Biology: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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Alberts, Allison; Lemm, Jeffrey; Grant, Tandora; Jackintell, Lori (2004). "Testing the Utility of Headstarting as a Conservation Strategy for West Indian Iguanas". Iguanas: Biology and Conservation. University of California Press. pp. 210. ISBN 978-0-520-23854-1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Blanding's Turtle Headstart Reintroduction". http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/urbanturtleinitiative.asp.
- ↑ Perez-Buitrago, Nestor (2005), "Successful Release of Head Start Mona Island Iguanas", Iguana Specialist Group Newsletter 8 (1): 6, archived from the original on 2007-08-12, https://web.archive.org/web/20070812112504/http://www.iucn-isg.org/newsletters/pdf/ISG_Bklt_8%281%29.pdf
- ↑ Pitches, Adrian (March 2018). "Headstarted Godwits relocate to Portugal". British Birds 111 (3): 128-129.
- ↑ Gerrodette, Tim; Gilmartin William G (1980). "Demographic consequences of changed pupping and hauling sites of the Hawaiian monk seal". Conservation Biology 4 (4): 423–430. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.1990.tb00317.x. https://zenodo.org/record/1230657/files/article.pdf.
- ↑ Jurss-Lewis, Tobias (25 May 2021). "Hope for wallabies so endangered they were thought to be extinct". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-25/wallabies-saved/100160612.
External links
- Video of Spoon-billed sandpiper chicks at WWT Slimbridge. The Guardian , July 2012.
 |  |
