Orange bellied parrots' wild population doubles after scientific recovery program
Submitted by Chickowee on 26 Nov 2014.
One of the world's rarest species, the orange bellied parrot, has bucked its long-term trend of decline and almost doubled its wild population.
The critically endangered birds, which spend winter in South Australia and Victoria, have just migrated to the remote Melaleuca outpost in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area for the breeding season.
Last November, fewer than 10 wild breeding pairs returned to Melaleuca, prompting a recovery program to arrange for the population to be artificially increased.
Twenty-four birds were released at Melaleuca and now 34 have returned for the summer breeding season, which Rosemary Gales from Tasmania's environment department said was a significant boost.
