http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-20/last-ditch-efforts-to-save-critically-endangered-orange-bellied/8040366

Orange-bellied parrots: Crowdfunding last-ditch efforts to save critically endangered species

An emergency plan and crowdfunding campaign have been launched in a last-ditch attempt to save the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot from extinction.
Key Points:

There are fewer 50 parrots left in the wild They migrate from SA and Victoria to breed in summer in Tasmania Threats include habitat loss, predation by cats, foxes and rats Crowdfunding will help ensure more successful wild breeding

Without urgent action the species is likely to be extinct within two years, according to researchers.

The bird migrates each year from Victoria to Tasmania’s south-west, but this season only three wild females and 11 males survived the migration to Melaleuca.

To boost the population, researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) will intervene in the wild birds’ breeding process.

Infertile eggs will be replaced with fertile eggs from the captive breeding program run by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.

ANU’s Dr Dejan Stojanovic said it would be a world first.

“We now need to act as swiftly as possible to make sure that more orange-bellied parrots are bred this year to compensate for this terrible return rate,” he said.

“If the chicks are struggling, we will literally intervene and feed the chicks directly or we will pull the nestlings out and cross foster them to other nests to other nests that are performing better.”

Dr Stojanovic said a new approach was needed because the current captive breeding program had failed.

“We have been releasing, captive bred orange-bellied parrots for decades now, and ultimately that has failed to successively recover the species,” he said.

He said wild-bred orange-bellied parrots were more likely to survive the winter migration.

“Clearly we need to do something different, and we need to do it urgently, otherwise, the species will go extinct in the next year or two.”

To fund the estimated $60,000 cost of the project an online crowdfunding campaign will be launched on Monday.

“At the moment we have no funding for this program, because nobody knew the situation would be as dire as it has turned out to be,” Dr Stojanovic said.

A similar crowdfunding campaign run by the ANU in 2015 raised $73,000, hitting its target of $40,000 in three days.

“Unlike more traditional sources of funding, crowdfunding is quick and people that are interested can support the project,” he said.

Eric Woehler from Birdlife Tasmania welcomed the announcement but said the State Government should not become reliant on other groups to save the state’s endangered species.

“The Tasmanian Government needs to have the skills base, the expertise, the trained scientists on its own staff. They can’t rely on an external university to do what should be core work for the Tasmanian Government.”

The State Government was contacted for comment.

fkn windfarms

Let’s see.

It’s being wiped out by sugar gliders.

Its habitat is protected in both Tasmania and Victoria.

There’s a captive breeding program.

mollwollfumble said:

Let’s see.

It’s being wiped out by sugar gliders.

Its habitat is protected in both Tasmania and Victoria.

There’s a captive breeding program.

the release program is not working as is stated in the story

Perhaps it’s a silly question, but why does the orange bellied parrot need to fly between Tasmania and Victoria every year? Solve that puzzle and you may be on track to saving it, if it could breed in Victoria as well or over-winter in Tasmania.

It’s the only bird I know of that always has that migration.

mollwollfumble said:

Perhaps it’s a silly question, but why does the orange bellied parrot need to fly between Tasmania and Victoria every year?

Because they can’t afford the ferry?

mollwollfumble said:

Perhaps it’s a silly question, but why does the orange bellied parrot need to fly between Tasmania and Victoria every year? Solve that puzzle and you may be on track to saving it, if it could breed in Victoria as well or over-winter in Tasmania.

It’s the only bird I know of that always has that migration.

Probably something that dates back to when there was a land bridge to Tasmania, which as it disappeared the birds had to fly longer distances. Plus of course, it is quite nice in Tassie over summer.

Didn’t they have a crowdfunding to build nesting boxes and traps for sugar gliders?

monkey skipper said:

Dr Stojanovic said a new approach was needed because the current captive breeding program had failed.

It is extremely likely that had there not been a captive breeding program the species would already be extinct. What are there, 300 birds in the breeding program? Lets not criticise this part of the ‘solution’.

