Avian flu and costs among reasons for loss of captive birds at Castle Espie — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Castle Espie has seen its captive bird collection fall from around 500 birds to fewer than 100, according to WWT Director of Operations Alex Lane, who attributed the decline to avian influenza and post-Brexit movement restrictions.
- Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) announced that from November onwards, all remaining captive birds at Castle Espie will be relocated to other WWT sites across the UK as part of wider cost-cutting.
- WWT is also ending Castle Espie's guided school tour programme, with Lane citing a "sizeable deficit" and an insufficient volume of school bookings, the latter possibly driven by transport costs.
- Post-Brexit biosecurity rules — export health certificates and point-of-entry checks now required under the Windsor Framework — have increased the administrative and logistical burden of moving captive birds from Britain to Northern Ireland.
- SDLP MLA Cara Hunter, who sits on the Stormont education committee, called the loss of guided educational visits "disappointing" and warned it could reduce environmental education access for schools with limited resources.
- Lane framed the decommissioning as a repositioning, saying the site will be "reset" as a wetland nature conservation hub with more space opened up for wild birds.
Why it matters: Castle Espie, one of Northern Ireland's best-known wildlife centres, will lose both its captive bird collection — fully relocated to other WWT sites by November — and its guided school tours. SDLP MLA Cara Hunter warned the cuts could reduce environmental education access for schools with limited resources, while WWT says it must generate surplus income to sustain its core conservation mission.
Ask SkimNews
