Search for the Night Parrot

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mickw
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spanna wrote:Yeah I know there would be a lot of extra steps that need to be taken first, but an interesting idea nevertheless.
I know its not a new idea, but I just cant let this go without trolling it out.....

Broad scale domestication of a wide range of native animals thus displacing Dogs & Cats as preferred pets in Australian society........also puts a dollar value on our own natives, increases awareness amongst mainstream society of our natives, then the money flows in the right directions and hopefully more enlightened decisions being made about species and habitat management......not the current precautionary principles espoused in most environmental policy in Australia.

My understanding is that feral cats have been around in the north and desert country alot longer than most of us think........longer than European settlement, ie 200odd years......I think the theory goes that cats came wth visitors from Indo & Timor so we're talking >200yrs, maybe even 1000.....though I havent got the evidence in front of me, I just remember some stuff I read/heard 20 years ago in Biogeography lectures.

Anyway, the night Parrots seem to be around, its just such a cryptic beast and a massive expanse to search.

There were some Ground (Swamp) Parrots found up here last year.......the local papers were filled with a heap of propaganda about the management strategies of the Nature Reserve which allowed the Parrots to migrate back in......Me thinks its a case of they've always been there, just no one looking for a very hard beast to find in a very hard place to look........
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mattymeischke
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Well said.

As alluded to above, I have come across ground parrots on several of the plateaux in the Budawangs where they are not officially recorded.
Like platypus, they are easy to see if you sit still and quietly in the right sort of country (in the case of g. parrots, this is sedgey-tussocky soggy ground on the slight depressions in the horizontal sandstone cap which forms the top of the mountains (known locally as 'hanging swamps'; in the case of platypuses, just about any freshwater creek in southeastern Aust., preferably on a pebbly creek bed)
The g. parrots are easy to hear, but you have to nearly tread on them to flush them.
There are very few people who sit still in national parks and state forests; bushwalkers, dirt bikes, horseriders or 4WDers are not likely to see either beastie.
mickw wrote: My understanding is that feral cats have been around in the north and desert country alot longer than most of us think........longer than European settlement, ie 200odd years......I think the theory goes that cats came with visitors from Indo & Timor so we're talking >200yrs, maybe even 1000.....though I havent got the evidence in front of me, I just remember some stuff I read/heard 20 years ago in Biogeography lectures.
This was also my understanding, but it has recently been challenged (eg: http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=WR01011; if you want the full paper let me know).
I have been studying the impacts of domestic cat predation on birds in Australia, and have been a bit surprised by what I have found. Most of the literature is on feral cats, rather than domestics and strays. The main prey item is mammals (about 50%) followed by birds and frogs/lizards (30%) then invertebrates & cetera. This is thought to be because they hunt mostly at night, when birds are less conspicuous. They consume more introduced than native prey in the 'mammal' and 'bird' categories; indeed, eradication of rats or rabbits without eradication of cats can lead to a massive upsurge in cat predation on native animals and local extinctions have resulted (mostly on islands after eradication of rats). Those stupid bloody bell collars do actually work in reducing predation, particularly on birds, but the much vaunted 'trap-neuter-release' programs do not. The paper in the link above is one of several to question the severity of the impact which cats are believed to have on our native birds.
mickw wrote:Broad scale domestication of a wide range of native animals thus displacing Dogs & Cats as preferred pets in Australian society
Hear, hear, well said old man, but how are we going to change the laws so that I can have a feather glider in my biggest aviary before I push up tulips?
The impact of trapping on populations of native birds is also believed to have been much more severe than it actually has been. The removal of a dozen pairs from any but the most endangered species would have less than a thousandth of the impact of natural predation, illness, extreme weather and so on.

:kitty:
Avid amateur aviculturalist; I keep mostly australian and foreign finches.
The art is long, the life so short; the critical moment is fleeting and experience can be misleading, crisis is difficult....... (Hippocrates)
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mickw
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Together Matty, :soppy: we could change the world!!!.........Lucky God invented Beer, wine and spirits.....and tobacco products........otherwise we'd take over :lolno:

Maybe some of our South Aussie & Victorian bretheren can eloborate on their mammal-keeping laws.....My understanding is that you can keep and breed quite alot of native mammals........

Whoops, just re-read the topic title......getting a bit off topic......sorry mods :shifty: ......I'm going to e-mail my mate, I think he has one or two first hand Night Parrot stories from those Aust Museaum expeditions in the late 70's early 80's......
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NoisyMia
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Maybe you all have heard of Sirocco the Kakapo. I came across him only recently and he gave me a good laugh.
This link isn't nearly as scholarly as the first one posted in this thread, but the video is hilarious, maybe you all have seen it:
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/2012/11 ... usual.html
I promise to contribute more intelligently in the future. I think the night parrot is fascinating.
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finchbreeder
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I remember seeing a nature program before with this crazy mixed up Kakapo, and his head mating habit. If he is "Well represented in the gene pool" it sounds like he does actually know he is a bird.
LML
LML
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NoisyMia
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Yes, and a really horny bird at that. :wtf:
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TomDeGraaff
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I know I am continuing off topic a bit (sorry mod's!).

I have a dvd called The Unnatural History of the Kakapo which is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking things I have ever watched on tellie.
It has that footage and talks with the late Don Merton who I reguard as an "avicultural saint"

Buy it, See it. Don't miss it! :)
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