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- © The District Bulletin 2024
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Review by Frankie Seymour
Alex (see photo) is a Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo and is a very lucky lad. Discovered, as a tiny 10-day old chick in the hollow of a felled tree at Tarago, he was picked up by a couple of inquisitive Samaritans, taken to the vet, who then passed the bird to Wildcare for rehabilitation and release. But this little fella had a different destiny to the norm.
Maryanne, Wildcare’s bird coordinator in Queanbeyan, took on the job of initially raising Alex prior to handing him onto Nadia who specialises in bird care. As Maryanne says, “Raising a chick from such an early age is not easy.
They require considerable care, in terms of temperature and humidity control. And they need feeding with a syringe every couple of hours. It can be a challenge, but this one made it and within a few months had grown quickly to close to its full-grown weight of about 700 grams.”
“The problem was, that Alex was raised alone, and didn’t know how to be a cockatoo. And as Wildcare and neighbouring wildlife groups didn’t have a companion bird to match him up, he became very humanised. He could not be released back into the wild, as he would always seek out the company of people.
Normally in such a case, if an animal cannot be released, authorities stipulate it has to be euthanised. However, under the NSW Code of Practice for raising and releasing orphaned wildlife, there was a slim option to keep him alive, as a permanent care animal.
Alex when he was rescued.
Maryanne and Nadia wanted the best possible home for Alex and found exactly that, all the way across in Western Australia at the Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre.
Kaarakin was very keen to have Alex to help raise public awareness. They already have other species of black cockatoos and have huge aviaries and facilities. There is no doubt Alex will have a great life at Kaarakin. To transfer Alex, there was a need to get permission from the NSW and WA governments and then it was a matter of organising the flight across the continent.”
So, well done to Maryanne and Nadia, who both raised Alex at different stages and took the long journey across to Perth. Their efforts to raise Alex, and then at their expense, transfer him to Kaarakin are extraordinary. As Maryanne, says, “He has apparently settled in very well – happy to chat away to the staff and get along with the other permanent care parrots. Overall, Kaarakin can have as many as 150 parrots at any time in rehabilitation and permanent care.”
If you need any help with wildlife matters, get in touch with Wildcare on 6299 1966. And if you are interested in caring for injured and orphaned birds (or other wildlife), check out there website: wildcare.com.au
Philip Machin, Wildcare
The report works with examples of vulnerable species, illustrating the severity of changes in each ecosystem type. Some can carry the fate of many other species within their own survival.
The koala population has already plunged by 33% since 1990, including a drop of 75% in the Pilliga Forest which was until recently regarded as a koala stronghold. As forest area shrinks due to reduced rainfall, increased fires, logging and inundation of coastal swamp forests, koala populations will shrink even further.
In the alpine region, where snow has reduced by 40% since 1960, there are only 2600 mountain pigmy possums left, occupying about 10 sq/km. They hibernate 7 months of the year and eat mostly bogong moths when they emerge. Reduced snow cover is disrupting their hibernation cycle, and they are emerging before the moths arrive. This absence of food after hibernation is significantly reducing this species’ chances of survival.
In NSW woodlands, the regent honeyeater is a critical pollinator of many eucalypt species, but its breeding patterns are closely tied to the flowering time of the trees. As climate change causes the trees to flower early, the honeyeaters are likely to starve and many trees will go unpollinated.
In marine regions, seagrass meadows are a critical nursery and feeding ground for marine animals. About 30% of seagrass cover has already disappeared. What is left is threatened by rising sea levels and more frequent and extreme sea storms.
NSW government polling shows 91% of the people of
NSW support renewables.
The regional launch included some positive directions including the Repower organisation’s goal of ensuring that 100% of Australia’s energy will be supplied from renewables by 2030.
One failing of the report is not underlining that its dire projections are cumulative. The changes could be much more severe as a result of feedback loops between ecosystems and the climate. For example, the report notes that seagrass meadows store more carbon per hectare that the Amazon rainforest. The writers could have taken the opportunity to note that losing such a significant greenhouse sink would further contribute to climate change.
The report also limits its call to action to the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energies. It omits any reference to the other half of the equation, the importance of largescale restoration of both terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. Such restoration would directly benefit Australia’s ecosystems and wildlife by restoring lost habitat. It would also restore Australia’s contribution to global greenhouse sinks. This is particularly so as the NSW government goes backward in allowing unmonitored vegetation clearance
Notwithstanding, the Nature Conservation Council is to be congratulated on an impressive and readily comprehensible summary of an enormously complex issue and not merely a minor inconvenience for humans. It is potentially the worst disaster for all life on Earth since the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The message that, even now, it is not too late to avert the disaster, or at least to reduce its worst impacts, is equally important.