>From today's Weekend Australian
Birds in the hand, but few in the bush [News Ltd. The Australian, Rcvd:Oct
27,10:37:00 EDT]
By: Terry Plane
MANORINA melanotis have received a lot of attention -- and money -- this month,
and some of them are being moved from Bookmark and Gluepot to Sunset.
Better known as the black-eared miner, a smallish and sociable but officially
endangered Australian bird unrelated to the various introduced species of
mynah, the last 250 of them in the wild live in colonies within Bookmark and
Gluepot reserves, near Renmark, in South Australia's Riverland.
Part of a recent $70,000 federal heritage grant to help save the black-eared
miner will be used to establish colonies at Murray-Sunset National Park in
Victoria, in similar mallee scrub country to their current habitat.
``One decent bushfire could wipe out the entire population in the wild,'' said
Mark Craig, acting chief executive officer of Adelaide Zoo, during a break from
yesterday's Australian Bird Taxon Advisory Group meeting.
Mr Craig sees Adelaide's successful miner breeding program as ``insurance''
against a disaster in the bush, such as fire, and says captive breeding could
be the ``last chance'' for the species.
The fate of the black-eared miner was on the classification group's agenda,
with 23 delegates considering conservation, population management, husbandry
and research issues affecting native species, especially birds in danger of
extinction and those -- mainly galahs and cockatoos -- popular with poachers
and smugglers.
Environment Australia, which worked with Adelaide Zoo and La Trobe University
to prepare the recovery plan for the black-eared miner, for which Environment
Minister Robert Hill ear-marked $70,000 from the Natural Heritage Trust
endangered-species program, believes five colonies of 1000 birds need to be
established to secure the miner's future.
Source: The Weekend Australian
Publication Date: 28-OCT-2000
Page: 007
Edition: 1
<CENTER>
Copyright © News Limited 2000
</CENTER>
Document:
http://today.newscast.com/nct.cgi?menu=viewdoc&docref=1:100:10:27:35157&profnum=300903
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