Headstarting is a conservation technique for endangered species, in which young animals are raised artificially and subsequently released into the wild. The technique allows a greater proportion of the young to reach independence, without predation or loss to other natural causes.[1][2][3][4]

For endangered birds and reptiles, eggs are collected from the wild are hatched using an incubator.[1][2] For mammals such as Hawaiian monk seals, the young are removed from their mothers after weaning.[5]

The technique was trialled on land-based mammals for the first time in Australia. In the three years prior to May 2021, young bridled nail-tail wallabies were placed in a fenced-off area of 10-hectare (25-acre) area within Avocet Nature Refuge in Queensland. The population, safe from their main predator, feral cats, more than doubled over this period.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Alberts, Allison; Lemm, Jeffrey; Grant, Tandora; Jackintell, Lori (2004). "Testing the Utility of Headstarting as a Conservation Strategy for West Indian Iguanas". Iguanas: Biology and Conservation. University of California Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-520-23854-1.
  2. ^ a b "Blanding's Turtle Headstart Reintroduction".
  3. ^ Perez-Buitrago, Nestor (2005), "Successful Release of Head Start Mona Island Iguanas" (PDF), Iguana Specialist Group Newsletter, 8 (1): 6, archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-08-12
  4. ^ Pitches, Adrian (March 2018). "Headstarted Godwits relocate to Portugal". British Birds. 111 (3): 128–129.
  5. ^ Gerrodette, Tim; Gilmartin William G (1980). "Demographic consequences of changed pupping and hauling sites of the Hawaiian monk seal" (PDF). Conservation Biology. 4 (4): 423–430. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.1990.tb00317.x. JSTOR 2385936.
  6. ^ Jurss-Lewis, Tobias (25 May 2021). "Hope for wallabies so endangered they were thought to be extinct". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 May 2021.

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