Orange-bellied parrot update

The orange-bellied parrot project facebook pages gives the following great news:

Let's hope the migration went well and that most young will be able to join the adults on the mainland.

One thing I wonder. Were there any major changes in the husbandry of the captive orange-bellies? Although a 50% of the captive population of a neophema species is actually a normal number, the project hasn't reached these numbers for several years now. So I was wondering what happened that they finally are getting there?

 

14 orange-bellied parrots have been killed by rats in a facility south of Hobart, Tasmania: Orange-bellied parrots killed and eaten by RATS at Tasmanian breeding facility | Daily Mail Online

 

So far 14 young have left the nests in the wild, 10 of them from natural nests .

 

Those interested in orange-bellied parrots might like to listen to this podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/talkingnaturally/tn-020-orange-blue-and-black

 

Not going very well with the Orange-bellied parrots :
http://www.parrotsdailynews.com/ora...males-and-11-males-have-survived-last-winter/

 

Latest update ( Facebook ) :
Extraordinary news: another wild OBP has arrived at Melaleuca! Silver Silver M is a one-year-old male, banded as a juvenile in February 2016. He's the 12th male, joining 3 wild-born females, a three-year-old captive-bred female released last year (2015), and 23 captive-bred OBPs released this month. Total 'wild' birds: 16. Total captive-bred/released birds: 23. Grand total: 39

 

First two orange-bellied chicks of the season hatched yesterday at Moonlit Sanctuary. They were also the first to hatch in our new breeding facility. A video of the chicks can be seen on our Facebook page:
Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park | Facebook

 

Video of Priam Australia and their work with the Orange-bellied parrot :

 

Another article about the current status :
There are 14 wild orange-bellied parrots left – this summer is our last chance to save them

 

News on wild bird from Tasmania is that so far there are 37 eggs in 12 nestboxes. Given that only 4 wild females have returned this year, at least 8 of these clutches are parented by at least one captive bred bird.

Here at Moonlit Sanctuary we now have more than 10 hatchlings.

 

Moonlit Sanctuary was saddened to hear of the recent outbreak of a bacterial infection at the Hobart Wildlife Centre leading to the death of several orange bellied parrots at the facility. Our sympathy and support is extended to our colleagues at the Centre at this difficult time.

Fortunately, Moonlit Sanctuary is unaffected by this disease outbreak. Our brand-new breeding facility is designed to minimise the transfer of disease and to protect our birds against vermin. We operate a double quarantine procedure and strict protocols for access. In the light of this incident our staff are reviewing our biosecurity procedures.

We are happy to report that currently for this year’s breeding season Moonlit Sanctuary has 8 orange-bellied parrot fledglings, 8 nestlings and birds still sitting on 2 clutches of eggs.

 

News about the first mainland release of orange-bellied parrots this century can be found on the Moonlit Sanctuary news page on the Australia forum.

 

Has the issue with maintenance and vermin control now been fixed at the Hobart Taroona facility?
And are funding and measures in place to update or renovate the facility or relocate elsewhere to a state-of-the-art rescue and rehab facility.

I also see conflicting reports on the wild flock: one stating only 14 birds left and another stating 16 with 23 released end of year 2016. So, what is the deal?

Also, with 300+ birds in captivity ..., is it not a question of breeding up and out-hacking young birds to release sites, is it not a question of increasing conservation-breeding output and enabling more birds in a season to be augmenting the wild flocks and satelitte new colonies???

 

First thing to say is that the Taroona facility is run by a State government, while we are a non-government facility in a different state, so I have little knowledge and no influence as to what is being planned there. Given there have been no repeats of the vermin problems we can assume that is under control. The facility is not ideal, some of the aviaries are converted from a facility that was used to house and breed huskies for Australia's Antarctic expeditions. To complicate the issue some structures on the site are Heritage listed. Howeverr I had the opportunity to visit the site last year and it looked as if every effort has been made to bring it up to scratch. The property is quite valuable with sea views, and there is talk of moving and building a new facility elsewhere. What funds would be made available is anyone's guess.

14 birds had arrived at Melaleuca by September '16, which sparked some panic. Two more arrived later. So the known wild population was 16 birds, of whom only 4 were female. 23 birds were released, to balance the sex ratios and boost the total numbers in the wild. In addition 4 fertile eggs were moved from Taroona to replace 4 infertile eggs in a wild nest, and one bird fledged from this operation.

One problem is that we still have not reached the ideal number of birds in the captive population to carry forward a genetically viable population. The main problem here is a lack of spaces. Another issue is we cannot afford to swamp the wild population. New colonies would be ideal but given we don't know how they learn to migrate (is it instinctive or cultural?) nor are we really sure of all the causes of their decline (what is the point of working to establish a new colony if we only see it go extinct from causes that we don't understand?) there is a question as to if that would be the best use of resources at this point.

 

@MRJ, thanks for all your helpful comments.

I would like to direct your attention to experiences with reestablishing by replicating their migration patterns in both cranes (whooping) and ibis (waldrapp in Austria / Italy) in US/Europe. In the European case with the use of microlights.

 

Sadly, Australian government ignored possibility of cooperation with zoos and private parrot breeders. Neophema parakeets are very easy to breed. Breeders could provide spaces, expertise and probably help in raising funds.

