Inbreeding crisis: hybrid helmeted honeyeaters introduced into wild to stop species dying out

Only 230 of the sub-species remain in the wild, a population that will become unsustainable without interbreeding

" The Guardian Australia/Birdlife Australia bird of the year poll will return in October

Researchers have introduced three dozen hybrid helmeted honeyeaters into the wild in an attempt to prevent the critically endangered bird from dying out because of inbreeding.

On Friday, the juvenile birds were released into the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, which holds the only wild population of critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters, in an unusual attempt at genetic species rescue.