I've just come across this item - published a week ago. < It's a bit
old, but I don't recall this issue being discussed on B-Aus>
Regards, Laurie.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21912686-3102,00.html
Bristlebirds face euthanasia
By Phil Hammond
June 16, 2007 12:00am
THE organisation charged with protecting one of the state's most
endangered birds is believed to have considered killing off two-thirds
of them.
The Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly discussed
euthanasing the 12 eastern bristlebirds carefully bred in captivity on
the Gold Coast.
There are believed to be only six pairs in the wild. National park
rangers in NSW and EPA sources told The Courier-Mail that the EPA had
``gone cold'' on its threatened species program and now believed there
was no point trying to save the shy bird, which lives in grass tussocks
on the Queensland-NSW border.
This was because of the small numbers remaining and concerns that the
captive birds were too inbred to survive in the wild.
Queensland Environment Minister Lindy Nelson-Carr denied the EPA had
turned its back on the bristlebird and would ``continue to invest in
its recovery'', but said an EPA recovery plan for the state's
bristlebirds had ``not yet been adopted by the Commonwealth''.
Queensland has received $45,100 from the Federal Government to save
eastern bristlebirds from extinction and volunteers and farmers have
spent tens of thousands of dollars more and much time trying to
identify wild specimens and preserve their habitat.
Almost $440,000 has been spent under the Endangered Species Program and
the Natural Heritage Trust since 1998 to save the species.
Leading bird expert John Young, who was asked to find baby bristlebirds
for captive breeding, estimated there were possibly six pairs left in
the wild in Queensland and 15 or more south of the border.
``Queensland is umming and ahhing about future funding of the
bristlebird program and I have problems with that,'' Mr Young said.
``I'm told that within the EPA there's a view that with the population
so low, why bother trying to save it.
``We have some of the best people in the country working on
bristlebirds and a lot of the public will be very angry if the EPA does
the wrong thing.''
Federal Environment Department threatened species officer Damon Oliver
said he wanted an explanation from the EPA.
``These birds were sourced from NSW as chicks with the understanding
that breeding them up in a Queensland facility, then releasing them,''
Mr Oliver said.
``A lot of effort has been put in on both sides of the border in terms
of habitat management.''
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