No flight of fancy, this rare bird needs to be caught to survive

ONE of the world's rarest birds is now almost reduced to a rumour. There are only 36 orange-bellied parrots known to be alive in the wild. The situation has become so critical that if numbers drop further, the survivors will be rounded up and put into captivity by members of a national recovery team trying to save the species from extinction.

The team - a large group of scientists and volunteers based in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia - is about to release its new action plan, which includes this radical step of removing all the parrots from the wild if necessary.

''It's an option of last resort,'' says Peter Menkhorst, a zoologist with the Arthur Rylah Institute. ''But we won't hesitate.''

Central to the new plan is a delicate juggling act involving taking birds out of the wild to support the 20-year-old captive breeding program. The program was failing due to inbreeding until scientists made the ''radical'' decision two years ago to capture just under half the then known wild population of 50 birds and put them into the program.

There are now 208 birds in the program - and it's anticipated that a small number of parrots will be released for this summer's breeding season in Tasmania.

''We won't be releasing lots of birds at this stage, because we still need to build up the genetic bank - and we need to do risk assessment to decide which birds to release,'' said Peter Copley, a senior ecologist with the South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.

Talk of running up the white flag on the wild population first began in 2010, when it was found that the wild population had fallen from 150 in 2006 to just 50.

Continued:  http://www.watoday.com.au/environment/conservation/no-flight-of-fancy-this-rare-bird-needs-to-be-caught-to-survive-20120901-257ji.html

First mammal extinction in Australia for 50 years – Dos and don’ts of saving a species

Christmas Island Pipistrelle declared extinct
May 2012. Failure to act quickly on evidence of rapid population decline has led to the first mammal extinction in Australia in the last 50 years, the Christmas Island Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi). The fate of another iconic species, the migratory Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster), monitored intensively for over 20 years, hangs in the balance. 

Christmas Island Pipistrelle
The Christmas Island Pipistrelle, a small 3.5 g insectivorous bat, was endemic to the 135 km2 Christmas Island, an Australian External Territory, located 1500 km north-west of Australia in the Indian Ocean. Management of Christmas Island is the responsibility of the Australian Federal Government. The species was widespread when described in 1900. Subsequent observations suggest it remained common until 1984. In 1994 and 1998, systematic surveys of the pipistrelle using harp traps and echolocation detectors revealed that the species was in marked decline.

The precise cause of the decline remains unknown but it was probably the result of a complex cascade of negative impacts due to the colonization of the bat's habitat by a suite of invasive species and possibly some form of disease.

2001 - Listed as Endangered
In 2001, the bat was listed as Endangered under the Commonwealth of Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Following a recommendation in the recovery plan, the species was monitored intensively from 2004 onwards. The main objectives of the recovery plan included maximizing population viability in the wild, monitoring the population, and investigating potential threats to determine the cause of the decline.

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/christmas-pipistrelle.html

Australian developers see red as rare bird foils plans

SYDNEY // One of the world's most endangered birds, the orange-bellied parrot, is becoming famous for the wrong reasons in its native Australia. Not because of its rarity - there are believed to be just 50 individuals left in the wild - but because the tiny, shy bird has foiled a series of multi-million-dollar developments.

A few years ago, the parrot, which conservationists call the OBP, almost stopped a big wind farm being built in Victoria. Last month, it forced the development of a A$50 million (Dh194 million) marina near Melbourne to be put on hold while the federal government assesses its impact on OBP habitat - although no parrots have been spotted in the area for 25 years.

The OBP is a migratory bird, which is unusual for a parrot. It breeds in the Tasmanian wilderness, then flies to the mainland to feed, mainly in the Victorian coastal flats. Its numbers have declined dramatically over the past decade. Habitat degradation, introduced predators and the infertility of many females, possibly the result of inbreeding, have caused the decline.

A ground-feeding bird with a brilliant green, yellow and blue plumage - plus an orange patch - the parrot first achieved notoriety in the 1990s, when proposals to relocate a Victorian chemical plant sparked controversy because the site jeopardised its habitat. The then state premier, Jeff Kennett, branded it a "trumped-up corella". The corella, a type of cockatoo, is common in Australian backyards.

In 2006, the OBP was back in the limelight, after the federal government vetoed a Victorian wind farm amid fears that migrating birds might collide with the turbines. The decision was later reversed. Now Canberra has stepped in again, declaring that the marina expansion at Western Harbour, south-east of Melbourne, could threaten the parrot's survival.

Read on:  http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/asia-pacific/australian-developers-see-red-as-rare-bird-foils-plans