Headstarting
Conservation technique for endangered species / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Headstarting is a conservation technique for endangered species, in which young animals are raised artificially and subsequently released into the wild. The technique allows a greater proportion of the young to reach independence, without predation or loss to other natural causes.[1][2][3][4]
For endangered birds and reptiles, eggs are collected from the wild are hatched using an incubator.[1][2] For mammals such as Hawaiian monk seals, the young are removed from their mothers after weaning.[5]
The technique was trialled on land-based mammals for the first time in Australia. In the three years prior to May 2021, young bridled nail-tail wallabies were placed in a fenced-off area of 10-hectare (25-acre) area within Avocet Nature Refuge in Queensland. The population, safe from their main predator, feral cats, more than doubled over this period.[6]