Stranger Danger Training for Helmeted Honeyeaters

Picture this; you’re small, feathery, and very protected in your forest haven at Healesville Sanctuary. But you have a big job ahead of you. You are one of 18 Helmeted Honeyeaters that will shortly head into the wilds of Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve to boost the tiny population of your kind.

You are going to need some special training to help you on your life saving mission. The most important of which is stranger danger.

While there are less than 140 Helmeted Honeyeaters in the wild, the number has steadily increased over the past five years thanks to the efforts of the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeaters and staff at Healesville Sanctuary.

One critical step in helping captive born birds survive when they are released into the wild is the need to teach them to recognise and then hide from natural predators such as Goshawks.

Healesville Sanctuary has developed a Predator Avoidance Training Program for the tiny Helmeted Honeyeaters.

The program involves introducing the birds to a real Goshawk from the Healesville Sanctuary bird family and then following a number of steps to help them develop a flight response from the Goshawk. This includes keepers making loud noises and playing the Helmeted Honeyeater alarm call so that the birds will take cover and form a lasting association of danger with a Goshawk appears or when they hear their species alarm call in the wild.

Since the program began in July the survival rate of Helmeted Honeyeaters released into the wild has increased from 45 per cent to 90 per cent.

In celebration of Threatened Species Day on Monday 7 September Zoos Victoria has compiled some footage of this unique program to help save Victoria’s bird emblem, the Helmeted Honeyeater.

Footage can be download from this link: https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/ba08199c05c6a3fc36256c075e71177c20150904061524/0abc06b7f395bc016f20a0955bd9148820150904061524/005d83

It includes:
* Interview with Threatened Species Keeper, Bronwyn McCulloch about the program.
* Overlay of the Helmeted Honeyeaters at the Sanctuary
* Overlay of the Goshawk flying next to the Helmeted Honeyeater aviary
* Helmeted Honeyeaters responding to loud noises and Helmeted Honeyeater alarm call
* Helmeted Honeyeaters being released into Yellingbo.