Poached: could a video of tree-climbing egg thieves help save Australia’s vulnerable honeyeaters?

Fewer than 250 regent honeyeaters are likely left in the wild. New research provides a vital clue in the efforts to save the critically endangered Australian bird. Photograph: Ken Griffiths/Alamy

Captured on one of Bianca McBryde’s tree-mounted cameras, the brush-tailed possum crawls into the frame, lowers its head into the nest and bites into the egg.

The snack was a shop-bought quail’s egg and the nest was artificial – a crafty construction made of half a tennis ball, some brown paint and fibres from the husks of coconuts.