00:00When it comes to flying the nest, everyone goes at their own pace.
00:08And then there's Ernie the Eagle.
00:10We have other birds that are travelling 8,000 kilometres in a year, or even 200 kilometres
00:16in a day, and Ernie just stayed on Maraira Island.
00:19Since 2017, a team of researchers from the University of Tasmania has been using GPS
00:25tracking to monitor the behaviours of 25 wedgies, starting shortly after their birth.
00:31Previously it was thought that the birds left their parents' territory about five months
00:36after fledging.
00:37Turns out it's much longer than that, normally around a year.
00:40But a bird dubbed Ernie, who was born on Maraira Island, took that to another level.
00:46He stayed in his parents' territory for more than 19 months, and then on Maraira for
00:51another two and a half years.
00:54Researchers think there's a pretty key factor coming into play here.
00:57Ernie is the only bird in the study born on Maraira Island, and the only bird that had
01:01to cross a large body of water to fly the coop, which they don't like to do.
01:07So that four to five kilometre gap between Maraira Island and mainland Tasmania was a
01:11bit daunting for him probably.
01:12The team says the research isn't about shaming Ernie for being a homebody.
01:17They say the study's insights are crucial in helping protect the endangered species.
01:22They've got a number of different threats that they're subject to, so a lot of our work
01:26here at UTAS is studying their flight behaviour so that we can predict where they're likely
01:31to go and then come up with ideas to try and mitigate these causes of death.
01:37Ernie, now six years old, is currently stretching his wings on the Tasman Peninsula.
01:42But since his maiden voyage, he's returned to Maraira Island three times, proving there's
01:48no place like home.
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