It is rather a sensational article that carries an important message but lacks scope in the particulars. Crowdfunding… what a terrible plea… should be fully funded from own tax dollars. I think it was declared endangered 35 plus years ago with population in decline due to us.

nut said:

monkey skipper said:

Dr Stojanovic said a new approach was needed because the current captive breeding program had failed.

It is extremely likely that had there not been a captive breeding program the species would already be extinct. What are there, 300 birds in the breeding program? Lets not criticise this part of the ‘solution’.

It is rather a sensational article that carries an important message but lacks scope in the particulars. Crowdfunding… what a terrible plea… should be fully funded from own tax dollars. I think it was declared endangered 35 plus years ago with population in decline due to us.

all true.

nut said:

monkey skipper said:

Dr Stojanovic said a new approach was needed because the current captive breeding program had failed.

It is extremely likely that had there not been a captive breeding program the species would already be extinct. What are there, 300 birds in the breeding program? Lets not criticise this part of the ‘solution’.

It is rather a sensational article that carries an important message but lacks scope in the particulars. Crowdfunding… what a terrible plea… should be fully funded from own tax dollars. I think it was declared endangered 35 plus years ago with population in decline due to us.

The Leadbeaters possum has been hanging on by a toenail for years nowgetting money out of government…any government for the usual reflexologists has been like getting water from rock. And that is the national emblem.

Can orange bellied cross-breed with blue winged?

Are they similar enough? There are six species in the Neophema genus.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/23/tasmania-scientists-scale-trees-in-desperate-attempt-to-save-orange-bellied-parrot?CMP=soc_567

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

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.

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.

—-

Is it really worth it? Sounds like this bird has been selected out.

dv said:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/23/tasmania-scientists-scale-trees-in-desperate-attempt-to-save-orange-bellied-parrot?CMP=soc_567

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

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.

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.

—-

Is it really worth it? Sounds like this bird has been selected out.

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

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-28/orange-bellied-parrot-crowd-funding-campaign-raises-over-$120k/8061586

roughbarked said:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-28/orange-bellied-parrot-crowd-funding-campaign-raises-over-$120k/8061586

Nice. I wonder if the birds understand the issues surrounding their future?

“Thanks to the success of the crowdfunding campaign, Dr Stojanovic and his colleagues will now be able to take steps that will hopefully help the species survive in the wild.

“Last week we went out for the first time as phase one of this intervention, and did a sweep of all the nest boxes of the last area where these birds breed,” he said.

“We checked all the boxes including the three wild remaining females, plus about a dozen or so captive bred females that were released into the wild a week or two ago.
Man holding baby orange-bellied parrots.
Photo: Ornithologist Mark Holdsworth holds three infant orange-bellied parrots. (Supplied: Mark Holdsworth)

“We found four nests plus about four others that looked as if they might have birds start nests, so we’re going to go back again this week.”

Any infertile eggs will be replaced with fertile ones from a captive breeding program, run by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.

Once the eggs have hatched, the next stage of the intervention will aim to ensure that as many nestlings as possible survive.

“If we detect any problems with the health of the nestlings we’ll be able to administer medication or extra food — whatever those nestlings need to survive,” Dr Stojanovic said.

“So it’s going to be an extremely intensive, individual-based intervention, where literally every nest and every nestling … will benefit from this crowdfunded money.”

Dr Stojanovic said for the orange bellied parrot, only three wild females remaining was a catastrophe by any measure.

“But it’s not to late yet … there is still hope,” he said.

“Other species have been brought back from the brink with even fewer individuals. But that all hinges on being able to act swiftly and being resourced adequately to do that.”

The crowdfunding campaign ends on Monday afternoon. “

Fragile balance. They need the wild pairs to raise and teach the young parrots so much including the migration pathway back and forth.

Smart approach to keep putting the captive bred eggs into the nest of the breeding pairs for any eggs they are infertile. I personally hope they are successful in their efforts.

monkey skipper said:

Fragile balance. They need the wild pairs to raise and teach the young parrots so much including the migration pathway back and forth.

Smart approach to keep putting the captive bred eggs into the nest of the breeding pairs for any eggs they are infertile. I personally hope they are successful in their efforts.

Well it would be good to save the species. All good lessons for us.