Female crane who mothered three chicks found dead after being shot in Somerset

A female crane released as part of the Great Crane Project has been found dead in Somerset.

The female named Swampy was found dead in a maize field near Ilchester by a Somerset farmer.

A post-mortem examination found four round metals objects in the bird which have been identified as bullets.

Details of the incident have been reported to Avon and Somerset Police.

Swampy - who was born in 2011 - was the most productive of the cranes released in the project and had given birth to three chicks.

She was given her nickname because the egg she hatched from had been collected from a particularly treacherous and foul-smelling swamp in Germany.

Her death means only 68 release of 93 released have survived; most of the survivors are on the Somerset Levels with 14 at the Slimbridge Reserve in Gloucestershire.

Damon Bridge, who manages the Great Crane Project, said:

The RSPB is offering a £1000 reward for information that leads to a conviction and an anonymous benefactor has offered a further £1000 for information.

The Great Crane Project team and police say they are also working to raise awareness of the presence of cranes with the shooting community in Somerset, and the bird’s legal status.