 The birds hatched from eggs collected in remote northeastern Russian tundra earlier and spent 60 days in Moscow Zoo in quarantine in preparation for the 8,000 km journey.Artificial incubation and captive rearing, termed "headstarting", were expected to increase survival rates from less than 25% to over 75%, and the removal of eggs was expected to lead to a second clutch reared by the parents.In 2019, almost a decade since the rescue mission, the two birds were first to be born in a UK spoon-billed sandpiper ark.