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Birds Australia Media Release
COCKATOO POISONING - A THREAT TO OUR WILDLIFE
Birds Australia expresses great concern about recent statements made by the
Victorian Minister for Conservation and Land Management, the Hon Marie
Tehan MP, regarding changes to methods for controlling Cockatoos, Corellas
and Galahs.
These changes include permitting the use of a variety of poisons up to
Schedule 6, including organophosphate and other pesticides designed for
completely different purposes, on baits and using deployment methods
according to the whims of individual farmers. Guidelines regarding their
use to poison birds would be largely useless since little is known about
which chemicals or cocktails, what dosage levels, or what bait treatment
methods would be most target-specific. Departmental supervision will be
minimal and largely useless in cases of abuse.
Although Birds Australia believes that most farmers will be responsible
about adhering to the law, some landowners may take advantage of relaxed
controls to target protected wildlife such as kangaroos and wallabies,
raptors, parrots, corvids, Brolgas and grain-eating waterfowl. Moreover it
will be almost impossible to prosecute abusive farmers because of the need
to prove deliberate intention, as well as because of the lack of adequate
departmental resources. There was no indication by the Minister that
increased resources be made available to monitor poison usage and
non-target mortality through frequent visits to farms and tests on poisoned
fauna to determine which poisons are used.
The destruction that would flow from permitting farmers to use a wide
variety of poisons will not be limited to pest cockatoos, and will
certainly kill many harmless, beneficial and even, possibly, threatened
non-target species. It especially poses the serious threat of secondary
poisoning of native mammals and of birds of prey.
Most birds of prey will be at risk even if they do not prey on cockatoos.
Predators such as birds of prey are specifically attracted to sick or
weakened prey and will thus be attracted to poisoned animals. Many small
rodents and birds such as finches and sparrows will be accidentally killed
by the potent poisons to be used, and so having a secondary poisoning
effect on birds of prey such as Hobbies, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels,
Black-shouldered Kites, Boobook Owls and Barn Owls. Poisoned cockatoos and
smaller birds such as rosellas will be targeted by Peregrine Falcons, Black
Falcons, rare Grey Falcons, Brown Falcons, Brown Goshawks, Swamp and
Spotted Harriers, Little Eagles, Wedge-tailed Eagles, White-bellied Sea
Eagles and Masked Owls. Many of these species also will scavenge poisoned
cockatoos, a habit which will also put the Whistling Kite at great risk.
There are also other predatory birds such as Brolgas and large herons that
might take poisoned prey. These probabilities are not speculation. Such
birds have been killed in several states by illegal poison operations and,
as extensive overseas experience makes clear; there will be many deaths of
non-target species
The Minister?s statements run contrary to a report published in 1995 by the
Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Parliament of Victoria,
?Problems in Victoria caused by Long-billed Corellas, Sulphur-crested
Cockatoos and Galahs? which rules out poisoning as an effective solution to
the problem.
The report, which is based on submissions and expert advice made by Birds
Australia, government departments, farmers, Landcare groups, as well as
many other organisations and individuals, outlines measures to
systematically control pest populations of Cockatoos WITHOUT the use of
poison.
Birds Australia is completely opposed to the use of poison to control pest
cockatoos. We suggest that there should be no departure from the
recommendations of the 1995 report regarding control methods, and that a
continuation of departmentally supervised trapping and euthanasia should
not be superseded by less selective methods of destruction.
We are further concerned that the largely unsupervised use of a variety of
poisons may lead to environmental contamination as well as to the potential
for contamination of foodstuffs that form a major export industry.
Poisoned wheat entering our export or domestic supply could have both
serious health and trade implications. It should also be remembered that
some of the poisons likely to be used are extremely toxic to people, and
there is a great risk associated with their haphazard use. With
familiarity comes contempt, casualness and danger.
It is understood that the three species of cockatoos mentioned in the title
of the Report may cause economic damage to some farmers in Victoria.
Accepting that some form of control is necessary in some places at some
times, such control should be selective enough to not endanger other fauna,
nor pollute the environment.
In the medium to long-term there is a desperate need to get away from the
largely ineffective ad hoc reactionary measures that have been and are
continuing to be used, and to develop and implement a comprehensive pest
management strategy. There must be research conducted on the biology of
the pest species as well as on more lateral, environmentally benign and
non-destructive methods of control that benefit both our bird populations
and our farming community.
Released: 8 April 1999. For further information or a copy of our
Conservation Statement No.2., ?Australia?s Raptors: Diurnal Birds of Prey
and Owls?, by Penny Olsen, please contact Hugo Phillipps on 03 9882 2622,
or email <>
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Hugo Phillipps,
Birds Australia Conservation & Liaison,
Australian Bird Research Centre,
415 Riversdale Road,
Hawthorn East, VIC 3123, Australia.
Tel: (03) 9882 2622. Fax: (03) 9882 2677.
O/s: +61 3 9882 2622. Fax: +61 3 9882 2677.
Email: <>
Web Homepage: http://www.vicnet.net.au/~birdsaus/
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