Scope for genetic rescue of an endangered subspecies though re-establishing natural gene flow with another subspecies

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0776322), the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI), Museum of Victoria, Parks Victoria, North Central Catchment Management Authority, Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment, Birds Australia, the Merrin Foundation, Zoos Victoria. BQ and PM were funded by the Victorian Government. Blood samples were collected under DEPI permits (RP-89-159, 10000073, 10000197, 10004802 and 10004294 under the Wildlife Act 1975 and the National Parks Act 1975, and NWF10455 under section 52 of the Forest Act 1958) and approval of animal ethics committees of DEPI (98/004), Monash University (BSCI/2007/07) and Zoos Victoria (ZV08016). Computationally intensive analyses were run on the Monash Computing Cluster courtesy of Monash eResearch. We thank Leo Joseph and the Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC) for provision of tissue samples; Robert Palmer, Karina Cartwright and Emma Campbell for curatorial assistance; and Jian Yen for comments on earlier drafts and assistance with preparation of figures. Finally, we thank the vast number of volunteers, including members of Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, for assistance provided to the banding and DNA-sampling programme.