When I worked in the outback on the south-coast of Western Australia I visited many schools. It was hoped that I could bring the conservation message to the families that lived on the border of the national parks. In essence a bit of home grown brain washing. I was also fortunate enough to visit aboriginal schools which were run and taught mostly by the aboriginals from the community. It was during this phase of my job that I devised a number of basic principles for the conservation of parrots (or species in general). It was not long until I realize that, while this was supposed be a simplification for children, it was in fact a compact look at essential principles that we managers need to ponder. I remember vividly trying to draw these concepts on the white board and having the teachers and leaders of the aboriginal school scream out the answer before the poor students had a chance. I guess thats the beauty of education its for all ages - all the time, you never stop being just a little bit curious.
You can apply these conservation steps to a number of complex problems, however there will always be some exceptions, although I am yet to meet many. Before we look at the principles lets explore the complexity of the problem. It is in fact the problems that blind us to the solution. You tend to get bogged down in the alternatives and unknowns and stop looking at the needs and rudimentary actions. It wasn’t until I had to explain this to children that i saw how truly simple it was.
The Problems. In Tasmania for half the year the most endangered parrot of Australia makes its home and breeds. Then it closes up shop, flies the Bass straight to the south coast of Mainland Australia and settles down to wait out the winter. This wonderful migratory parrot is the Orange-Bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster). The problem of a migratory species is vast, particularly when its migration takes it to the jurisdiction of another country/state where the same conservation laws do not apply, access is difficult and the same manager can only be effective for half the year. This is particularly true for whale populations that may pass Australia in order to calve in Tonga. You can have a situation where your legislation is effective enough at protecting the species but only after the survivors return from a migration event. Sadly the same is true for parrots. Luckily Orange-bellied parrots remain in Australia, however there are numerous examples of macaws and other rare parrots in South America which live along mans borders but refuse to recognize them. Birds have this funny tendency not to read road maps or carry passports. Consequently a reintroduction program requires the transport of a species across borders or conservation of summer habitats in Argentina are ineffective due to degradation of winter habitats in Brazil (for example).
Other anomalies that stump conservation are the ghosts. These are the species that pop up now and then to tease the human race but then slink away into oblivion. I cannot forget the searing heat of the desert of mid-west Australia. the thermometer was hitting 48 DegC in the shade and Death DegC in my body. We sat at water hole after water hole and watch them evapourate before our eyes. The skies and trees where full of Galah (Eolophus roseicapillus), Corella (Cacatua sanguinea), budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus) and Bourke’s (Neophema bourkii) parrots all with gapping beaks panting like a hound dog in the summer sun. Why were we in this blistering death trap? What possesses a semi-sane man to convince him to give up on normal living conditions? The answer was simple, I was hunting a ghost. Nothing fits that label better than the elusive Night Parrot (Geopsittacus occidentalis). This desert nomad roams through the outback moving with the rains, following the semingly random seeding events of the desert spinifex grass. It has been spotted through the decades by very credible people, but never relocated, never photographed or recorded calling. There are still no leads as to where it lives, how it travels, when it nests. In 1990 a dead bird was found on the side of the road by a member of an expedition that was returning from a desert survey searching for this very beast. They stop to answer the call of nature as they made their depressed return journey and hey presto, there in the gutter was infamy in the form of a little green headless parrot. Luck struck again in 2005 when another headless specimen was found strung up on a fence in the desert. With these unrepeatable events the trail goes cold. I have assisted on two of the four Western Australian surveys and sadly we are no closer to the truth. Perhaps one day we will get lucky till then we chase ghosts.
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