Planckendael ZOO and De Zegge launch ambitious conservation project
“Buying time for lapwing populations while restoring their habitat around De Zegge”
You do not have to travel far to find a heart-warming example of nature conservation. Take De Zegge in Geel, for instance, which has been managed by Antwerp ZOO and Planckendael ZOO since 1952. Under the stewardship of conservationist Marcel Verbruggen (1925–2021), an icon of nature conservation in Flanders, the 111-hectare reserve developed into a thriving haven for rare plants and breeding birds.
Some species, however, are struggling. Planckendael ZOO now wants to give threatened populations of lapwings and curlews a helping hand. We pulled on our boots to see how the teams from the ZOO and De Zegge are tackling the challenge. “Every egg we cannot protect in a field goes into our incubator.”
How impressive is the courtship flight of a male lapwing in spring, with its distinctive call, broad wings and black throat? When danger approaches the nest, lapwings will swoop noisily at potential predators to drive them away. Sadly, sights like these are becoming increasingly rare. Farmland and meadow birds such as lapwings and curlews are under severe pressure, with serious consequences for biodiversity.
A pilot project by Planckendael ZOO at De Zegge aims to help turn the tide. Its main goal is to support declining populations in and around this unique peatland area in the Campine region through a soft release programme. With a soft release, birds are given time to gradually adjust to their new surroundings, with some support from people. This differs from a hard release, where birds are released immediately.
“The idea first emerged within our keeper team about four years ago,” explains Frédéric Verstappen, Curator of Birds at Planckendael. “And not just for the lapwing, but for the black-tailed godwit too, which is the national bird of the Netherlands. Neither species was part of a EAZA Ex-situ Programme. After discussing the idea, we were given the green light. I then approached Natuurpunt and the Agency for Nature and Forests. We already work well together, and we decided to focus on the lapwing.”
De Zegge itself covers 111 hectares, but the pilot project spans a total area of 800 hectares in the valley of the Kleine Nete. Over the past few months, volunteers have rescued 66 lapwing eggs from farmland. Planckendael ZOO expects that around 40 young lapwings will eventually be released.
Early birds
Eight lapwings have turned out to be quite literally “early birds”. They hatched in April from three different clutches, so some of them are siblings.
When we arrive at the De Zegge field station on a rainy Friday, site manager Lien Van Breda and coordinator Toon Deswert are waiting for Frédéric Verstappen. Alongside eight cardboard boxes containing young lapwings, he has brought an adorable surprise: a six-day-old curlew chick, tucked safely inside an incubator.
Its long, curved bill and brownish plumage, characteristic of the adult bird, are already recognisable.
“It’s the only chick to survive from a clutch of three eggs,” says Frédéric. “A farmer found it in a sugar beet field.” The young curlew is on its way to the wildlife rescue centre in Opglabbeek, where it can grow up alongside four other curlews. Will it eventually return to De Zegge? “We don’t know for certain,” says Frédéric. The plan is to investigate this further during the next phase of the project, as part of wider species conservation efforts.
Measuring, weighing and learning
Attention then turns to the lapwings. They will temporarily stay in a large aviary measuring approximately 20 by 7 metres. We reach it along a series of wooden walkways, which save us from getting our feet wet. Inside the aviary, Frédéric and bird ringer Ignace, a dedicated volunteer of many years, get straight to work. One by one, they take the young lapwings out of their boxes. Each bird is ringed, weighed and measured. They weigh between 170 and 200 grams it turns out, and every ring carries a unique code.
When the first young lapwing is released into the aviary, the Planckendael ZOO team and volunteers cannot help but feel a little thrill. The bird plays it safe and quickly scurries away from us towards the other side of the enclosure.
“We want to give the lapwings a chance to settle down in the aviary. There’s a lot going on around them: a fox passing by, a dog, the noise of an aeroplane, and of course people.”
Once all eight have been released, they quickly seek each other out. With their distinctive long crests, they make an endearing sight. The last bird to be released seems to have the most energy of all. It looks ready to take off immediately into the wide-open landscape, although that is not yet possible inside the aviary.
“That one’s going to make it,” Frédéric laughs.
High above the aviary, a goshawk circles. Hungry? Quite possibly. The bird of prey is one of the lapwing’s natural predators. For now, however, the young lapwings are safe.
They are given around five days to become accustomed to their new surroundings.
“We want to give them time to settle,” Pieter Dierckx tells us when we call him a few days later. Pieter is Curator of Birds at ZOO Antwerpen and previously spent five years working at De Zegge on habitat restoration. “There’s a lot happening around them: a fox might pass by, or a dog, there’s the noise of an aeroplane, and of course there are people.”
Finding common ground between nature and farming
Without eggs, there are no chicks. So how do you save as many nests as possible? And what does that involve? After all, a bird has no way of knowing whether it is nesting on farmland or in a nature reserve.
Cooperation is key. It takes patience to find common ground between the needs of nature and those of agriculture. “Four years ago, we started approaching landowners and farmers,” Pieter explains. “The reactions varied. If the conversation remained fairly general, it was always very positive. Many farmers feel nostalgic for the way things used to be, including the sound and flight of lapwings. But when you start talking about the decline in their population, things become more sensitive. They will often point to predators such as foxes and goshawks.”
