Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo to start regent honeyeaters breeding program

DECEMBER 1 2019 - 4:30PM

Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo will play a key role in efforts to save one of Australia's most endangered birds.

Regent honeyeaters have moved into purpose-built habitat this week, raising hopes for the future of the species.

The zoo has started a conservation breeding program for the critically endangered species, to expand on two decades of recovery efforts by Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

In a milestone for the project, four pairs of regent honeyeaters moved into their new digs at Dubbo.

Zoo team members told of the expanded program being crucial to securing a future for the species.

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Back from extinction: The Mallee emu wren makes a comeback in South Australia

ABC Riverland 

By Sowaibah Hanifie

Posted Sun at 5:43am

After a series of catastrophic wildfires in 2014, the Mallee emu wren became extinct in South Australia, but the birds are making a comeback in the state with the help of environmentalists.

When the tiny bird — weighing only as much as a 10 cent piece — could no longer be found in SA, there were still numbers that existed in parts of Victoria's north-west, but they were listed as endangered.

In one of the three national parks where they remained, Victoria's Wyperfeld National Park, their numbers were only in the hundreds.

Researchers were concerned a severe bushfire season would threaten the remaining population.

Numerous organisations in South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, together with the support of the South Australian Government, devised a breeding program over four years to boost the birds' numbers.

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