Conservation efforts intensify for WA’s rarest bird

Western ground parrots are critically endangered with under 150 existing in the wild

Captive program aims to determine feasibility of breeding an insurance population

Efforts are continuing to protect the western ground parrot, following a bushfire that burnt through some of the critically endangered birds’ habitat this month.

Lightning strikes on January 13 caused a bushfire in Cape Arid National Park on the south coast, which burnt 6,300 hectares. Western ground parrots only exist in the wild in Cape Arid National Park and the adjacent Nuytsland Nature Reserve.

In spring 2018, five parrots were caught in Cape Arid National Park – fitted with GPS collars – and returned to the wild so their movements could be studied as part of a recovery program led by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).

A ground search by DBCA last week located one of these five birds alive, and signals from two other birds were detected from the air. A ground search this week will establish if they also survived the fire. One location where birds were found in the spring season was burnt in the fire.

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Rare parrots introduced to Perth Zoo

Melissa Leo

With hopes of including them in a trial captive breeding program, two rare Western Ground Parrots received a thorough health check at Perth Zoo this morning.

A male and juvenile female were placed under anaesthetic before being weighed, X-rayed, micro-chipped and having DNA samples taken.

Matt Ricci, a Senior Australian Fauna Keeper from the zoo, teamed up with Parks and Wildlife scientists to transfer the two birds from Cape Arid National Park last month. They were captured just before fire devastated the area.

“We actually had fire the day after we were able to capture the male, they had to evacuate the park the same day the male arrived,” Mr Ricci said.

“The female had been caught about two days earlier.”

Bush fires during October and November destroyed 90 per cent of the critically endangered birds’ habitat.

Before the recent fires there were less than 140 Western Ground Parrots estimated in the wild.

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