When I was researching Gouldian Finch habitat for Billiton back in the late
1980s some scientists were blaming mining and cattle. I doubt it was quite
that simple. For example numbers of Gouldian Finches appeared to fluctuate
depending on rainfall. In dry years greater numbers descended on more
permanent water.
Too frequent burning such as that which has held sway in Kakadu for decades, is
a threat, especially, I imagine, when combined with feral cats. Also such
fires appear to have encouraged the spread of annual speargrass at the expense
of a diversity of grasses, and the seeds of that species aren’t available
during the early Wet, a hard time for granivores.
Destructive fires fuelled by Gamba and Mission Grass also constitute a threat
to Gouldian Finch habitat, and those grasses are out of control right down to
Katherine. Now there may be another threat - Rats-tail Grass, Sporobolus
jaquemontii. This aggressive and hardy species takes over native grassland,
rapidly decreasing diversity, and because it resembles other native grasses
it’s hard to detect until it’s actually seeding. Rats-tail, like Mission
Grass, was apparently introduced as a contaminant in imported cattle pasture.
By the way Paul Newman spotted Gouldian Finches not far from our Darwin River
property not long ago, and since then I’ve seen two, possibly attracted by the
diversity of native grasses that still exists in this area.
Denise
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.
Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia
Founding Member: Australian Federation of Graduate Women Northern Territory
043 8650 835
On 10 Dec 2014, at 5:19 pm, Laurie Knight <> wrote:
> Sarah Legge has found that inappropriate fire regimes are a key factor in the
> decline of Gouldian Finches in the wild
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2014/12/09/4145484.htm
>
> .
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