Largest group of critically endangered night parrots discovered in Western Australia

Publicly released:
Australia; QLD; WA
Attribution: Rachel Murphy
Attribution: Rachel Murphy

There may be as many as 50 critically endangered night parrots living in the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in the far east of Western Australia's Pilbara region, according to Australian researchers, who say it is the largest known population in the world. The researchers used a type of acoustic recorder called a songmeter, and found evidence of night parrots at 17 of the 31 sites they checked on the Ngururrpa IPA. They found that a key threat to the birds' habitat is fire which occurs in the surrounding sandplain country every 6–10 years. They also found that while dingoes are common in night parrot habitat, they regularly eat feral cats which could be helping the survival of endangered species. The authors say any predator control methods should avoid harming dingoes.

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Research CSIRO Publishing, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).
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conference:
Wildlife Research
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: The National Environmental Science Program's Resilient Landscapes Hub, The University of Queensland, Parna Ngururrpa Aboriginal Corporation, Ngururrpa Ranger Program, Indigenous Desert Alliance, Desert Support Services, NAILSMA, Bush Heritage Australia, Adaptive NRM
Funder: The project is supported with funding from the Indigenous Desert Alliance, and the Australian Government under the National Environmental Science Program’s Resilient Landscapes Hub.
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