Victorians & Tasmanians: Call for Gouldian finch feathers

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PeriFinch
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Posts: 8
Joined: 12 Jul 2016, 10:02
Location: Sydney

Dear Victorian & Tasmanian finch enthusiasts,

I am a PhD candidate and Research Associate at Macquarie University, working with Professor Simon Griffith. We are looking for feathers from Gouldian finches from across Australia to do some genetics work. The idea of the project is that finch keepers across the country contribute a couple of feathers from their birds. If you breed hundreds or have just a few, the feathers could be useful for this project.

So far, we have had overwhelmingly positive reactions from NSW, SA and WA and feathers are coming in. However, we are yet to establish many links in Victoria and Tasmania, and we would really love to have some feathers donated from these regions. This would make our dataset much more complete, and enable us to get a handle on where the genetic diversity in captive birds is in Australian avicultural collections of Gouldian finches.

Please comment below or email me if you have any questions, or think that you can contribute but later in the year. Getting information on when sampling is ideal and convenient for keepers is important.

See below for more information on the project and visit our website.
This project seeks to identify individuals or populations better suited to reintroduction to the wild by assessing the genetic diversity of captive stocks relative to the wild. We are also interested in basic questions about genetic changes that occur due to domestication and common avicultural practices. This is part of a larger project that is exploring genetic changes through time. We are comparing samples from museums from 100 years ago, contemporary wild birds, and contemporary captive birds. Preliminary work has found that there are genetic differences between wild and captive populations, as well as genetic differences between red head and black head morph domesticated birds, and we are interested in exploring this further with a comprehensive dataset.

Macquarie University will provide you with an information kit, feather sample envelopes and return postage.

For more information please visit http://www.domesticgouldians.weebly.com, or call Peri within business hours AEST (02) 9850 1304, or email [email protected]
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