Australian zoo breeds rare plains-wanderer by replacing absent father with feather duster

Captive population of critically endangered bird doubles with the birth of nine chicks

Calla Wahlquist

Mon 25 Mar 2019 05.48 GMTLast modified on Mon 25 Mar 2019 16.44 GMT

The captive population of Australia’s most unique critically endangered bird has doubled with the birth of nine plains-wanderer chicks, helped out by a feather duster, a heat lamp and a lot of cotton wool.

The chicks were born to two pairs and hatched within 24 hours of each other at Werribee open range zoo in Victoria last week.

Within four days, the zoo director Glen Holland said, the chicks were eating crickets “the size of beans” and zooming around their enclosure “like bumblebees”.

“Once they are hatched and warm and dry they run off and fend for themselves – they are very independent,” Holland said.

One of the clutches was hatched in an incubator and raised under the paternal care of a feather duster after one of the fathers, a four-month-old who was daunted at raising his first chicks, stopped sitting on them.

Like emus, male plains-wanderers bear responsibility for child rearing and stay with the chicks, while the female can move on to another mate soon after laying her eggs.

“They have been snuggling up to the feather duster, pushing up into the feathers,” Holland said.

Continued

Australia’s rarest bird on menu for wedged-tailed eagle

19 March 2019

A successful rabbit cull two decades ago has had unforeseen consequences, with a study finding wedge-tailed eagles are now preying on one of Australia’s rarest birds.

The University of Queensland research found that more native species, including the critically-endangered plains-wanderer, were now being taken by wedge-tailed eagles.

UQ School of Biological Sciences PhD candidate Graham Fulton said the change in diet occurred when a radical approach was taken to reduce out-of-control rabbit populations.

“The rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus or RHDV – a virus that only harms rabbits – was introduced into western New South Wales in 1996 and 1997,” he said.

“In terms of reducing rabbit numbers, it was hugely successful, in some areas killing up to 90 per cent of rabbit populations.

“What was probably not recognised at the time, was that rabbits were between 56 and 69 per cent of the wedge-tailed eagle’s diet, so after the cull their diet had to change.

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Australia's 'most important bird' takes a step back from extinction

by Joe Hinchliffe

20 November 2018 — 12:01am

Australia's "most important bird" – and one whose conservation some scientists consider the most urgent of any  bird in the world – has just taken a significant step back from the brink of extinction.

The critically endangered plains-wanderer once roamed the grasslands surrounding Melbourne.

So it is fitting that on these volcanic plains, for the first time in Victoria,  the bird has been bred in captivity.

It can be revealed that on November 4 four healthy plains-wanderer chicks hatched at the Werribee Open Range Zoo. Their names: Quagmire, Jane, Ramble and Clinton.

The plains-wanderer is found only in south-eastern Australia and is ranked No. 1 in the world on the Zoological Society of London's Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered bird list.

With fewer than 1000 mature plains-wanderers left in the wild and a population in decline, these four fluffy little bundles represent a milestone in the fight to stop the species dying out.

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Critically endangered bird likened to Mr Bean could be mounting a comeback

Date June 13, 2016

Darren Gray

It's a critically endangered native bird that's been likened to the character Mr Bean, because of its looks and somewhat awkward manner.

But while the clumsy Mr Bean has a high profile in both film and TV, the Plains-wanderer has had such a low profile in recent years that researchers have been worried about its future.

But after a number of difficult years after floods hit northern Victoria, hopes have been raised that the Plains-wanderer, one of the nation's most critically endangered birds, is bouncing back.

During survey work in the native grasslands of the Terrick Terrick National Park near Bendigo last month, researchers and volunteers found seven birds in one night. According to Parks Victoria, it is the biggest number of birds detected in a single survey for several years.

"In a sea of discouraging news on conservation issues and battles, it's very encouraging to find wherever a trend is turning the other way," said chief conservation scientist for Parks Victoria, Mark Norman.

"They're kind of like the Mister Bean of the endangered birds. They're strange looking awkward birds that live in strange and difficult habitats. And they don't have an easy time, particularly with invasion of weeds and land management practices and changing climates," he said.

"(They're) special creatures that are part of the unique Ark that Australia is, in terms of the animals that have evolved here," he said.

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