Breeding Regent Honeyeaters for Release

Up to 30% of regent honeyeater habitat was affected during the 2019-2020 bushfires, compounded by severe drought. Regent honeyeaters are Critically Endangered, and without further intervention they may go extinct within the next 20 years.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo (TWPZ) has recently established a captive breeding population of regent honeyeaters, boosting the insurance population and enabling larger releases to supplement the wild population. This expansion was initially funded by State and Federal Biodiversity offsets.

ZAA WCF funding enabled the ongoing operations, maintenance and husbandry needed for the Taronga Western Plains Zoo honeyeater program in the 2022-23 period. Key successes during this time included:

• 25 birds from Taronga Western Plains Zoo were released in the Lower Hunter region of NSW
• Thirty-eight chicks hatched at the facility and 16 in Taronga Zoo Sydney, representing about 80% of all successful hatchings that year
• Song tutoring trials began at both Taronga Zoo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo to improve fitness and breeding success in released birds

The support from ZAA WCF helped to deliver key actions under the Regent Honeyeater National Recovery Plan. Since 2020, over 130 regent honeyeaters have been released in the core existing habitat. Taronga continues to update the program with monitoring and research of fitness and increasing breeding success of birds in the wild.