On Saturday 15th August, volunteers from Taronga joined Birdlife Australia to plant over 3000 trees in the Capertee Valley to help create more bushland for the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater.

Taronga sent 50 staff, volunteers and Youth At The Zoo (YATZ) members from both Taronga and Taronga Western Plains Zoos.

The weather was beautiful, however the hard clay soil made planting much harder than at previous years, so the large number of participants made it possible to have both the planting and watering completed in the one day.

A total of around 3000 saplings were planted on the day, bringing the total number of trees planted since the project began in 1993 to over 118,000.

Since the 6th August, a total of 31 birds have been counted in the valley, which is an increase on last year’s sightings of Regent Honeyeaters. There are positive signs that the plantings are helping boost numbers with 2 pairs spotted near a previously planted site and one pair using the newly planted area for gathering nesting material.  Along with Regent Honeyeaters, a number of other threatened and declining woodland bird species have also been recorded on recent surveys of previous planting sites.

Taronga is proud to be a part of in situ projects actively working towards the conservation of endangered species in the wild.

More pictures from the day can be found at the link below.

-Contributions from Kerry Staker and Rod Cheal, Taronga Education