From The Warminster And District Companion, Volume One, May 2003:
Danny Howell writes: .
The Great Bustard (otis tarda) is the heaviest flying bird in the world, with the fully adult cock birds weighing more than 50 lbs. Extinct in Britain since the 1870s, it was until 1830 a common sight on Salisbury Plain, hence its depiction on the crest of Wiltshire County Council. .The Reverend John Jeremiah Daniell, in his History Of Warminster, published in 1879, noted:
“The bustard might have been seen on Warminster Down about the year 1800. A man, on horseback, crossing the Plain to Tilshead, early on a morning in June, saw over his head a large bird; it alighted on the ground in front of his horse, which it seemed disposed to attack: he dismounted, and after nearly an hour’s struggle, secured it. It proved to be a Bustard, and was sold to Lord Temple for thirty guineas; it ate birds, mice, and almost any animal or vegetable food. About a fortnight after, a farmer returning from Warminster Market, was attacked in the same way, it is thought by the mate of the former bird; his horse being high-mettled, took fright, and became unmanageable, so that he could not capture the Bustard.”
An attempt was made in the 1970s to breed Great Bustards in captivity at Porton Down, with hopes of re-establishing them on the Plain, but this proved unsuccessful. .
As this volume of The Warminster & District Companion was nearing completion it was announced in the press that a new attempt was going to be made to re-introduce the Great Bustard on to Salisbury Plain.
.The Great Bustard Group, working in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London and Stirling University were planning to bring at least 25 Bustard chicks from Saratov in Russia, having obtained a licence from DEFRA (the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) after four year’s preliminary work. Six Russian experts were due to arrive on Friday 18th April 2003, and would be staying, rather appropriately, at the Bustard Inn, near Rollestone. As well as concentrating on the all-important avian matters, the experts were hoping to visit Stonehenge Ales, at Netheravon, to try a pint or two of Great Bustard beer.
The new project has been heralded as part of an effort to restoring a grassland corridor across Europe for the birds. The new chicks have been hatched from eggs removed from fields where they would have been destroyed by the use of agricultural machinery. Following quarantine precautions, the birds would be acclimatised in a release pen, prior to being let free on to the Plain. Human contact would be minimised. .The hope has been expressed that the project, if successful this time, could attract more visitors to Wiltshire, thus adding to the local income for those in the tourist trade.
The Warminster & Wylye Valley Society For Local Study wishes the new project well, and by way of celebrating this initiative, shares the following article with readers and interested individuals. It was originally included in Richard Cope’s Complete Natural History (compiled from the works of Buffon, Goldsmith, Cuvier, Shaw, Vaillant, Humboldt, Audubon, &c.), and was first published in 1840.