Frozen sperm used to breed golden eagle

BIRD experts in Britain have become the first in the world to breed a golden eagle using frozen sperm, it was announced yesterday.

The three-week-old chick, named Crystal, hatched at an eagle breeding centre in south Lanarkshire on April 28 and was said to be in “excellent health”.

The University of Abertay Dundee team behind the breakthrough said it could safeguard some of the world’s most endangered birds of prey.

Biologist Dr Graham Wishart and eagle breeder Andrew Knowles-Brown said their method could help bypass the difficulties of natural bird-breeding.

Crystal’s mother was inseminated using one-month-old frozen sperm, but the Dundee team said eagle sperm can be preserved indefinitely using their technique. It emerged earlier this week that a healthy human baby was born at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester two years ago using sperm that had been frozen for 21 years.

Mr Knowles-Brown, who is also chairman of the Scottish Hawking Club, said their research could help protect many of the world’s endangered species.

But breeding with cryo-preserved sperm was not a cure for the problems facing endangered birds in the wild. It was also important to protect natural habitats, continue breeding in captivity and cut the numbers shot or poisoned.