Bendigo Box-Ironbark Region

Transcription

We're in region central. This is Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park and we're here at this time of the year, just into autumn, because this forest at this time of the year flowers and that's the key resource for winter-autumn flowering species of ironbark and white box and that's when Regent Honeyeaters are best suited for this country. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the country in which we meet and pay our respects to... So the program we've got running here is a part of the national Regent Honeyeater recovery effort, but this part is a captive release program that forms part of our ongoing recovery work for the species and we're releasing birds back into Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park to try and help stabilise the population in the wild. It's the the fourth and the largest release of captive bred Regent Honeyeaters and it's principally to help keep a critical mass and build a viable population base for a sustainable future for the species. They are a species which is critically endangered, which on the scale of how threatened something is, it's one step from being extinct in the wild. Leading up to the release is quite involved. We sit with people and work out what is best pairing firstly. We try and improve the genetic diversity of the birds that we release and of course the birds that we keep back in captivity. It's really two years in the planning to get a release like this happening, so as soon as this release finishes, Taronga will start planning for the next release. Whilst these birds aren't too difficult to breed, they're not the easiest, you have to know the specifics about the species and you have to be willing to put the extra effort in. So the birds came down from Taronga Zoo two days ago. We had about half of them that we fitted with transmitters. We give them a day in the tent to get acclimatised to the local environment. We provide them some food, so we take some blossom out of the trees and put them in the tents, to get them used to what they're going to be feeding and then this morning we open the tents and we let the birds go. It's an enormous amount of work that goes into a release like this and when the birds come out of the tent. It's a real wave emotions that's relief and excitement all packaged together. Today is just the pinnacle and funnily enough it's only the start. It means it signals the commencement of a longer term monitoring program. We are going to have a really intensive three-month period, but hopefully we see these birds in the environment for the next ten to twelve years. It's an amazing feeling being able to come here and let the birds go this morning. We open up the tents and half a dozen of them flooded out almost straight away. Just seeing the black and yellow shoot through the forest in contrast with the green landing in the trees nearby and then taking off, you almost get the butterfly feeling in your tummy.