“Farmland and meadow birds are under immense pressure across our landscape. The key to their long-term survival lies in protecting their nests while, at the same time, restoring and improving their habitat. Only by creating diverse, species-rich habitats with healthy water management can we lay the foundations for the long-term conservation of these iconic birds,” says Griet Nijs of Natuurpunt’s Farmland and Meadow Bird Working Group.
Despite all these efforts, both nature lovers and professionals know that some birds will not survive after hatching. How do they deal with the emotional side of that reality?
Monniksgieren
“I’m quite a rational person,” says Frédéric. “I’ve been working with birds for 26 years now. There is more emotional distance than there is with mammals. Through our work, we at least give the lapwing, or the curlew, a chance.
“I’m also involved in the cinereous vulture project in Bulgaria, as Planckendael ZOO coordinates the EAZA Ex-situ Programme for the species. We know beforehand that some of the birds won’t survive. But if you can release enough cinereous vultures, you can build a population. With lapwings, each pair needs to raise an average of 0.9 chicks for the population to remain stable.”
For curlews, the situation is particularly worrying. “We have an ageing population of curlews at De Zegge and across the wider area,” says Pieter. “Every year, we lose breeding pairs. In 2022, we started with nine breeding pairs. Now there are only five. That’s in just four years. And we don’t know exactly what happened. We need at least ten to fifteen years to restore suitable habitat. My concern is that we may already be too late for the curlew at De Zegge. We have more breeding pairs of lapwings, although I wouldn’t want to put an exact number on it. Either way, it is important to build up a reserve population now. Better too early than too late.”
“A few weeks ago, a farmer called me,” Pieter recalls. “He had found a lapwing nest in one of his fields, but he had already arranged for a contractor to cultivate and sow the field. The nest simply couldn’t stay there."
Deciding whether to move eggs to an incubator at Planckendael is not always straightforward. “A few weeks ago, a farmer called me,” Pieter recalls. “He had found a lapwing nest in one of his fields, but he had already arranged for a contractor to cultivate and sow the field. The nest simply couldn’t stay there.“We went to have a look and the chicks were almost ready to hatch. The farmer was upset that he hadn’t spotted the nest earlier and that he couldn’t be flexible enough to leave the eggs where they were. We decided to take them to Planckendael.
“That’s difficult, because you can see the breeding pair standing there. It does affect you. Of course, it is always best if the mother can incubate the eggs herself in the natural environment. But the young lapwings hatched successfully at Planckendael.”
Why are farmland and meadow birds declining?
“The decline of many ground-nesting farmland and meadow birds is the result of a complex combination of factors,” explains Toon Deswert.
“The main cause is the large-scale loss of their natural habitat: open heathland and raised bogs, open dunes, lowland peatlands and wet grasslands. In short, extensive open and wet landscapes.
“Some ground-nesting species managed to adapt to an alternative habitat: farmland. Of all the available alternatives, this most closely resembled their original environment. What’s more, the methods and pace of traditional, small-scale farming were often still compatible with these species’ life cycles.”
After the Second World War, however, the situation changed dramatically as agriculture intensified. “Modern farming practices are difficult to reconcile with the way ground-nesting birds such as curlews and lapwings live,” Toon stresses. “The use of synthetic pesticides, land drainage and more intensive farming practices have meant that, for many species, farmland is at risk of changing from a suitable alternative habitat into an ecological trap.”
According to Toon, this has also made a fourth factor increasingly significant: the recovery of predator populations, both on the ground and in the air.
“In a simplified agricultural landscape, where cover and opportunities to escape are becoming increasingly scarce, predators have more opportunities to find nests and chicks. Although the return of predators is in itself a positive sign of ecological recovery, their impact in a depleted landscape is much greater than it would be in a robust and diverse ecosystem.”
And because many of these species have moved into farmland, farmers now play a crucial role in their survival.
“By taking ground-nesting birds into account during farming activities, farmers can make a real difference,” Toon concludes. “At the same time, we continue to invest heavily in restoring suitable habitats within our nature reserves, so that these species can once again establish sustainable populations there.”
Restoring nature
Pieter also sees reasons for optimism. “There is now greater attention being paid to farming practices that work more closely with nature. That’s also why the volunteers remain hopeful. We believe we can still turn the tide by investing more in nature restoration and good agricultural practices.”
“Mowing later would already make a big difference,” says Frédéric. It would give birds nesting on farmland more time during the breeding season. “We’re putting our hopes in more extensive forms of farming, where smaller areas are mown at a time.”
Unlike intensive farming, which focuses on maximising yields and efficiency, extensive farming produces less per hectare of land. Nature-inclusive and organic farming are examples. These approaches also involve using less artificial fertiliser, animal feed and crop protection products.
