Save the Gouldian Fund

The Gouldian Research Facility and The Save The Gouldian Fund.

Text and photos by Marcus Pollard, Australia

If you have been following the rise of the Save The Gouldian Fund from its foundation in the beautiful AWC’s Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary then you are probably curious as to the work unfolding at the oft-mentioned Gouldian Research Centre in NSW. If so then this is for you!

A wise man once said:
”In order to save the wild Gouldian you need to know everything about the Gouldian.”

This is an attempt to realise just that!

Nestled in the beautiful mountains of Cooranbong in NSW where the calls of the Bellbirds ring out sits the home of Gouldian Fund founder and self-confessed Gouldian lover Mike Fidler. Since deciding to call Australia home some 4 years ago Mike and Elisabeth have set about constructing a number of aviaries and bird rooms the like of which Australia has never seen!

As luck would have it – at least as far as the Gouldian was concerned- a suggestion from the President of the Finch Society of Australia, Doug Hill, that Mike might like to meet Dr Sarah Pryke from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). This meeting of two kindred spirits saw Mike establish a base for Sarah’s and the Universities Gouldian research on his property.

Dr Sarah Pryke (left) - Labo (right)

The Layout:
Much has been written about Mike’s personal aviaries and they have featured in many avicultural magazines but little has been seen of the actual Research Facilities and this is our attempt to redress that oversight!

The first of the two research buildings measures 9 by 11 metres and this is divided into 5 flights.

Each flight is 6m long, 2m wide and ranges from 1.75m in the front up to 3m at the rear in height –one of the reasons for this slope is to facilitate experiments on dominance hierarchies, since the dominant birds will tend to patrol the highest point in the aviary. Each flight also has a series of perches and nest boxes arranged along a vertical gradient (from low to high), again to facilitate dominance-related research.

The results of Dr Prykes primary research on dominance hierarchies among the three head colour morphs of the Gouldian can be accessed at www.savethegouldian.org/science/reds.htm and this represents the first scientific work to be completed at the Research Facility.

Each flight has a100watt infra red lamp suspended from the ceiling, which sits some 35cms from the floor. This idea, which was borrowed from Eelco Meyjes from South Africa, is supplied as a heat source for newly fledged youngsters - and great for any ill birds in the flight too. On frosty mornings it is nothing to see most of the aviary inhabitants arranged under the lamp getting ‘warmed up’ for the days activities!

This section of the centre is being used for continuing research on Gouldian behaviour. This includes finding answers to questions such as are Red heads or Black heads better parents? Why do Red heads dominate the others? Are Read heads more successful when in groups with other Red heads or when they are mixed with Black and Yellow heads? Do Gouldian’s imprint on their parents head type?

These experiments are what Dr Pryke calls her “pure science”, that is research into the reasons why the three different head colour morphs of Gouldian finches coexist together in wild populations.

Without wishing to blind you with science I will give you a very brief and lay-persons view of how all this is achieved!
Each bird in the study has a special transponder attached to its leg ring (each with a unique code) which allows for its individual recognition in the flock.

When nesting each nest box has an antennae and LED which allows for individual birds to be recognised as they enter or leave a particular box and also how long they spend in or out of the box. The transponder tells her ‘who’ and the LED says how often they come and go to and from the nest box!
This research has the potential to offer us much information about the nesting habits of the different colour morphs!

These transponders and antennae are also used for studying flock behaviour, such that, the relative position of each bird wearing a magnetically coded ring is recorded on each perch in the flights. This allows for added information on the fluidicity of the dominance hierarchy in that flock and whether it changes throughout the annual life cycle of the birds.

The second Block in this Facility measures 9.8m long by 5.5m wide and contains 2 rooms of multiple cages and Dr Prykes laboratory.
It is perhaps the research being undertaken in the second of these blocks that is of interest to most of us aviculturists. This is where the nutritional work takes place which aims to contribute towards the development of a “life cycle diet” for the Gouldian Finch.
Dr. Prykes wish is for this research to lead to the development of a cheap, readily available diet based on the best commercially available seeds for the Gouldian over the important periods of stress during its life – namely during maintenance and also through the costly times of breeding and moulting. The results for us as finch breeders of this study is obvious especially as Dr. Pryke’s research will run concurrently with the wild nutritional work being undertaken at the Australian Wildlife Conservancies property at Mornington, Western Australia.
The best of both worlds’!

Again in my bumbling style I shall endeavour to give you a brief low-down on the gist of Dr. Prykes nutritional research.

It is Dr. Pryke’s belief that “most finch diets are based around the availability of seeds rather than the needs of the birds themselves” and who, as an aviculturist, can argue with that statement!

The main aim of the research will be to measure a number of physiological parameters of Gouldian’s as they move through different stages of their annual life cycle. This will identify when the birds are under the most stress – for example during growth, when moulting or breeding for example. Once Dr. Pryke is able to identify how ‘stress’ is manifest in these birds (this work is under way at present) she then aims to determine how their nutritional requirements change accordingly.

By allowing birds to select their own optimal diet of a huge variety of different seeds, she will be able to measure how nutritional needs (e.g. protein, carbohydrate, macro- and micro-nutrients, etc.) change at different stressful times.
Throughout all these tests the birds will also have a series of physiological tests performed on them to regularly check their health – at last a serious attempt to scientifically design a finch diet!

This should allow Dr. Pryke to determine which combination of seeds will provide the best diet for the Gouldian finch, and whether and how this differs during different periods of their life cycle, as well as help us aviculturists provide a balanced diet that will meet the natural stress of the daily life of the Gouldian, with these and our other aviary inhabitants the winners.

The obvious advantage of this research to the wild Gouldians is that it will allow Dr. Pryke to identify the times of physiological stress and possibly identify more of the limiting factors that we may be able to remedy to assist in restoring the Gouldian to its former glory.

Restoring the Wild Gouldian with research and aviculture – let us pray that this is the start of a VERY fruitful relationship!

Keep behind the Save The Gouldian Fund and let us keep you informed and don’t forget to sign up on www.savethegouldian.org as a supporter as soon as possible – every little helps!