Point taken. You are absolutely right, no-one can ever be absolutely certain of the population of any bird. Not entirely sure how much the difference between 21 & 35 exaggerated the plight though - can do you really think that's an excuse for what the media and politicians are doing? Perhaps I am missing something.
Simon.
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> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:31:05 +1100
> From:
> To:
> CC:
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Response to Greg Hunt re beating-up Orange-bellied Parrots
>
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 09:44:17AM +1100, Simon Mustoe wrote:
> > There are too many misconceptions and untruths being
> > told about Orange-bellied Parrots ...
>
> Bird-o could lead by example here, it still says:
>
> "In the week when researchers announce the world population of
> Orange-bellied Parrots (OBPs) has dropped from just 35 to 21 birds"
>
> As I pointed out in a previous email, this isn't true the researchers
> say the Melaaleuca population has been stable for 3 seasons and there are
> 21 adults at Melaleuca now, the same as last season.
>
> Last season the OBP people captured 21 Melaleuca juveniles for the
> captive breeding program. They think 2 juveniles were taken by predators
> and only 4 Melaleuca juveniles were left to migrate north.
>
> So 21 coming back seems reasonably good news and without the intake
> to the captive breeding program, surely there would have been a
> small increase in OBP adults at Melaleuca this year.
>
> As far as global population goes, the OBP people seem to say there are
> currently 30ish OBPs (adults+juveniles) at Melaleuca plus hopefully a
> few more elsewhere.
>
> I'm happy to be corrected here but that my reading of the various
> bits and pieces from the OBP people.
>
> Even if there are 50 OBPs in the wild, they are obviously in desperate
> trouble with extinction in the wild possible in a few years. There is
> no need to exaggerate their plight.
>
> Andrew
