Curtis Island kill-off to save rare animal from wipe-out

Emily Pidgeon | 13th Mar 2017 2:24 AM Updated: 5:18 AM

THEY may have almost been extinct but Yellow Chats are making a come back.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service operations support manager Mark Read said the Yellow Chat's population growth had tripled in five years on Curtis Island.

"The bird has been listed as endangered on national level, so it's a bird under a lot of pressure," Mr Read said.
 

With nine birds left on Curtis Island in 2011, the number had grown to 35 as of last year.

"Once we removed grazing pressure and the damage of feral pigs, we've seen a bounce back of the marine plains and population recovery of Yellow Chats," Mr Read said.

"It's a great success story." As a wildlife biologist by trade, Mr Read said the habitat combination Yellow Chats live in, is quite unique and they only live in a few spots across the county.

"Curtis Island has got that unique combination of habitat these birds are specific to ... which is essentially marine plains," he said. 

 

Continued 

Little yellow bird sets twitcher hearts aflutter in Kakadu National Park

The sighting of a rare, little yellow bird has excited bird watchers and rangers in Kakadu National Park.

The numbers of yellow chat, once common on many Top End flood plains, have dwindled because of a loss of habitat resulting from the introduction of exotic plant species, grazing by cattle and buffalo, and degradation by feral pigs.

Assisting park rangers in the search for the bird was ornithologist Chris Sanderson who said the endangered yellow chat was in "serious trouble".

"They're a subspecies that's only found in the Northern Territory so they're a fairly iconic bird in the Kakadu area and for the people of the Northern Territory," he said.

The search for the illusive yellow chat centred around finding a shrub which proved to be almost as elusive as the bird itself.

Read on ...