Aug 18, 2026 |
Five shoebill eggs were artificially incubated and hatched successfully in the Bangweulu wetlands, in northern Zambia.
According to African Parks, the organisation that manages the area in partnership with the Zambian government, until now there were only two documented cases of eggs of this species being artificially incubated with success, which makes the work carried out at Bangweulu one of the first of its kind.
The shoebill, Balaeniceps rex, is classified as Vulnerable on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to BirdLife International, the world population is around five thousand to eight thousand individuals, of which between 3300 and 5300 are breeding adults, scattered between South Sudan and Zambia. Habitat loss, fires, disturbance of nests and the illegal bird trade are the main threats.
Bangweulu is one of the most important areas for the species in southern Africa. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports, based on GPS tracking of seven birds over five years, concluded that shoebills remain in these wetlands throughout the year and travel less than three kilometres a day on 81 per cent of the days observed.
As African Parks reports, the team had no established model to follow, since there were no incubation parameters, veterinary protocols or husbandry guidelines specific to the species. The eggs are examined against the light, a technique known as candling, which makes it possible to follow the development of the chick inside the shell, and they are weighed to check that moisture loss stays between 13 and 15 per cent of the initial weight. Every two days they are misted with warm water, in the same way the parents do in wild nests.
Mozambique has no record of the shoebill, whose distribution ends to the south precisely in the Bangweulu wetlands, but it faces the same type of problem in the conservation of other threatened waterbirds.
According to a study by Carlos Bento and Richard Beilfuss published in the journal Ostrich and available in the BIOFUND library, the Zambezi delta held a core of about 120 breeding pairs of wattled crane, a species that depends exclusively on the tubers of sedges of the genus Eleocharis. The authors concluded that regulation of the Zambezi flow reduced the carrying capacity of the floodplains by suppressing the seasonal flooding needed to produce those tubers. This African Parks experience in Zambia may shed light on species at risk in Mozambique.
African Parks currently manages 23 protected areas in 13 African countries, among them the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, in Mozambique, managed in partnership with the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC).
Photos: African Parks
