Australian wild parrots after the bushfires

[Rozalka]

Everything is based on one article.
Recently in Australia there are also hailstorms. In Canberra at the end of this week hailstones fell as big as golf balls and killed hundreds and thousands of birds Few people said they saw birds literally falling from the sky Somebody shared a photo of a cockatoo which was found death in his garden:


The bushfires directly affect 20 animal species that may be at risk of extinction. Among the parrots, the most affected are glossy black cockatoos, subspecies C. l. halmaturinus. About 1/3 of Kangaroo Island (where they live) is burnt, other parts still are in danger and this species lost a lot of food.


Another affected parrot is western ground parrot. Their current population is 150 and they are one of few parrot species which have nests on the ground


The photo and infos are from the side https://www.ararauna.cz/2020/01/tvr...LpJD5iiYgYjB_ETCtzv3qMIpLF5debpMxUTDvUqDr4agg
(Please be warned, the link contains a disturbing image)

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

This is horrifying...thanks Roz for the info



Jim

 

[Ezekiell]

Yep, it’s not good down here in NSW and Victoria. For our overseas members, I do feel that I need to put the fires in perspective however; the fires are mainly in NSW and Victorian states, the largest fire being in NSW which so far has scorched land roughly the size of England (which isn’t much when you consider how massively huge Australia actually is). The point I’m trying to make is that the whole country isn’t actually on fire, which is how it seems to be being reported abroad and I think in Europe the perception that the whole country is on fire is mainly because the fires we are having are essentially the size of a moderate european country.

Now, having said that it is horrible. Kangaroo Island is a charred hot mess and god knows what NSW will look like after this abnormal fire season. Authorities are now planning/doing water and food drops to sustain the remaining wildlife, whilst rehabbers are caring after some seriously traumatised animals (some so much so that although they are physically healthy enough to be released they are refusing to leave what they consider the shelter of the rehabbers).

If anyone overseas would like to support our bird life in particular, please consider donating to BirdLife Australia’s current bushfire appeal; https://birdlife.org.au/current-appeal
This is our dedicated bird-only wildlife charity in Australia.

Australia Zoo, Taronga Zoo, and WIRES are also all collecting bushfire appeal donations, which is going towards all our precious Australian wildlife.

 

[Betrisher]

Yes, echoing what Ezekiell said.

AFAIK, the Western Ground Parrot is not directly affected at the moment, since rain enabled the threatening fire to be contained. Of course, that could change again in very short order. There are only a couple of hundred individuals left of that species!

Glossy Black Cockatoos were certainly found on Kangaroo Island (doubtful whether there are any left there), but they also live in other parts of NSW. I've seen them in a local mountain habitat, so I know they're thriving there, at least for now. I worry for the population farther north, though. The Glossies in the Widden Valley were healthy and increasing in numbers, but the Gospers Mountain fire would have affected them directly, so I'm waiting anxiously to know how they fared.

Regarding the hail storms: yes, they certainly take a toll on our birds, especially when the hailstones are large. However, that's not an unusual occurrence and native birds are geared to cope with such events by taking appropriate shelter. Hopefully, wildlife carers can assist the unfortunates who are injured, but we certainly mourn the casualties!

Off Topic Story about hail storms:

We had such a hailstorm in 1974. What fun! All the big plate glass windows in the front rooms of our house were smashed and gallons of water poured in, ruining Mum's newly-installed Axminster carpet. My velvet riding hat was destroyed by hailstones that entered through the window and knocked it off the table, pelting it and stripping away all the velvet covering! Bl**dy h*ll! My poor mare was outside when the hail hit and she was covered in cuts and bruises. I had a jolly old time, trying to get her to stop rearing and actually go into her stable. When she eventually went indoors, the sound of the hail on the tin roof terrified her. I ended up stuffing her ears with torn-up hessian: that did the trick! Our family car wound up being polka-dotted by hailstones and was eventually written off by the insurance company. The hailstones also significantly dented the corrugated iron roofs of both the shed and the stable (imagine the force required to do that!)

