Critically endangered bird – down to just 14 in the wild – not helped by being ‘morons’ with poor survival instincts

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Scientists are scaling trees in Tasmania in an attempt to save the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot after the wild population dropped to the “stupidly low numbers” of just 14 individuals.

Three of those wild-born birds are females that have begun the process of selecting nest boxes in Melaleuca, a blustery outpost in the wilderness world heritage area near the southwest tip of Tasmania.

In a crowdfunded last-ditch conservation effort, members of the Difficult Bird Research Group, so called because the birds they focus on are difficult to keep alive, will make the 100km flight from Hobart once a week during the nesting season to try to boost the survival rate.

Help save Australia's orange bellied parrots. There are only 14 left! | First Dog on the Moon Read more

The plan includes smuggling eggs laid in captivity into wild nests, tracking the impact of predators such as sugar gliders which eat the young, and, if necessary, hand-feeding the nestlings of negligent parents.

“There’s one wild female that, poor bugger, just hasn’t had any success,” Australian National University researcher Dr Dejan Stojanovic told Guardian Australia.

“If she stops feeding the kids for any reason, we are likely going to be climbing the trees every three hours and feeding the kids for her to get them to the stage where they can fly and actually chase her for food.”

It is a desperate final attempt to save a species that has been critically endangered for decades.

Despite regularly producing birds for release, longstanding captive breeding programs have not been able to boost dwindling numbers.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Researchers from the Difficult Bird Research Group in the Tasmanian wilderness world heritage area, in search of orange-bellied parrots. Photograph: Dejan Stojanovic

Stojanovic said birds reared in captivity rarely survived the harrowing migration across the Bass Strait to the coasts of south-western Victoria, where the parrots spent winter foraging in salt marshes.

“You just raise these fat, lazy parrots who have no idea how to avoid a predator and are totally unfit for making a migration,” he said.

It’s hoped that tricking wild birds into raising more nestlings by boosting their eggs with captive-bred eggs will produce parrots that survive the flight.

About 20 captive-reared birds have been released by the Tasmanian department of parks and wildlife this season, making up some of the four nesting pairs found by researchers in a survey of two sites near Melaleuca on Tuesday.

One problem with orange-bellied parrot conservation is its survival is predicated on a high birth rate to offset a high mortality rate, a model which falls apart when you are down to just 14 birds.

“A headwind on the Bass Strait could black out the whole species, which is a fairly depressing picture,” Stojanovic said.

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Another is that orange-bellied parrots, or Neophema chrysogaster, are not the cleverest of birds. Even researchers such as Stojanovic, who regard the birds with affection, say their survival instincts are not great.

“I have had nests of five orange-bellied parrot nestlings with deep puncture wounds from starlings that just stab them in the stomach and drag them out of their nests,” he said.

“Literally everything gets them. They are morons, they really are morons.”

Despite what might be called the built-in setbacks of trying to preserve such a species, Stojanovic is hopeful a direct intervention approach will work. A similar project in Mauritius helped rebuild echo parakeet (Psittacula eques) numbers from a population of 12 in 1990, to more than 600.

A crowdfunding campaign has already doubled its target of $60,000 but researchers are hoping to triple that figure to keep the project running for several years.

“It’s bloody hard, it’s expensive, but traditional funding methods didn’t work for this species,” Stojanovic said.