by

Percy Holland H346

Last year the R.A.D.S. programme was put on hold while a new approach was considered and the A.F.S. Council accepted the guidelines which Dr. Stewart Evans and Andy Birchenough had formulated and published in the Grassfinch , August 1998.

To remind you the guidelines were:-

We need a simpler breeding programme, in which most, if not all AFS members will want to be involved.

1 The main long-term objective of RADS is to contribute to conservation by maintaining strains of Australian grassfinches, parrot finches and any other species which come under the mandate of the AFS, which are as much like their wild relatives as possible (e.g. size, shape and coloration).

2 The new Scheme will be a much simpler one in which all members can participate.

3.Detailed (computerised) records will no longer be kept. Instead, we shall under-take regular censuses of birds kept by AFS members. In this way we shall be able to identify the current status of different species and problems, such as species becoming neglected, the spread of mutations in them etc.

4 RADS groups will continue but they will he much less formal than before. Each will consist of like-minded aviculturists who wish to promote the culture of one particular species, and will use the group to exchange knowledge, birds etc.

5.We shall undertake an educational campaign stressing good avicultural practice, and emphasising the need to keep strains of wild-type (i.e. normal) birds which are, as far as possible, free of the colour mutations which have arisen in captivity. Keeping and breeding birds for show purposes will be perfectly acceptable (including domestic mutations) but the standard for the normal will be the healthy wild bird (i.e. that found in nature).

6.We shall encourage AFS members to take part in field studies. AFS Council was initially pessimistic about the possibility of AFS members contributing to field studies because of the costs involved. However, recent reactions of members have been more positive. As a result, Mike and Elisabeth Fidler are organising a survey in northern Australia in 1999,and Newcastle University is also exploring the possibility of using volunteers to assist in surveys.

These guidelines translated into practical terms are thus:-

If you want to start a breeding group, then collect together a group of A.F.S. members who may -live within travelling distance and are interested in a particular species and form your group. If the bird species in which you are interested is fairly rare then obviously it may be impractical to live within travelling distance then it may be necessary to cover a nationwide geographical area. Your contact then is likely to be by telephone or even the internet.

You would be advised to have one member who will maintain regular communication with the whole group and who will maintain contact with the Grassfinch through me. It will probably be necessary to hold a group stud book if your species is a rare group. Rare is likely to be Painted Finches and Yellow Rumps, Peales and Mt.Katanglads. Unlike the old RADS scheme, purchases, sales and exchanges remain your choice and you decide the manner in which you carry out these functions. The Grassfinch will continue to communicate and advertise for you, FREE of charge.

To be successful you will need to communicate with each other regularly and the sort of scheme proposed by Bob Bradbury in the last edition has considerable promise. Other members have expressed an interest in forming groups and as they come forward I will publish names and telephone numbers of the communicator ( with their permission ) in Grassfinch. Finally groups can represent any birds in our mandate, groups can be duplicated i.e. similar groups representing normal Gouldians can exist in various parts of the country. May I stress that members of groups should keep records of your birds with some care so that as far as possible we retain the maximum genetic diversity.

Finally I am proposing that as we still have the RADS ideals at the base of this programme that the programme, is called RADS PLUS.