06/12/2018
A new
study has demonstrated how the use of robotics can become a key tool in the
conservation of threatened species.
Swift Parrot is one of Australia's most
threatened birds and is in need of urgent help, with BirdLife International
estimating a total wild population of between 1,000 and 3,000 individuals. It
breeds in Tasmania, migrating to south-east Australia for the austral winter,
where it can be found sporadically from New South Wales west to Adelaide.
In 2010,
Loro Parque FundaciĆ³n started funding crucial field research by scientists of
the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University
(ANU), triggered by the accelerating decline of the wild population, which has
been classified as Critically Endangered since 2015.
What they
discovered was alarming. They found that Swift Parrots prefer to nest in
cavities with specific characteristics, and that only 5.2 per cent of available
tree hollows were suitable in the Tasmanian forests. Worse still, they detected
a high level of nocturnal predation on the contents of Swift Parrot nests,
including adult females, by Sugar Gliders, a mammal species introduced to Tasmania
from mainland Australia.
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