Orange Bellied Story

[GregH]

Hugh Possingham is stirring the possum today if you read the story on the ABC, Critically endangered parrot on brink of extinction. He speculates it's too late to save it in the wild and the money would be better directed to something that can be saved. That coincidently means that guardianship of the species would rest solely on captive populations and the only way to safe guard that would be to more widely distribute the stock. If their happens what happens to the first lutino/cinnamon/white/pied mutant to turn up?

[maz]

http://www.facebook.com/orangebelliedparrot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; these guys are trying to get the species released to aviculturalists as a way of improving the captive breeding success, seems that they are having little success in the captive breeding program with very small clutch sizes......it's a horrible plight for any species would love to see them return from the brink.

[jusdeb]

Im on that facebook page . Those people are so dedicated and committed to these parrots and do it for nothing .

Give them the money I say and along with their passion for the Orange Bellies I reckon thay really could save them .

Having them primed for that long migration seems to be the biggest hurdle and of course habitat loss ..sheesh we humans suck at times ,luckily not all though .

[desertbirds]

Seems the gurus got it wrong again. Fred Lewitska had the Orange Bellied breeding in captivity in 1973 .Fred wasnt having great success but he was on the right track. He had three pairs and the birds were taken for a government based breeding program. . Surely with a species like this if a mutation were to be produced, it should not be allowed to breed.
The Orange Bellied was listed as one of Australias rarest birds in the early eighties.It seems funny that thirty years on we are talking about a program that could of got off the ground in the seventies.

[arthur]

He had three pairs and the birds were taken for a government based breeding program

Any results available for the 'g-b-b-p' ?

Or is the current one a continuation of the original . . If so how many have been bred in the 40 years??

[maz]

from what I read (and dont quote me on the details) they are averaging clutches of 1.5 chicks, here was an attempted release a while back but that was unsuccessful,they are keeping the details very hush hush but more were taken from the wild a few years back to increase genetic diversity in the captive population

[Mortisha]

Do they foster the eggs out to other species to get the OB hens to lay more?
To be honest, I don't know about releasing them so they can try to migrate - seems like one good storm season could wipe out the whole wild population now.
Maybe try to establish a few pockets of resident populations in the warmer climes.
But then, what to i know

[desertbirds]

I dont know exactly what happened to Freds birds. A captive breeding program commenced in 1985. 10 juvenile birds were trapped. 7 of the ten trapped died from PBFB. In April 1987 the four youngsters produced from the remaining birds also died of PBFB. IN 1987 a new gorup was trapped and kept isolated from the original birds. In July 1988 a total of seven birds were bred from the second group.

Thats the only info i have Arthur, we knew Freds son John in Adelaide, Fred was curator (or similar ) of birds at the Adelaide zoo. and i rememeber him saying that his dads birds were confiscated. The sad fact is , Fred had the birds going and once the government got involved it was some 15 years later that they started showing some positive results. Mark Shepards book " Aviculture in Australia"is where i got the info , Mark also states in the book 'I hope that private aviculturists may soon be invited to participate in this project." that was around 1989

I feelthe wild population is doomed. Another interesting point is that in t he mean time private people have be able to breed Rock Parrots, Blue Winged Parrots and all of the other Neophemas is good numbers. The Orange Bellied is different but not that different. The main problem was obesity and Fred had indicated that as early as 1973.

Now ive dragged the book out i was wrong.OOOPS . It says Fred was directed by Wildlife Authorities to release the birds back to the wild .Maybe he didnt and the birds were seized.

[desertbirds]

Do they foster the eggs out to other species to get the OB hens to lay more?
To be honest, I don't know about releasing them so they can try to migrate - seems like one good storm season could wipe out the whole wild population now.
Maybe try to establish a few pockets of resident populations in the warmer climes.
But then, what to i know

They were trying to foster eggs under Rock Parrots, not sure how that went. My thought are the same on the wild birds, half the population could be killed just flyig across a road.
I dont think they do well in warmer climes in the wild. if you see where they live its generally cooler areas and lots of sedges and a bit swampy.

[arthur]

Surely with a species like this if a mutation were to be produced, it should not be allowed to breed.

Interesting question . .

If a mutation did crop up then one or both parents would be split for that mutation

Should those parents be then allowed to breed . .

And their parents before them . .

Taken to its logical conclusion one way . . If the O-B population was reduced to a single pair, and they produced a mutation . . . . . . . . . ..

Or the other way . . If there are 100 partially related pairs in the programme, and a mutation crops up . . . . . .

Interesting question . .