The program went to a situation where it doesn't get the knowledge, doesn't know how to get the knowledge, but feels cannot proceed without the knowledge. Which amounts to watching the species die out.

Sadly, no use was made of established techniques of tracking migratory birds, like ultra-small radio packs (like the ones being used to track thrushes migrating all over America).

Had there been larger number of parakeets available from non-governmental breeders, it would be perfectly possible to experiment. For example, release new distant colonies, try to establish non-migratory or partially migratory groups, or perhaps release young birds on the wintering grounds already.

I cannot be very positive about the results here.

 

Some neophemas are easy to breed. The most successful birds in captivity are desert species. This is hardly surprising, they have adapted to extremes in heat and cold, poor and irregularly available food and irregular supplies of water. Hardly surprising the most common cage birds worldwide are the budgerigar and the zebra finch. Likewise the most common neophema in aviaries is the scarlet-chested parrot, a desert species. It took the first breeder of orange-bellied parrots in captivity, an experienced aviculturalist, five years to achieve his goal and orange-bellied parrots were never established in aviaries when they were available to private breeders. Further conservation programs cannot just breed birds that are ready captive breeders, we must maintain as much genetic variation in the program as possible, which means including individual birds that are reluctant to breed.

Having said that private breeders have been involved in the program in the past and may well be in the future. In addition to appropriate skills and experience, such people will need to bring to the table:

• Accountability, the willingness to follow instructions from studbook keepers, return reports in time and so on.
• Facility, suitable aviaries isolated from other birds, particularly parrots.
• Commitment, willing to commit to the program for an extended period, and to carry the costs of involvement.

There is nothing to stop aviculturalists helping with the contribution of funds, we were very grateful for $5000 from the Avicultural Society of Australia which assisted with our first aviaries.

It is easy to be critical about past efforts and certainly I have my criticisms. But that is all hindsight.

My understanding is that the thrush project uses geolocators, not radio trackers. They rely on a light sensor and retrieving a chip that records the data. I don't know if there is enough variation in latitude in the OBP migration to make these effective. Certainly once they arrive on the mainland they move along the southern coast, and don't change latitude much at all, so this method would not be effective in recording their movements then.

Re new colonies considerable effort was put into supporting the former colony at Birches Inlet however this colony went extinct anyway. It is now thought that this may have resulted from predication by introduced sugar gliders. The predation of gliders on birds nests had not been observed at the time. However a new colony would have to take this into account.

There have been a number of species that have been in a worse situation than the OBPs that have recovered. We certainly will not stop working as hard as we can to prevent their extinction.

 

Orange-bellied parrot was first bred in 1973 in Australia, and probably earlier in Europe. Their captive breeding is well developed.

If conservationists in Australia lack space and expertise, they need to actively engage private breeders and zoos, like any other stakeholders. It is not enough just to wait passively to be offered help.

Juvenile orange-bellied parakeets migrate several weeks after adults, i.e. learn migration route themselves.

Thrushes in America were followed in real time by transmitters (not geolocators). These require a receiver to be reasonably close to the bird, forcing scientists to follow the birds by cars - or alternatively, receivers can be put in places which birds are most likely to visit. The current range for a transmitter light enough for a small bird is at least 15km.

I am also surprised why not more is done to protect the Orange-bellied Parrots on their wintering grounds in mainland Australia from competing introduced birds, predators etc. Surely when winter mortality is big, concentrating only on breeding grounds is not enough?

 

This will be my last comment on this thread, I have more important things to do (like save endangered species) than engage in this banter.

Yes as I said by one very experienced aviculturalist who took 5 years to achieve his first success. I am not aware of any other captive breeding until the recovery program established a breeding program in the 1990's.

And your source is? I do know they were illegally smuggled to Europe in the '70's, although my informant tells me the shipment he saw were all males, so maybe not much breeding success from that shipment.

It is now, thanks the work of the aviculturalists within the institutions involved in the breeding program.

And they have been engaged with, that is why we are engaged and why Priam is engaged, and why the private aviculturalist I mentioned was engaged. However there are not the resources to chase around every aviculturalist who claims to be a crack neophema breeder.

Possibly.

Obviously we are talking about different programs. The one I am aware of used geolocators. I am aware that small transmitters are available now, if you read what I have written you will see that they are being used with this release. However it is only in last couple of years they have been available for this size of bird. It is dishonest to imply they were available to researchers in previous decades.

Now that made me laugh. You obviously don't know much if anything about the wild condition of the parrots. They migrate about 600km. The first quarter of the migration is across a wilderness, ie no walking tracks let alone roads, The second quarter is through a region with one north-south road servicing fewer than a dozen small settlements. The last half is across an open ocean with a couple of islands available for rest. Only one island has a settlement. Arriving on the mainland they disperse along a coastal strip a 1,000km long, much of which is not accessible by car.

Do you have any sources suggesting that introduced birds are a threat to orange-bellied parrots? As for predators you seem to be suggesting gunmen should be patrolling a 1000km of coast, shooting every hawk and falcon on sight. The birds evolved with predators, they are not the cause of their current predicament.

I am beginning to understand why professionals don't engage with this site.