Bird ringer Ignace brings decades of experience to the project. “Curlews like to breed in grassland. But if that grassland is mown every three weeks, it’s deadly for them. And the lapwings? I remember years when I had to ring 400 of them. Recently, that number sometimes dropped to just 15. That’s why I’m so pleased we can ring quite a few more now.”
Tracking their journey
What exactly will happen to the eight lapwings released from the aviary on 17 June remains to be seen.
“We fitted them with scientific rings,” Pieter explains. “Only if someone finds one of those rings again will we know for certain what happened to the bird. Soon, another big group of lapwings will be released, and they will be fitted with a transmitter. That will allow us to monitor them much more closely.
“We also want to further coordinate the project with organisations such as Natuurpunt, the Agency for Nature and Forests and the Flemish Land Agency so that we can continue to refine our approach.”
Frédéric expects the lapwing chicks that hatched at Planckendael in May to move to De Zegge shortly after the middle of July.
“After a few days to settle in the aviary, they’ll be able to join the other lapwings.”
De Zegge: a unique haven for birds, reptiles and amphibians
De Zegge is Flanders’ oldest nature reserve and has a remarkable history. It is a remnant of the Geels Gebroekt lowland peatland, which once covered around 500 hectares. As well as peat pits and marshes, the reserve contains areas of heathland.
Since 1952, ZOO Antwerpen and Planckendael ZOO have owned 93 of its 111 hectares. The remaining land is owned by Natuurpunt and the Agency for Nature and Forests. De Zegge was officially recognised as a nature reserve in 1985.
It is one of the few places in Flanders where grass snakes can be found. It is also protected under the EU Birds Directive and forms part of the European Natura 2000 network, which aims to safeguard vulnerable animals, plants and their habitats for the long term.
In 2019, the management team raised the alarm about the future of the reserve and called on the Flemish government to intervene. Groundwater extraction by neighbouring agriculture was causing De Zegge itself to dry out, with disastrous consequences for its unique peat soils.
The warning was heard. The previous Flemish government gave De Zegge an important place in its Blue Deal, which aims to improve water management and make Flanders more resilient to climate disruption.
De Zegge cannot be visited individually. Visits are only possible in groups of at least 15 people and must be accompanied by a guide, either during the day or in the evening. A guided visit takes around two and a half hours. Fort further information about a tour you can contact coordinator Toon Deswert, +32 476 32 45 52, toon.deswert@kmda.org.
The remarkable story of De Zegge can also be found in Marcel Verbruggen’s book, De vallei van de Kleine Nete met De Zegge en de tijd van toen. Verbruggen served as the reserve’s curator for 57 years and is regarded as an icon of nature conservation in Flanders.
Volunteers, farmers and the Planckendael ZOO team are working with the Agency for Nature and Forests across an 800-hectare area to protect nests and give young birds a better chance of survival. So far, 66 eggs have been rescued. Twenty-two chicks have already hatched successfully, while another 44 eggs are being monitored in incubators.
Lapwing: the wader with the distinctive crest
At around 30 centimetres long, with a wingspan of 67 to 76 centimetres, the lapwing is a sizeable meadow bird. Adults weigh between 150 and 300 grams. The species is instantly recognisable by its distinctive crest, black-and-white plumage and broad, butterfly-like wings. During courtship flights, male lapwings impress potential mates with acrobatic twists and turns. Their distinctive call is reflected in the bird’s Dutch name, kievit.
The population has declined dramatically in recent decades. Around 2000 to 2002, the number of breeding pairs in Flanders was still estimated at between 14,000 and 20,000. Results from the ABV common breeding bird monitoring project indicate a decline of almost 60 per cent between 2007 and 2018.
Other countries are seeing similarly worrying trends. Across Europe, lapwing numbers fell by 55 per cent between 1980 and 2016. Intensive agriculture is considered the main cause, combined with increased predation.
Lapwings feed on insects, spiders, molluscs and earthworms. Their nests consist of shallow scrapes in the ground, and a typical clutch contains four eggs.
Curlew: Western Europe’s largest wader
The curlew is considerably larger than the lapwing. This meadow bird can grow to between 50 and 60 centimetres in length and weighs between 450 and 1,500 grams.
Its distinctive downward-curving bill measures between 9 and 15 centimetres. The plumage is pale, with dark brown vertical streaks across the body. The curlew produces a mysterious, yodelling call, somewhat like “cur-lee”. Its long wings are almost white underneath.
Curlews live in both wet and dry habitats. They are found across most of Europe and Asia, as well as parts of Africa. The largest populations are found in the United Kingdom and Finland, while the Netherlands, with its abundance of wetlands, is also an important area for the species.
Curlews breed in open farmland and dry, open natural habitats. At the beginning of this century, the Research Institute for Nature and Forest estimated that there were between 500 and 600 breeding pairs in Flanders. Today, that figure is thought to have fallen to between 300 and 400, making the curlew a threatened species.
One major challenge is that curlews are extremely faithful to particular sites, whether for breeding, wintering or resting. This makes it difficult for them to adapt quickly enough when their environment deteriorates.
Like lapwings, curlews make their nests in shallow scrapes in the ground, with a typical clutch containing around four eggs.