Glossy black cockatoos may well be driven in opposition to extinction in Victoria if burns move forward, professionals warn

Glossy black cockatoos may well be driven in opposition to extinction in Victoria if deliberate burns of 13,000 hectares of woodland move forward, ecologists and conservationists warn.

The Victorian govt is being recommended to desert the burn, which is meant to cut back bushfire possibility.

Glossy black cockatoos are indexed as prone in Victoria, the place they’re discovered simplest in East Gippsland.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of their Victorian habitat was once burned within the 2019-20 black summer season bushfires, leaving the species virtually totally depending on 48,000 hectares of unburnt coastal woodland between Lake Tyers and Orbost, about 350km east of Melbourne.

A peer-reviewed learn about revealed within the magazine Australian Field Ornithology estimated that the Victorian inhabitants had declined via three-quarters for the reason that fires.

Glossy black cockatoos feed virtually completely at the cones of black sheoak bushes.

Peter Menkhorst, a retired ecologist who labored for Victorian govt flora and fauna companies for 48 years and a co-author of the learn about, mentioned they almost certainly had essentially the most specialized nutrition of any Australian chook, and that a hearth in black sheoak forests may badly injury their meals provide. He mentioned any unburnt stands of black sheoak had been “of critical importance for the species”.

A state govt file into biodiversity after the fires agreed that surviving black sheoak stands had been of “great significance for this highly specialised bird species” and prompt “great care” could be wanted in managing the forests.

But conservation teams have expressed worry that the state’s woodland hearth control division plans to burn what they estimate is 13,000 hectares of the chook’s closing habitat over the following 3 years.

Gippsland Environment Group and the Victorian National Parks Association say the birds might by no means get better if the burns move forward.

Louise Crisp, a founding member of the Gippsland organisation, mentioned she was once “horrified” that vital sheoak stands close to Lake Tyers and Lakes Entrance had been burned.

“What they’re doing is burning the glossies’ pantry,” she mentioned.

Even a low-intensity hearth may reason the cones to open and shed their seed, she mentioned, which was once an issue for the reason that birds wouldn’t consume seed from the bottom.

“My biggest fear is that the population will not have a chance to recover from the incredible effects of the black summer bushfires because Forest Fire Management Victoria are continuing to burn their sole food resource.”

A spokesperson for Forest Fire Management Victoria mentioned uncontrollable hearth was once the best danger to cockatoo feeding habitat and low-intensity deliberate burns helped scale back gas lots and give protection to sheoak bushes.

“Ensuring the protection of native wildlife and habitat in the short and long term is a key priority when implementing our planned burning program,” they mentioned.

Dr Daniella Teixeira, an ecologist who researches shiny black cockatoos at Queensland University of Technology and is chairing a species restoration workforce, mentioned fires in sheoaks had to be deliberate sparsely to steer clear of spaces the place the birds had been feeding, in particular if there have been nest websites close by. Fire that was once too sizzling may kill the bushes.

The birds had been “very fussy” about what they ate, she mentioned, “even down to the individual trees”.

Teixeira mentioned the species was once long-lived and gradual to breed, laying a unmarried egg each and every one or two years, and in decline throughout its vary.

BirdLife Australia’s president, Mandy Bamford, mentioned Victoria’s shiny black cockatoo inhabitants was once “tiny”, estimated at 250 birds. Those birds wanted sheoaks to feed on and protected puts to nest, she mentioned, and BirdLife had labored with the dep. to map precedence websites that wanted coverage.

The division’s most well-liked burn window in autumn posed an extra possibility, she mentioned, because it overlapped with the chook’s breeding season. “If there are nestlings in hollows, they can’t get away. Also, potentially you’re reducing food sources at a critical time when they’re feeding chicks.”

Concerns were raised about Forest Fire Management Victoria actions after an endangered larger glider was once discovered lifeless subsequent to a tree-felling operation in Yarra Ranges nationwide park in May 2024. A significantly endangered orchid won a last-minute reprieve from a deliberate burn final October after an area atmosphere team threatened felony motion to offer protection to its habitat.

Jordan Crook, a nature campaigner on the Victorian National Parks Association, mentioned government had an obligation to offer protection to threatened species in conjunction with homes and infrastructure. He mentioned hearth control making plans was once going down “behind closed doors” with out impartial oversight.

“We need to fundamentally change how we use fire in the landscape and manage bushfires,” he mentioned. “The way we’re currently doing it is damaging our biodiversity and our wildlife habitat.”