The worst result of that storm, however, was the complete removal of every grain of sand off Newcastle Beach! (NB. N'cle Beach is notorious for its lovely long stretch of clean golden sand). No living person had ever seen the beach naked and it was fascinating to those of us with a biological bent to get down among the rocks and see creatures washed up that had never been seen before. There were countless Blue-ringed Octopi dead on the shore as well as seabirds (gulls, shearwaters, petrels etc) and lots of fish, all killed by the unusually pounding seas that accompanied the storm. The underlying rocks were hugely interesting, as no one had known exactly how flat and oddly-sculpted the rock platform actually was. It took roughly ten years for the sand to be replaced by continuous long-shore wave motion (ie. the natural way in which beaches are formed).

 

[Noahs_Birds]

Thankfully I know of a lot of good private bird keepers keeping the Glossy black Cockies, so if the worse comes to worse, we'll still have some pretty good captive populations ready for reintroduction when necessary
Thanks
Noah Till

 

[Rozalka]

Glossy Black Cockatoos were certainly found on Kangaroo Island (doubtful whether there are any left there), but they also live in other parts of NSW. I've seen them in a local mountain habitat, so I know they're thriving there, at least for now. I worry for the population farther north, though. The Glossies in the Widden Valley were healthy and increasing in numbers, but the Gospers Mountain fire would have affected them directly, so I'm waiting anxiously to know how they fared.

I don't if you noticed - I didn't mean Glossy black cockies as a species, I wrote the English name of the species and latin name of subspecies - C. l. halmaturinus. I checked their subspecies don't have English names (or Wikipedia is wrong, I was correcting it not only once time) so I decided to wrote it as "glossy black cockatoos, subspecies C. l. halmaturinus". This subspecies lives only on Kangaroo Island, I know about two other subspecies which live on continental Australia

 

[Betrisher]

Sorry about that, Rozalka. Yes, on re-reading I see what you meant. Well, it looks pretty black for the Kangaroo Island subspecies. There were only a couple of hundred of them and two-thirds of the island has been burnt. I can't imagine a great survival rate, but maybe I'm totally wrong there. I hope so.

The specific differences between the Kangaroo Island Glossies and the mainland species (C.lathami lathami and C.lathami erebus) are small, so AFAIK, no one breeds the Kang.Is. ones in captivity.

My husband's uncle had a breeding pair of C.l.lathami and I remembering him saying they were *extremely* particular about where and when they would nest. The didn't breed every year, but I don't know whether that was normal for the species or because the particular pair was unhappy with its environment. The same man had breeding pairs of most of our large parrots, including a magnificent pair of Palm Cockatoos. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago and his birds have gone to live out their lives in a sanctuary.

As Noahs Birds suggests, it may be that captive breeding stock will become very important in the near future.

PS. Glossy Black Cockatoos feed exclusively on the cones of sheoak or river oak trees (Casuarina species) - hence the massive mandibles for opening the cones. If the sheoaks have been seriously burnt out, then the Glossies' food source would indeed be seriously threatened. It takes a *lot* of sheoaks to feed a pair of Glossies!

 

[Noahs_Birds]

Sorry about that, Rozalka. Yes, on re-reading I see what you meant. Well, it looks pretty black for the Kangaroo Island subspecies. There were only a couple of hundred of them and two-thirds of the island has been burnt. I can't imagine a great survival rate, but maybe I'm totally wrong there. I hope so.

The specific differences between the Kangaroo Island Glossies and the mainland species (C.lathami lathami and C.lathami erebus) are small, so AFAIK, no one breeds the Kang.Is. ones in captivity.

My husband's uncle had a breeding pair of C.l.lathami and I remembering him saying they were *extremely* particular about where and when they would nest. The didn't breed every year, but I don't know whether that was normal for the species or because the particular pair was unhappy with its environment. The same man had breeding pairs of most of our large parrots, including a magnificent pair of Palm Cockatoos. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago and his birds have gone to live out their lives in a sanctuary.

As Noahs Birds suggests, it may be that captive breeding stock will become very important in the near future.

PS. Glossy Black Cockatoos feed exclusively on the cones of sheoak or river oak trees (Casuarina species) - hence the massive mandibles for opening the cones. If the sheoaks have been seriously burnt out, then the Glossies' food source would indeed be seriously threatened. It takes a *lot* of sheoaks to feed a pair of Glossies!

