Largest ever population of extremely rare night parrot detected in Australia's Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area
An almost mythical Australian bird, the night parrot, has been discovered in large numbers at Ngururrpa Country. The methods to locate these birds have been explained in the journal Wildlife Research. The methodologies were focused on answering three queries: whether night parrots lived in the locality, what factors threatened them, and what more could be done to save them. The team used both native knowledge and technology to answer these questions. The survey was conducted for three years, from 2020 to 2023, in the area. The findings from the three years suggested that around 50 night parrots lived in the area.
Who are Night Parrots?
The night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) is a nationally endangered species, according to Resilient Landscapes. They are known as ground-dwelling and nocturnal by nature. Until 2013, they were believed to be extinct, driven to oblivion by habitat degradation, fire regimes, and attack by feral cats and foxes. They were categorized as endangered after being rediscovered at Pullen Pullen Reserve in Queensland. Researchers evaluated 31 survey sites in the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), and in 17 of those, they detected night parrots. This finding is pivotal as it is one of the "Threatened Species Action Plan's Priority Species." If the researchers' assertion is correct, then there may be 50 night parrots present in the locality, the largest known population of the species in Western Australia.
How were Night Parrots Monitored?
Night parrots are a rare bird species that exhibit a green and yellow pattern, and once flew in the Australian interior region, according to Earth.com. To detect these birds in Ngururrpa Country, authorities deployed several weatherproof audio recorders that focused on the distinctive sounds produced by these birds. Then, they sent camera traps to the area where they detected these sounds. The traps aided experts in not only spotting the birds, but also the predators that may have been impacting their lifecycle. Predator scats were also used in the exercise to understand what the predators in the surrounding area were eating. During the exercise, the team searched decades' worth of satellite images to find out how often forest fires impacted the region. All these findings painted a picture of the night parrot's sustenance in the area.
Findings from the Study
Researchers claim that these night parrots lived in old-growth spinifex hummocks, called "lanu lanu" in the local Kukatja language, during the day, according to The Guardian. The rangers also did a field inspection for the study and detected a breeding area used by the birds. "We saw nests and the eggs, and we saw feathers of the night parrot," Ngururrpa ranger Cindy Gibson stated. Dr Steve Murphy and Dr Nick Leseberg determined the calls made by night parrots registered by weatherproof audio recorders. There were several calls, with one sounding like a telephone ring, "didly dip, didly dip," and the other one like a bell, "dink dink."
The birds seemed to get startled in the company of predators. "When you startle a night parrot, it just freezes, and it just sort of sits there and pretends like you can't see it," Leseberg shared. Baby night parrots appeared to be the targets of feral cats. These fledglings made a lot of noise in their first few weeks on the ground, which attracted the cats towards them. Another threat identified was lightning-ignited wildfires. To deal with both of these threats, experts believe constant monitoring by officials is necessary. The involvement of the indigenous population also helps, who, through their traditional ground burning techniques, routinely control wildfires. Furthermore, a balanced ecosystem also goes a long way, as dingoes control the cat population, stopping it from wiping out the night parrots, the study cited.