AVIARY CONSERVATION

In addition to the captive breeding programmes we are involved with, we also support conservation initiatives in the wild. One of these is a project field study and conservation management in Jiangxi Province in South East China for the crticially endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush. This is led by Professor He Fen-qi from the instititue of Zoology in Beijing. We have provided a GPS set so that nest sites and recorded sightings could be pinpointed accurately on a map. In addition we provided recording equipment so that their songs and calls could be recorded and trialed in near by areas in the hope of finding any further populations of this species. We are also supporting a captive breeding programme on Java at Cikananga wildlife rescue centre for the extremely rare Black-and-white Laughingthrush from Sumatra. We bred this species at Waddesdon in 2005 possibly for the first time in the world we captivity. In January 2008 Senior keeper Andrew Owen spent three weeks in Java advising on husbandry techniques, aviary and landscape design, diet and nutrition and the establishment of breeding pairs; we are following this programme closely and are planning on-going support in 2009 and 2010 as part of our conservation programme.