Betrisher, I don't suppose the bloke with the Palm cockies and Glossy Blacks was Neville Connors from Casurina Parrot gardens down in Grafton, who indeed passed away a few years ago? PS: if it was him, Neville unfortunately never bred the Palm cockies

Black cockies can be unreliable breeders if the pair does not a have a strong enough bond, and indeed are very picky and only good results are obtained with specialised, high fat diets with added natural supplements such as She-Oak nuts and other forms of food to extrude their diet.
Once you get going with a good pair, they will be fairly good breeders if you get the cycles right every year.
Thanks
Noah Till

 

[Betrisher]

No, not Neville Connors. He was just a person who loved native parrots and converted his entire back yard into a gigantic aviary containing live trees and shrubs and rope rigging (he was a rigger by trade) as well as a waterfall. The same bloke had a shingleback lizard and an olive python who lived free-range in his house. I'll never forget the time my husband nearly sat down on the lizard! I think Chris might have slaughtered him if he hadn't leaped up at the last instant when Chris shouted 'Geddup, ya bugger!'

None of these birds bred because that's not why he had them. He just provided them a spacious, interesting home and enjoyed interacting with them every day.

 

[noodles123]

You would think that in a world where we can control so much that we (collectively) would be able to stop something like this from happening. I know it isn't the case and that everyone did everything they could, but it is mind-boggling that things could get so bad...Is there any sort of preventative barrier in the works that might keep something like this from spreading in the future? I know there are things like that, but I just feel like there must be a better way....

 

[Betrisher]

That's such a timely thing to say, noodles123!

A friend of mine lived for ten years in Darwin in the far northwest of Australia. Darwin is in the tropics and so every year when the Wet Season arrives, they get deluges of rain which are so massive they don't bother to put guttering on their houses. Normal household guttering can't cope with the sheer volume of water that rains up north in the Wet! It just rushes into the water courses and floods its way out to sea. Eventually.

If there were some way of channelling all that water to the dry Red Centre, it might make a big difference to farmers and their crops and animals, but then, when you muck round with Nature like that, you never can tell what the result might be.

Mumbledy mumble years ago, I was studying landscape/atmosphere systems and we were shown how 'containing' a natural waterway in concrete can kill it and all the flora and fauna that depend on it. While the containment might be tidier and more convenient for townspeople, it changes the rate of flow of the waterway in truly surprising ways, so that algae grow thickly and the proper water creatures gradually die out through suffocation, leaving a dead, green-slimed puddle instead of a healthy burbling stream.

Likewise, we found out that if you remove predators from a system, the immediate result is often a flourishing of prey species. That over-population then results in extreme competition for food, nesting and territories. The prey species naturally die out from starvation and the few remaining predators die too from lack of prey.

We were shown examples from North America during the early attempts at reintroducing timber wolves to some areas where they'd been hunted out. It never ceases to amaze me how man's efforts to 'organise' Nature never seem to work. Oftentimes, it seems we do best to leave well enough alone and let her run the show.

If there's one thing I have learned from a lifetime of study, it's that we have interfered too much for too long and now we're reaping the results of our actions. IMHO, the only solution is to pull back and be willing to live a much simpler life, consuming much less and trying to grow more. This kind of lifestyle suits me fine, but I think I'm not in the majority.

People want more and more and more Stuff. They neglect to remember that the Stuff has to be manufactured, packaged, advertised, transported, warehoused, sold and installed. All of this has a cost which we're only just beginning to measure. I don't know what will happen in the future, but all I can do is try to influence people I know and show them ways of conserving things like water, topsoil, species diversity and so on.

My friend, Pat, is ninety-three and lives in a nursing home. She has been teaching all the residents not to simply throw excess water down the sink, but to pour it into a watering can and save it for watering the garden. She keeps a bucket in her shower recess to save the cold water that would run away before the hot kicks in. She recycles *everything* that comes her way from toilet paper tubes to junk mail. This is a lady who lived in the outback during the terrible drought that accompanied the Depression in Australia. She knows about real poverty and especially the harsh face of Nature. She's my hero!

 

[Cardinal]

"Ms Teixera said careful conservation work over the past 25 years has seen the glossy black cockatoo population increase from 150, but those gains have been wiped out in the space of a week."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...o-animal-deaths-kangaroo-island-a9270966.html

 

[Cardinal]

That's such a timely thing to say, noodles123!




We were shown examples from North America during the early attempts at reintroducing timber wolves to some areas where they'd been hunted out. It never ceases to amaze me how man's efforts to 'organise' Nature never seem to work. Oftentimes, it seems we do best to leave well enough alone and let her run the show.
!

