Conservation management sometimes requires tough and painful decisions.
If you were on the spot in the following story, what you have done?
_____________________________________________________________________
http://www.themercury.com.au/common/story_page/0,4511,1345323%255E3462,00.html
Hungry goshawk puts parrot program at risk
By STEVEN DALLY
25oct00
TASMANIAN rangers have shot a threatened grey goshawk ? to save the
even rarer
orange-bellied parrot.
The grey goshawk is listed under Tasmanian threatened species laws as
rare with
an estimated 150 to 200 pairs in the state.
There are only 100 to 200 migratory orange-bellied parrots left in
Australia,
with another 120 in captivity for breeding.
Parks and Wildlife Service threatened species unit manager Peter Brown
last
night confirmed the grey goshawk had been shot in South-West Tasmania
after it
threatened the release of 28 captive-bred birds earlier this month.
Mr Brown described the decision as a horrible thing to have to do but
said the
grey goshawk posed a threat to all 28 parrots.
The goshawk killed one parrot in front of rangers within minutes of its
release
into the wild.
Efforts to trap and relocate the goshawk, from the remote Birchs Inlet
site
south-west of Macquarie Harbour, were unsuccessful.
Mr Brown said rangers were unable to determine if the goshawk, believed
to be a
female, survived the shooting.
The body was not recovered.
Rangers obtained permits under state law to shoot the goshawk.
Mr Brown said small birds posed a natural part of the diet of grey
goshawks,
represented in Tasmania by a white phase of the species.
"This was one of the worst decisions I have had to make but it could
have
threatened a significant number of the parrots," he said.
"The parrots had been captive bred and didn't have any natural nous.
Had it
happened a couple of weeks later it might have been different."
Tasmanian Conservation Trust spokesman Michael Lynch said last night he
was
glad he had not had to make the decision between 28 endangered parrots
and the
goshawk.
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent bringing these parrots
back
from the
brink of extinction and here you have these birds of prey hanging
around," Mr
Lynch said.
"I think I would have been devastated to watch one be taken."
"I think I would have made the same decision, but it would have been
really
hard."
Mr Lynch said he believed a second permit was also obtained to shoot a
more
common, but still protected, brown falcon, which was also seen in the
area of
the release.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
