Regents Flown the Coop

Regents Flown the Coop

Just this week we heard news that a third zoo-bred Regent Honeyeaters has been spotted alive and well following another sighting in early June by a land-holder at Holbrook NSW.It’s now over 15 months since we released these almost-extinct birds back to their Ironbark Forest habitat at


Chiltern, in Victoria, as part of the


recovery program. The second bird had flown over 100


kilometres to Holbrook while the other two are still being recorded in Chiltern.



This is excellent news for us Bird Keepers as so much


effort, both physical and emotional, has gone in to this conservation breeding


program.



When the program started many years ago, we were just


hopeful that we’d be able to keep them in the Zoo to learn more about them, but


then we were successfully able to breed them and the program has evolved again so we can release them back into the wild.



It’s gone from


strength-to-strength as these two sightings now show us that we have the


potential to breed them here at Taronga Zoo and return


these wild-caught-ancestors to boost wild populations.



A team of us at the Zoo also worked really hard to restore


habitat for the Regent too. It will be a good 20 plus years before these trees


will be mature enough to provide blossom for the Regents, and you have moments of doubt where you wonder if they’ll still be around then to make use of this


future habitat, but these sightings really are proof that we are making a


difference!



- Michael, Bird Keeper