'Heartbreaking' bacterial infection kills 16 endangered orange-bellied parrots in breeding program

Updated

For the second time in a year there has been a spate of deaths in the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot population at a captive breeding centre in Hobart.

A common bacteria variety has killed up to 16 birds in the past month from a population of 136 at the Taroona facility.

In January last year, rats got in and killed 14 parrots, which was described as "deeply disturbing" by the then federal environment minister Greg Hunt.

In 2013, a cat breached a perimeter fence and startled two birds which died after flying into an aviary wall.

Now, autopsies on four adults and a nestling in the government-run facility, as well as a nestling from Melaleuca, showed the dead birds tested positive to the bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Orange-bellied parrots have previously died from the same bacterial infection at two mainland facilities.

The parrots migrate between Victoria and Tasmania's remote south-west where the first captive-bred chick has survived its first week with an adoptive mother.

No-one from the environment department, or the state's Environment Minister Matthew Groom, were available to be interviewed.

In a statement, a spokesperson for DPIPWE said additional biosecurity measures had been put in place to stop the outbreak spreading further.

They include:

All water for water bowls and food preparation being brought in from offsite

Changing to new seed bags and disposing of old seed

Treating water in water bowls with antibiotics.

"The concern for the parrot is being felt by all and these events are always devastating for all who care for this species, directly and indirectly," the spokesperson said.

"Following a successful breeding season in 2015/16 in which the Hobart Wildlife Centre produced 61 fledglings for the insurance and breed-for-release program it's been an absolutely heartbreaking start to the new year."

Lack of funding blamed for deaths

Tasmanian Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said there was no excuse for 16 deaths linked to the infection breakout.

"You might expect a couple of birds to die, but this is clearly a case of transmission between birds," she said.

"And that suggests there's a lack of process and procedures, there may be training issues, caused by a government that's starving DPIPWE of core services funding."

Fears the parrots would go extinct within two years prompted researchers at the Australian National University to launch a crowd funding campaign late last year.

Researchers are replacing infertile eggs with fertile eggs in wild nests, because captive birds had struggled to survive the winter migration.



Topics: endangered-and-protected-species, conservation, tas, taroona-7053

First posted