The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Mokopane on Saturday unveiled its custom-designed oxpecker facility for the breeding and relocating of the endangered Red-billed Oxpeckers.

In a statement, the national zoo said: "In the 1900's oxpecker numbers were drastically reduced as a result of the use of dips to treat livestock against tick infestations.

"As a result, many oxpeckers, whose main source of food is ticks, were killed by the poison."

According to the statement, in January this year the zoo successfully bred a Red-billed Oxpecker at its Mokopane Centre in the Limpopo Province.

"The only other record of successful breeding of captive oxpeckers is from the Zurich Zoo, in Switzerland in 1973," explained the statement.

The birds bred will eventually be released back in to the wild to boost the oxpecker population, the zoo said.

Sapa