Cranes will be seen in the wild in the UK for the first time in 400 years after a flock was sent to 'crane school'.

After a clutch of eggs was flown from Germany to the Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire, baby birds were hand-reared by keepers wearing crane costumes and taught how to survive in the wild in order to stop them from becoming tame.

To teach them to avoid predators, they were shown a dog while the keepers played a recording of adult cranes making distress cries.

The birds are slowly being released into the wild from next month onwards. Nigel Jarrett, head of conservation breeding at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust who helped with the project said; "We'll be doing what is known as a soft release - meaning we do it very carefully and slowly so the birds hardly notice it's happening.

"We have to be comfortable that the birds are feeding for themselves. Until now they have been living charmed lives where they have everything delivered.

"Once they are free they'll become natural foragers. The real measure of success will be nesting - when they produce their own babies."

The birds have been fitted with GPS satellite tracking backpacks, so they can be monitored in the wild. Another clutch of eggs is expected by Germany and the group hope to have released 100 cranes into the wild by 2015.

Earlier this year a bay crane was helped to walk with the use of special slippers.

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