The project leader Žymantas Morkvėnas was invited to present Lithuania’s experience with the translocation of aquatic warblers at the International Species Translocation Conference in Australia on November 13-15th.

“After the presentation, I received a lot of attention from prominent translocation practitioners who were very impressed with the work of our team and the results we have achieved. Many translocations of birds are carried out in a simple manner – adult birds are taken to a new spot, because, for instance, the birds of Australia or New Zealand do not migrate long distances. Many of them live longer.  The situation is quite different for long-distance migrant passerines that live in our latitudes (such as the aquatic warbler). As experts say, the aquatic warblers live a speedy life. They live short lives, have a very short breeding season, and fly a very long distance to their wintering grounds. This leads to extremely high natural mortality. As migrants, translocated warblers also have the additional task of remembering the new place as their home in order to return to it after migration. This is why very young birds, that have not yet had their “geolocation program” activated, are translocated. Raising young birds is particularly difficult. That is why I echoed the experts saying that the team I’m lucky to work with is truly admirable. Their family members, who support them on those difficult translocation expeditions, and often even help themselves, are just as admirable.” – Ž. Morkvėnas.

The conference is organised by IUCN, one of the world’s most renowned conservation organisations, whose standards are used for all animal translocations worldwide. Conference programme.