In many cases , we can't just afford to leave Nature alone. Yes I suppose in places like parts of the Amazon rainforest the best strategy will be to leave Nature alone but in many parts of the world including in my country India, Nature has to be actively managed by educated experts and local people for it to thrive.

 

[Amsterdam]

Praying for Australia!!

 

[SailBoat]

That's such a timely thing to say, noodles123!

We were shown examples from North America during the early attempts at reintroducing timber wolves to some areas where they'd been hunted out. It never ceases to amaze me how man's efforts to 'organise' Nature never seem to work. Oftentimes, it seems we do best to leave well enough alone and let her run the show.
!

In many cases , we can't just afford to leave Nature alone. Yes I suppose in places like parts of the Amazon rainforest the best strategy will be to leave Nature alone but in many parts of the world including in my country India, Nature has to be actively managed by educated experts and local people for it to thrive.

Not to be picky, but there are no Rainforests in the truly huge Amazon River Valley. There are beautiful Jungles and Warm Forest Regions, but no Rainforests. The term Rainforest was inserted into the World Language in an attempt to save the Jungles and Warm Forests Regions from deforestation as Rainforests are Magical Places that Humans want to save, whereas Jungles are not considered worthy of saving. Rainforests are subject to varying weather from snow, heavy rain and very warm weather. It is the snow with cold weather that Jungles do not have. Parrots do not live in Rainforests as they would die from the cold weather.

 

[Rozalka]

That's such a timely thing to say, noodles123!

We were shown examples from North America during the early attempts at reintroducing timber wolves to some areas where they'd been hunted out. It never ceases to amaze me how man's efforts to 'organise' Nature never seem to work. Oftentimes, it seems we do best to leave well enough alone and let her run the show.
!

In many cases , we can't just afford to leave Nature alone. Yes I suppose in places like parts of the Amazon rainforest the best strategy will be to leave Nature alone but in many parts of the world including in my country India, Nature has to be actively managed by educated experts and local people for it to thrive.

Not to be picky, but there are no Rainforests in the truly huge Amazon River Valley. There are beautiful Jungles and Warm Forest Regions, but no Rainforests. The term Rainforest was inserted into the World Language in an attempt to save the Jungles and Warm Forests Regions from deforestation as Rainforests are Magical Places that Humans want to save, whereas Jungles are not considered worthy of saving. Rainforests are subject to varying weather from snow, heavy rain and very warm weather. It is the snow with cold weather that Jungles do not have. Parrots do not live in Rainforests as they would die from the cold weather.

Really? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest

I don't agree, in the Amazon River Valley are tropical rainforests. The term "jungle" originally is for north-east Asian forests. Tropical rainforests in every-day language is called as jungle. Nowadays in scientific sources there are two versions: 1. the term "jungle" is expendend meaning to tropical rainforests 2. this term is used incorrectly for tropical rainforests

 

[SailBoat]

In many cases , we can't just afford to leave Nature alone. Yes I suppose in places like parts of the Amazon rainforest the best strategy will be to leave Nature alone but in many parts of the world including in my country India, Nature has to be actively managed by educated experts and local people for it to thrive.

Not to be picky, but there are no Rainforests in the truly huge Amazon River Valley. There are beautiful Jungles and Warm Forest Regions, but no Rainforests. The term Rainforest was inserted into the World Language in an attempt to save the Jungles and Warm Forests Regions from deforestation as Rainforests are Magical Places that Humans want to save, whereas Jungles are not considered worthy of saving. Rainforests are subject to varying weather from snow, heavy rain and very warm weather. It is the snow with cold weather that Jungles do not have. Parrots do not live in Rainforests as they would die from the cold weather.

Really? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest In the Amazon

I don't agree, in the Amazon River Valley are tropical rainforests. The term "jungle" originally is for north-east Asian forests. Tropical rainforests in every-day language is called as jungle. Nowadays in scientific sources there are two versions: 1. the term "jungle" is expendend meaning to tropical rainforests 2. this term is used incorrectly for tropical rainforests

Modern Word Speak if you will. But, if you choose to use this modern variation, it must be stated as: Tropical Rainforest. The root remains the same, a means to convert Jungles (which are wonderful places) into magical places that Humans would want to save. Every year in the Rainforests of the Northwestern Shorelines, open bird cages are found that once housed Parrots, who have been released to die from hunger, predation, or frozen to death. The great danger of Modern Word Speak, Parrots die...

