The conservation problem
This project is developing new methods to help prevent the extinction of two Critically Endangered and
one Endangered Tasmanian hollow-nesting bird species: orange-bellied parrot, swift parrot and forty-spotted pardalote. The threats to these species
include loss of nesting hollows, decline in habitat quality leading to lack of food, increased disease and parasite loads, and direct predation by
introduced sugar gliders. Our research will find and test the best techniques for avoiding or mitigating these threats, in an adaptive management approach.
This will provide these species with the best possible chance to breed successfully and recover their numbers. We also aim to find important remaining
habitat and potential sites to move animals to establish new populations. Without intervention, all three species are likely to become extinct.
How this research is addressing the problem
Our research is paving the way for urgently needed management interventions. Over the three years of the project, it will include:
- Enhancing critical habitat on predator-free offshore islands
- Testing predator-proof nest boxes for mainland Tasmania
- Increasing reproduction in populations with dangerously low numbers
- Developing methods for parasite and disease control
- Identifying critical remaining habitat and sites for translocation and establishment of new populations.
Our work is designed to influence policy and engage managers at a practical level through working closely with Tasmanian government agencies. Working
relationships with NGOs and a major Aboriginal corporation are ensuring that the public and traditional land-owners are fully engaged.
What we aim to collectively achieve through the research
This project aims to address the dual problems of severe predation by introduced sugar gliders and chronically low rates of population recruitment
in these highly imperilled Tasmanian hollow-nesting bird species. Specifically, we aim to:
- Reduce the number of sugar gliders from key breeding sites and mitigate their impacts in hollow-nesting birds, supported by research on population dynamics through deployment of nest boxes across mainland Tasmania
- Dramatically improve the population trajectory for swift parrots over 20 years via on-ground conservation actions, including the provision of safe nesting sites, reducing the number of introduced predator species, and identifying key habitat for protection
- Securing the forty-spotted pardalote population by protecting remaining habitat and reducing their parasites, and preparing for population re-introduction/expansion on mainland Tasmania
- Increasing the population size of wild orange-bellied parrots by improving their survival and reproduction, and preparing for population expansion at further sites.
Project 2.2.1 Saving the orange-bellied parrot
Project 2.2.2 Saving the swift parrot
Project 2.2.3 Conservation and management of the endangered forty-spotted pardalote
Read more: Tackling threats to endangered hollow nesting birds in Tasmania.
Image: Swift Parrot by Heather/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Project 2.2.2 Saving the swift parrot
Project 2.2.3 Conservation and management of the endangered forty-spotted pardalote
Read more: Tackling threats to endangered hollow nesting birds in Tasmania.
Image: Swift Parrot by Heather/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
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Tackling threats to endangered hollow nesting birds in Tasmania
Fri, 06 May 2016Sugar gliders in Tasmania are having a devastating impact on the swift parrot population, and they could be detrimental to other threatened bird species as well.
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Parrots make swift use of nesting boxes in Tasmania
Tue, 11 Oct 2016Dejan Stojanovic is in the field, checking on the 300+ nesting boxes he and his team spent a large part of their winter installing in known swift parrot territory.
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Gimme shelter: Conserving hollow-nesting birds
Wed, 13 Mar 2019What influences where birds choose to nest? About 15% of Australian birds, or 114 species, need tree hollows for breeding or shelter. The number of hollow-bearing trees is declining due to timber harvesting and development.
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