Orange Bellied Story

[jusdeb]

I think they are still working on the vaccine ...

[MadHatter]

I don't think it's right to say that the entire captive population is infected with or carries PBFD. Certainly they have had issues with PBFD in both the captive birds and in the wild population, but that is not the same as saying it is systemic or that every individual is infected.
The wild population has, despite releases of captive-bred birds, plumeted in the last few years from over 100 down to 20-odd. I don't know whether the cause of this decline has been fully identified as yet, but I suspect it is largely due to a lack of recruitment, with only a handful of wild pairs attempting to breed each year. This, combined with degradation and frgmentation of their breeding habitat (which appears to be the root cause of the low number of breeding attempts) as well as of their over-wintering habitat, likely contributes to poor health and longevity within the population as a whole.
It is my personal opinion that the existing habitat has degraded to such a degree that it can no longer sustain the birds and for that reason I belive the best option is to take in the remainder of the wild population into captivity until such time as a proper management plan can be put in place to remediate the habitat decline. This, as bluebutterfly correctly pointed out does not come without it's own risks, as wild birds will not always take well to captivity. On the other hand, if we don't act immediately, at the current drastic rate of decline, the species could very well be extinct in the wild within a year or two and we will have squandered the opportunity to preserve what little genetic diversity remains.

[SamDavis]

I think they mention that the 21 wild caughts were partially bought in to help with that as well as genetic diversity.... here is the report on the 21 individuals bought in http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/images ... il2011.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I couldnt find out anything about where these 20 individuals are kept or bred but I would hope they are kept seperate from the rest of the population if PBFD is a persistent problem...and as you say if it isnt in the wild population then you would hope they dont release it.
What concerns me is in the video on the healseville site they talk about releasing 70 birds in total in 2009/ 2010.....that's a lot to release and yet the numbers seem to drop each year, after all these years of releasing stock what the hell is happening?

The report you link to states that 21 out of the 27 fledglings in the 2010/11 season were caught and taken into captivity. That seems an insane and ridiculously high percentage to me (doesn't really give the wild population a chance to grow). Furthermore in 2009/10 they released 70 birds from Healesville. Are they sure they're not just collecting wild fledglings from the released Healesville bloodlines? If the fledglings are NOT from the Healesville line then the implication is that virtually all the 70 released have perished. In either case it's a shocking and virtually total failure.
And if they have approx 400 already in captivity in 3 separate populations and they've continued to take from the wild then I suspect they've got more genetic diversity than some of our aviary species. Therefore why the hell aren't they breeding thousands of OBPs each year? Sorry, but the whole business sounds very suspect and I can't help but imply there's been a few almighty stuff ups going on.

[MadHatter]

Sam; to my knowledge, this is the first capture of wild-bred juveniles to be brought into the captive breeding program since the original founders were captured. This was done in direct response to the precipitous decline of the species in the wild and to fulfil the desperate need for new blood in the captive breeding program.
as for the release of 70 captive-bred birds in the '09/10 season, at that time the wild population was holding more-or-less steady at around 120-150 birds. The rapid decline down to the current numbers has only occurred in the last 10 years or less.
It is important to keep in mind that the average life-span of this species in the wild is not awfully long. A bird would be lucky to make it more than 10 years. So to characterise the release as a failure because most of those birds aren't around more that 10 years after the fact is not really fair. The fact that recruitment in the wild, even with captive releases, has not kept up with the mortality rate is not the fault of the captive breeding and release strategy, but rather a failure of the available habitat to support the population. I think I am right in saying that the '09/10 release was the last release of any significant numbers, it is my impression that since then no more than approximately 10-20 captive-bred birds have been released in any one season, and perhaps none at all in some seasons.
It is important to also point out at this point that the number we have been referring to as the total wild population (21) is actually the number of individually identified adults that turned up to breed at Melaleuca in the 2010/'11 season. It is likely that the total population is higher than that as, while the site at Melaleuca is their main breeding habitat and is intensively managed for that reason, there is every likelihood that some birds may have spent the season (and possibly bred) in other areas of suitable habitat.

[GregH]

Here is an 8 minute video from the 7:30 Report regarding the OBP recovery project. It is a truly grim story and Desert Birds I agree with you that leaving the species to fend for itself in the wild alone is almost certainly ensuring that it's heading for extinction. Looks like starlings competing for nesting sites are a major problem and not just degraded feeding grounds too.

