A LITTLE tern ringed 25 years ago in Gronant is believed to be the oldest recorded in the world.

The little tern, ringed as a chick on July 8 1993 on Gronant beach by Professor David Norman, is understood to have set a new world record for longevity for the coastal species.

Licensed ringer professor Norman, who has been helping study the terns at Gronant for the last 35 years, originally placed a tiny metal ring on the bird as a chick in 1993 allowing members of the North Wales Little Tern Group to know exactly when it was ringed.

Henry Cook, EU Life+ Little Tern/people engagement officer, a member of the group who is based at the site near Prestatyn, said: "It is just reward for all the effort David has put in over the decades.

"The ringers and the North Wales Little Tern Group were stunned to set a new world record for little tern longevity, especially as the bird was still breeding.

"Its chicks hatched shortly after the bird was colour-ringed. I only found out after the event that this bird was so special but to look at it you would never have known it was so old, it was in really good condition. I find this record fascinating as it improves our understanding of the species."

Little terns come to the UK every year from West Africa to breed in Gronant, the only breeding colony in Wales, which contributes more than 10 per cent of the entire UK breeding population.

Henry added: "Each migration to West Africa and back is at least a 7000 mile round trip, some may go as far as South Africa.

"As it has undertaken this migration up to 25 times in it's life this comes to 175,000 miles. You can easily double this when you include feeding flights and general flying around. This is equivalent to flying to the moon and most of the way back as well."

"We haven't recorded many old birds previously as techniques have only been recently developed to catch the adults safely. It will be easier to monitor the age of birds in the future as a coded colour-ring is being applied to some to help us study them in more detail.

"This bird likely returns to Gronant every year. Now it has a colour-ring it will be easier to record whether it returns in future years."

Henry said that this particularly little tern hadn't been spotted in Africa.

"That is as far as I know," he said.

"Very few little terns have been seen in Africa due to the lack of observers from down there and the difficulty in getting close enough to read the rings.

"There is still a lot to learn about where they spend the winter and what route they take to migrate down there."

Professor Norman tweeted: "Today at Gronant Little Terns we caught a Little Tern that I had #ringed as a chick there on 8 July 1993. At almost 25 years, this appears to be the oldest Little Tern ever recorded anywhere. Not too old, though: its chicks hatched this afternoon."