That said. I turn this Thread back to its OP's topic...

 

[Betrisher]

'Jungle' is the term most people use in everyday speech to describe hot, wet forests with creepers and lush plant growth.

'Rainforest' is an ecological term and it has strict definitions among those who study Life Sciences. I won't bore you with what they are (tbh, I'm having trouble remembering: it's been a while), but there are various kinds of 'rainforest' and you can see them illustrated on ecological maps if you care to search them out.

Here in Oz, we have tropical rainforests, temperate rainforests and cool temperate rainforests as well as mangroves, which some scientists argue are obviously rainforests because of their definitive growth styles. Others argue that a mangrove association is a unique kind of closed forest and doesn't fit the 'rainforest' definition because it's usually comprised of a single species.

This is actually a really interesting area of study, especially in Oz, where we have so many varied habitats. From memory, the main defining feature of a 'rainforest' is that it has a closed canopy which prevents any more than 5% of sunlight reaching the ground. That definition was learned in 1978, so please don't hate me if it's changed, OK?

Hope this helps?

Betrisher

 

[Cardinal]

That's such a timely thing to say, noodles123!

We were shown examples from North America during the early attempts at reintroducing timber wolves to some areas where they'd been hunted out. It never ceases to amaze me how man's efforts to 'organise' Nature never seem to work. Oftentimes, it seems we do best to leave well enough alone and let her run the show.
!

I

Not to be picky, but there are no Rainforests in the truly huge Amazon River Valley. There are beautiful Jungles and Warm Forest Regions, but no Rainforests. The term Rainforest was inserted into the World Language in an attempt to save the Jungles and Warm Forests Regions from deforestation as Rainforests are Magical Places that Humans want to save, whereas Jungles are not considered worthy of saving. Rainforests are subject to varying weather from snow, heavy rain and very warm weather. It is the snow with cold weather that Jungles do not have. Parrots do not live in Rainforests as they would die from the cold weather.

I am afraid you may be mistaken. Jungle is not a technical term . It is actually from one of the Indian languages and can refer to any forest as the colloquial expression - "It is a jungle out there". Rainforest is also not exactly a technically accurate term but its correct way to refer to most of the "jungles" in the Amazon basin.

A broad definition of rainforest is as Betrisher mentioned - An evergreen forest with a thick canopy that receives a good amount of rain, consistently almost throughout the year- let us say 250 out of 365 days.

Of course there are many types of rainforests across the world but globally they can be separated into Tropical and Temperate. If I am not mistaken Tropical rainforests cover more of the Earth than the Temperate ones but I don t know much about Temperate .

Some famous Tropical Rainforests besides Amazon are
1. Central Africa or Congo basin -where the African Greys, Bonobos etc comes from
2. Borneo and Sumatra
3. New Guinea

Even a significant part of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka ecosystem Biodiversity hotspot in Southern Indian subcontinent constitute Rainforests.

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2012/0302/Five-hotbeds-of-biodiversity/Amazon-Rain-Forest

 

[Cardinal]

Modern Word Speak if you will. But, if you choose to use this modern variation, it must be stated as: Tropical Rainforest. The root remains the same, a means to convert Jungles (which are wonderful places) into magical places that Humans would want to save. Every year in the Rainforests of the Northwestern Shorelines, open bird cages are found that once housed Parrots, who have been released to die from hunger, predation, or frozen to death. The great danger of Modern Word Speak, Parrots die...

That said. I turn this Thread back to its OP's topic...

Parrots Die in the Millions due to the domestic and international Wild bird trade. Parrots die in the thousands due to misinformation and lack of education and/or compassion among pet parrot owners.

But I seriously doubt whether Parrots die because Rainforests are called Jungles or Jungles are called rainforests and other such linguistic jugglery, irrespective of whether I am correct or not. And I and willing to admit I may be wrong too in my understanding of the definition of what constitutes a proper rainforest. But that is not a major reason for parrot suffering or death.

And the world is a violent and cruel place. There is violence in nature ,but not the large scale cruelty that we have unleashed on nature. Not only parrots but thousands and thousands of Orangutans and other great Apes, Elephants , Hornbills, Big cats, Koalas and countless other bird, insect and other species die every decade, sometimes being burnt to death etc because of our various economic activities.