Orange Cheeked Waxbills

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fastfreddy
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Joined: 20 Feb 2014, 08:35
Location: Sydney

Hi All.
Given the imminent demise of Peters and Dybowski's Twinspots, Violet Eared and Purple Gren. Waxbills (and a number of other tenuously kept species) in Australian Aviculture, what hope for the delightful little Orange Cheeked Waxbill?
They too, (like Peters) have been brought back from the brink by a tiny number of dedicated soles employing a small gene pool of birds.
The short Generational period of finches exaggerates the narrowing of blood lines which eventually results in the situation which currently exists for Dybowski's etc.
Any thoughts?
FF
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finchbreeder
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Location: Midwest of West.Aust.Coast

Fingers crossed for the success of those wonderful people who are working with any and all of these species.
LML
LML
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TomDeGraaff
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We all live in hope that "imminent demise" does not eventuate! :(
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Tiaris
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The first 3 of those species are already as good as gone. The last 2 are still breeding ok for a few (very few) breeders, but yes in the medium term any species with such a narrow genetic base is likely to fade away. Senegals are another going the same way. The one relatively recent exception to this has been the Tri-coloured Parrotfinch - started from a small gene pool but absolutely blossomed in population ever since. Maybe island-species have a more resilient genetic capacity compared to continental species??
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TomDeGraaff
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If you look at many of the species successful in captivity, especially in the early years, they were largely island species or those that experienced great drops in population seasonally. These species have a certain amount of "genetic toughness" in that the gene pool when reduced by numbers, seems to have been "cleansed" of many deleterious genes.
Animals that keep large, stable populations do not go through that "genetic filtering" when populations either collapse or are stuck on an island. Hence, many think the passenger pigeon was doomed without intervention when it still totaled thousands.
:)
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finchbreeder
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Seems logical that the smaller the genetic pool the stronger the genetics for survival must be. (Live long and prosper to quote a logical being)
LML
LML
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Loz_82
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Joined: 26 Oct 2011, 14:45
Location: Perth, WA

Yeah its a real shame that the rarer species seem to go through little increases at times and then end up back to square one again with fewer birds and less genetic diversity.

It just goes to show that every species is at risk in australian aviculture and that we shouldn't take any for granted as they can can disappear with a blink of an eye.

Fingers crossed that not too many more will go down this path like the Violet eared Waxbill & Dybowski's Twinspot.
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firetail555
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Joined: 26 Oct 2012, 13:24
Location: Botanic ridge Vic

With the rare species, I think that the major problem is that 1 or 2 breeders do well with them, but once they start to filter into the system, there is no records kept of who has what and the genetic records fall apart. It is also easier to keep a species going if a breeder has a number of pairs of them rather than one pair. A lot of good genetic material gets lost when someone buys a single pair and loses one bird, they then lose interest as they cant get a mate and the odd bird just sits around until it too dies.

As a "community" our hobbyists can be very selfish and not help each other out with outcrosses or by putting 2 individuals together to form a potential breeding pair.
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roma9009
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Your right Firetail555.
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finchbreeder
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There are also some very generous individuals out there who jump in and share, their "limited stock" birds at the first and any oppertunity.
LML
LML
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