Date: March 7, 2019
Source: University of Kent
A team
led by a conservation biologist from the University of Kent has successfully
re-located threatened Seychelles paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone corvina) to
a different island to help prevent their extinction.
Four
females and two males were caught on Denis Island and taken to Curieuse Island,
where they joined 11 males and nine females who were moved there from La Digue
Island at the end of last year. Four weeks after that release, the first birds
had nested, with the first chick recently fledged.
The
project was led by Jim Groombridge, Professor of Biodiversity Conservation and
Head of Kent's School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC). Dr Rachel
Bristol, who completed her PhD at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology
(DICE) in SAC managed the project in partnership with the Seychelles National
Parks Authority. The project was financed by the UK Government's Darwin
Initiative.
The move
required the team to:
catch the
birds using mist nets
delicately
mark their tails so they are individually identifiable until their next moult
take
blood samples
put them
in transfer boxes (recycled cardboard boxes- modified to ensure air and with a
branch placed inside for the birds to perch on)
transfer
them by plane to Praslin, then by boat trip to Curieuse
give them
rehydration and energy fluid
before
releasing them from the hand
The
Seychelles paradise flycatcher is currently 'Critically Endangered' on the
International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN red list of endangered
species and conservationists hope that successfully establishing this
additional population on Curieuse Island could mean they are down-listed to a
less endangered category.
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