Thanks to conservation efforts their population numbers have once again returned to the UK and hit record levels, of over 200 birds.
