Torquay’s coastal zoo is home to the only bank cormorants in any zoo anywhere in the world. Now the zoo is aiming to become the first to breed the birds.

Living Coasts senior head keeper Tony Durkin flew 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) to Cape Town in South Africa to rescue eggs from the wild. The eggs were taken under licence from Robben Island, off the West coast, from nests threatened by development. Bank cormorants lay up to three eggs but usually rear only one chick.

The eggs flew to the UK on a South African Airways jet in a portable incubator plugged in on the aircraft’s flight-deck. They then went into quarantine at Paignton Zoo, where they will be hatched and hand-reared by Living Coasts staff led by head keeper Lois Rowell.

Tony said: “We have been learning how to care for the adult birds. Now we are taking on an even greater challenge – to hatch and rear them. It’s a long way to go for two dozen eggs, but it will be worth it. We are covering all the costs of staff time and travel to bring the eggs to this country, incubate them and hand rear the chicks. It is an investment in the future of the species.”

Living Coasts director Elaine Hayes: “We struggled against red tape and bureaucracy for months to make this happen. We couldn’t have done it without the help of South African Airways, Specialist Wildlife Services of Heathrow and Grindrod Logistics in South Africa – they have all been brilliant!”

The bank cormorant, Phalacrocorax neglectus, also known as Wahlberg's cormorant, is endemic to Namibia and the western coastline of South Africa. Numbers have declined sharply due to commercial fishing, increasing human disturbance and the number of kelp gulls feeding on the cormorant eggs and chicks. The world population is probably now around 4,000 birds. They are on the IUCN Red List as endangered.