Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!edcogsci!kimba
From: kimba@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Michael Newton)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re-introduction ( was Re: Importing parrots ...)
Message-ID: <6276@scott.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 20 Jun 91 13:21:42 GMT
References: <285D20D1.4189@intercon.com> <1991Jun18.090020.24510@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
Lines: 37

rim@csadfa.cs.adfa.oz.au (Bob McKay) writes:
> This won't work, at least with cockatoos. ... Released birds don't have the
> learned background to survive ......

There are definitely counter-examples to this. I know of a number of
released sulphur-crested cockatoos which have adapted to the wild. One at
least has lasted ~10 years. There were no wild cockatoos in the area so the
individual was easy to keep track off. I don't know if any of these
released birds were captive-born but its likely at least some were.

I'm not sure where this discussion started but his my tuppence worth.
In general re-introducing captive-bred animals is very difficult but
in most cases given sufficent resources and good people its possible.
Its certainly not just a matter of setting the animals free.

Cockatoos are a poor example because they suffur little predation.
Poor predator-avoidance is a big problem with caoptive bred animals.
I believe this caused recent re-introductions of Thick-Billed Parrots to
fail. Cross-species fostering is one way to avoid this problem. The NZ
conservation people used this to good effect to bring the Chatham Island
Robin back from the brink.

A New Scientist a year or two ago documented a number of other failures
and claimed (I think) only 15% of re-introduction attempts have succeeded.
The lessons learnt will hopefully produce better results in the future.

My opinion is re-introduction is usually more difficult than captive breeding
and usually more difficult than either is removing the factors which
endangered the species.

Andrew Taylor - using a borrowed account while in Edinburgh - don't mail it

P.S I'm taking the long way to Africa. My 2 US stopovers, SF and NY, were both
good - no life birds but its was good to see alcids, hummingbirds,
New-World "vultures" again. Saw a couple of (locally) uncommon birds around
Butler Sanctuary just outside NY - Red-Shouldered Hawk, Osprey,
Red-Breasted Nuthatch, Kentucky and Hooded Warblers, Least Flycatcher (heard).