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[title]Zoos are a great place to learn about your favourite wild critters, but they also play a critical role in species conservation. And while you likely already know that every zoo has a team of zookeepers caring for the animals, did you know that Zoos Victoria also employs threatened species keepers? These keepers, who are based at Werribee Open Range Zoo, Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary, assist with Zoos Victoria's massive captive breeding and recovery efforts.
The program oversees 27 threatened native species, and it's the most extensive of its kind in Australia. Last year, it helped to achieve a major milestone when the Eastern barred bandicoot, which was classified as extinct in the wild, was reclassified as endangered. Now, the team has primarily directed its efforts towards two bird species in dire need of assistance: the orange-bellied parrot, with 140 remaining in the wild, and the plains-wanderer, with between 250 to 1000 remaining in the wild.
To learn more about the job and the efforts to save these birds, we picked the brain of Yvette Pauligk, the life sciences manager and threatened species keeper of the natives team at Werribee.
What does a typical day in the threatened species keeper role entail?
"We’re very hands-on in our day-to-day, and for a lot of our threatened species, we have off-display captive breeding programs. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes, including a lot of food prep, monitoring and observation. And if it’s breeding season, you have to do even more observation to see what’s going on and how they’re responding to one another. The other side of all this is the work happening out on the field, like assisting with planning releases."
With nearly 1,700 threatened native species in Australia, how does the Zoo decide which ones to prioritise?
"There are so many species around Australia that need our help, and to take on all of them would just be biting off more than you can chew. Our list started really small and it’s slowly built up to 27 as we take on more and more species. It’s based on which species are found in Victoria as well as the urgency around who needs our help. And we try to set them up with a timeframe; we don't want them to be ongoing, as our objective is to help the species get to a good level."
How does your team decide if an animal is ready to be released?
"There are three really important elements to consider before we can release a bird back out into the wild. The studbook keeper for the species looks at the genetics of the birds and makes sure that we still have some represented in captivity. This helps us continue to breed and make sure that we’re releasing genetically suitable birds to go back out into the wild.
The next step is making sure that they’re healthy and they’re medically fit, so the veterinary department needs to give them the tick of approval that they’re healthy to go out. Then it’s also really important for our keepers to monitor the behaviour of the birds to make sure that the behavioural ethogram and the behaviours they’re displaying match the wild behaviour."
What stage are we in with the orange-bellied parrot and plains-wanderer projects?
"For the plains-wanderer, we only just started doing some trial releases last year and we ended up releasing a total of 16 into the northern plains of Victoria. It's very exciting, but this is very much in its trial stage. We're not at the level yet where we're expecting those numbers to make a massive influence in the field.
The orange-bellied parrot program has been running for longer than the plains-wanderer program, but in saying that, the parrot is not in a great position. At one stage a few years ago, there were less than 50 left in the wild. We have a very large free-flight aviary because we were finding previously that the birds weren’t fit enough for their journeys between Tasmania and Victoria. One important role the zoo plays is stepping in to help build their fitness and strength to ensure they’re prepared to make that really long flight."
What is it like to plan for species conservation with climate change as a variable?
"Climate change is happening, and we are seeing that out in the field. Back in 2010 to 2011, there were massive floods up in the Northern Plains, and that was one of the main triggers that led to the sudden crash in the plains-wanderer population and resulted in the instigation of the recovery program. Climate change is also a massive influence on shifts in behaviours and shifts in the distribution of different species, and it can make things really difficult."
What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of your role?
"We don’t know a lot about these species, and the community doesn’t know a lot about them either. So we have a lot of really important community conservation programs to try to get people to fall in love with these animals in our backyard, but the fact is that we’re still learning about them while trying to teach people. It can be a challenge at times but it’s an absolutely essential part of any conservation program.
On the flip side, no one has seen half of the behaviours [of these species] and we’re learning about them and discovering them. I remember the first time we released a bird back into the wild that was captive bred; we’d seen him grow up since he was a little chick, with his dad raising him and then watching him finally get released into the wild. That moment was just absolutely magical, one of the best moments in my career."
Wondering how you can do your part? Proceeds from a visit to Werribee Open Range Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Melbourne Zoo go towards these extinction programs, so book a ticket through the Zoos Victoria website.