FEATURE
trees in Australia set the scene for the day, and showed the audience just what could be done out in the field, with a simple idea, limited manpower, and some basic equipment. Eric Peake then took to the stage to introduce a prestigious international selection of speakers for the rest of the day. First up were two keepers from our hosts, Chester Zoo, presenting some of the conservation projects with which the Zoo has been involved. Anne Morris, lead keeper on the parrot section, started with a talk about some of their earliest fieldwork in the late 1980s and into the 1990s to hand rear and release Echo Parakeets (Psittacula eques). Anne described how habitat destruction had brought this species to the brink of extinction, with a mere 20 or so individuals left in the wild in the 1980s. These parakeets were initially provided with nest boxes in the remaining forest, and later individuals were brought into
A Anne Morris
s reported in the 44th edition of Bird Scene Ray Ackroyd’s film about the protective collaring of
purpose-built aviaries to aid breeding. Eggs were taken for incubating, or young chicks were taken for hand rearing, into a purpose-built unit, with strict hygiene control. All chicks were weighed regularly, and fed by tube and syringe. All were checked for external parasites – a common cause of chick morbidity in wild parakeets – and initially fed individually. As they grew and fledged, they were grouped together in crèche fashion to avoid imprinting on humans, before ultimately moving to an outside flight where they could see others of their own kind. Here they were still monitored by attaching small bowls of feed to weighing scales. The birds would land on the cups to feed, simultaneously registering their weight as they did so. The final stage was a soft-release aviary with feeding stations to which the chicks could return while they gradually explored the big wide world. Native plants were grown in the aviaries, or the birds’ natural food berries and fruits were ‘spiked’ in their flights, so that they would learn about ideal food sources.
BIRD SCENE 11
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