A plains-wanderer gets health check in Sydney, Australia, on March 15, 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Jones/Handout via Xinhua)
SYDNEY, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has begun reintroducing one of the state's critically endangered animals, the ground-dwelling plains-wanderer bird.
Environment NSW on Monday revealed that the first batch of 10 plains-wanderers had been released onto private farmland in rural NSW.
After being bred in hatcheries in zoos across Sydney, the birds were driven 720 km to Hay, a small town in central NSW.
NSW Environment Minister James Griffin said the program represented an important step in gradually rebuilding the species' wild population, which have dwindled below 1,000 due to severe drought, habitat loss and predation from wild foxes.
"We're working in partnership with private landholders to restore their habitat and protect it so plains-wanderers can thrive," said Griffin.
As the breeding programs at Taronga Western Plains Zoo and Taronga Zoo Sydney scale up, which currently house over 40 of the birds, more drops are to be made over 2022. ■
A plains-wanderer gets health check in Sydney, Australia, on March 17, 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Jones/Handout via Xinhua)
A plains-wanderer is seen in the wild in central New South Wales, Australia, on March 19, 2022. (Photo by Alex Pike/Handout via Xinhua)
A plains-wanderer is released into the wild in central New South Wales, Australia, on March 18, 2022. (Photo by Alex Pike/Handout via Xinhua)
