IN THE WILD
Durrell’s Floreana Mitigation Programme Officer, Roland Digby tells us about his work in the Galápagos to revive Floreana’s fragile ecosystem. Roland’s career began in zoos, specialising in aviculture and then later moving into species recovery focusing on avian reintroduction and translocation. Over the last ten years he has worked on a number of high profile projects including; cirl bunting translocation to the Roseland in Cornwall, the great crane project reintroducing cranes to the Somerset levels, the Madagascar pochard recovery program and black-tailed godwit headstarting on the Ouse Washes. The most notable achievement was developing the protocols for spoon-billed sandpiper headstarting; as this ground breaking project reversed the decline of the species on their main breeding grounds on the south coast of Chukotka, Russia. These techniques have now been adapted for a range of other headstarting projects, inzcluding black-tailed godwits and curlew. Roland has also worked in an advisory capacity for other projects, including a proposed Gouldian finch reintroduction to Far North Queensland and a stint breeding houbara in the Middle East.
H EAD STAR TI NG A conservation technique in which animals are reared in captivity and eventually released into the wild when they reach a certain size.
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