Headstarting
Headstarting is a conservation technique for endangered species in which young animals are raised artificially and subsequently released into the wild. The technique allows a greater proportion of the young to reach independence, without predation or loss to other natural causes.[1][2][3][4]
For endangered birds and reptiles, eggs are collected from the wild are hatched using an incubator.[1][2] For mammals such as Hawaiian monk seals, the young are removed from their mothers after weaning.[5]
The technique was trialled on land-based mammals for the first time in Australia. In the three years prior to May 2021, young bridled nail-tail wallabies were placed in a fenced-off area of 10-hectare (25-acre) area within Avocet Nature Refuge in Queensland. The population, safe from their main predator, feral cats, more than doubled over this period.[6]
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Toronto Zoo Blanding's Turtle Headstarting Project on YouTube
- Video of Spoon-billed sandpiper chicks at WWT Slimbridge. The Guardian, July 2012.