Only
about 140 western ground parrots remained before last month’s devastating fires
One
of the world’s most endangered birds faces an uncertain future this month after
massive bushfires in Australia destroyed at least 90 percent of the species’
habitat.
Only
about 140 western ground parrots (Pezoporus
flaviventris) remained before the fires. The birds—one of just five
ground-dwelling parrot species on the planet—depend on dense vegetation for
their nests. Many of their known nesting sites were destroyed in fires that ripped
through the region around Cape Arid National Park last month. The bushfires
destroyed 30,000 acres of crops, killed four people, and burned 15,000
livestock animals to death.
Officials
for Western Australia’s Department of Parks and Wildlife told the Australian
Broadcasting Company that
two “pockets” of the birds’ habitat did not burn and that automated recording
devices indicate that an unknown number of the birds remain alive in those
sections. Two birds—a male and a female—were rescued before fires completely
overran the park and are now recovering at Perth Zoo, which already has five
other parrots in their collection.
The
fires also reportedly took a toll on the local population of another critically
endangered species, a mouse-like kangaroo called the Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii).
Fire
is a normal part of the ground parrot’s ecosystem, although the birds prefer
areas that have not been burned for at least 40 years and which have a high
level of low-growing shrubs. The birds can fly, but they spend most of their
time on the ground, so it seems unlikely that they could have escaped the
flames that hit their nests.
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