[SamDavis]

madhatter. I think the dates are all muddled somehow so it's difficult for me to comprehend your point.

...So to characterise the release as a failure because most of those birds aren't around more that 10 years after the fact is not really fair...

Here's the Healsville video I think maz referred to earlier http://vimeo.com/2767585. In this clip Chris Lekos says " last season we released 70 individuals... Healsville contributed 42..." The date on the video is Jan 8, 2009 so I presume the 70 were released during 2008 which of course is not 10 years ago (although it's not 2009/10 either).

Sam; to my knowledge, this is the first capture of wild-bred juveniles to be brought into the captive breeding program since the original founders were captured. This was done in direct response to the precipitous decline of the species in the wild and to fulfil the desperate need for new blood in the captive breeding program.

I assume the 2006 recovery plan documents have accurate data up to 2006. Page 10 of the "Background and implementation..." document lists all the wild birds taken into captivity - a total of 26 birds between 1985 and 1997. So it has likely been some 14 or so years since wild birds have been taken into captivity. However on p11 of this document is a table of captive releases. There were 315 released between 1991 and 2006 plus the 70 in 2008 and I suspect a few more in 2007 and maybe some more recently, hence something like 400 have been released over time. One would hope that many (or at least some) of these released birds have bred and hence the 21 young taken recently are surely likely to be related to the existing captive stock.
With regard to declining fertility, in the Healsville video http://vimeo.com/2767585 Chris Lekos checks a nest with 1 chick just hatched and 4 fertile eggs. Maybe this is the exception but still it does indicate there are certainly captive pairs with no fertility problems. I'd be more than pleased with 5 out 5 for any species of neophema I've ever owned.

I hate to be negative about all the effort that's gone into the orange bellied parrot, but these issues just make me wonder what is really going on here. It's a real shame they didn't use the Bomford model - based on the Bomford model and the number of captive birds released we should have "locust-like" swarms of orange bellied parrots taking over Tas. and much of SE Australia by now!

[MadHatter]

Sorry Sam, I don't know how I got it into my head that the 09/10 season was 10 years ago. I'll blame it on posting from work - divided attention. My apologies.
From what i saw in the video, I would suggest that it could have been at least a year or two out of date already at the time it was posted.
It's conceivable that the 70 birds referred to may be encompassed by the recovery plan data you linked to, though I will concede that may equally not be the case. Either way, I think your math is better than mine.
I think you're stretching it a bit far to suggest that, factoring in the number of released birds over the years, that all the captured juveniles must therefore be related to the captive stock. It is likely that some, perhaps even most, are related to some degree, but most should also be outbred to wild birds and would therefore be carrying novel genes that will contribute to the genetic diversity of the captive population.

I fully agree that the program has serious issues. The mortality of birds in the wild (both wild-bred and captive releases) is of serious concern. I will equally concede that alot of mistakes have been made in the past in the management of the captive breeding program.
In the end, the point I am driving at is that we cannot lay all the blame at the feet of the captive breeding program. We cannot hope to ever sustain a wild population through captive breeding alone. At best, a captive population can only ever be an insurance policy. Without proper management of the threats to the population in the wild, even the best captive breeding program will be ultimately futile.

[GregH]

So here's an interesting twist on the OBP story: Do you prevent development within it's former range on the off chance that one day the a population will establish itself in the conserved habitat? The question is not theoretical read the story on the ABC site - Rare parrot puts marina development in jeopardy. It's tough call but I put myself on the side of the parrot while there is still hope. I wouldn't log or otherwise disturb the Brazilian forest habitat of the Spix's macaw either and there are none of them left in the wild. Why aren't we prepared to control the most destructive and numerous vertebrate species on this planet? The more we remove ourselves from nature the less likely we are to value and conserve what's left.

[jusdeb]

From the OB programme ..

Orange-bellied Parrot Project
"There seems to be a fourth breeding facility added to the OBP breeding program.... way up out of their breeding temperature range...NSW. Too hot , im sorry , they better have some good cooling devices during summer..."

Trying to find out more .....



Large parrot breeding facility in NSW is to be the fourth ...

[jusdeb]

It sure would be a shame to lose them ...