{"id":718789,"date":"2026-01-25T01:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T01:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/718789\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T01:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T01:57:17","slug":"scientists-fear-30pc-of-critically-endangered-western-ground-parrots-habitat-lost-in-bushfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/718789\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists fear 30pc of critically endangered western ground parrot’s habitat lost in bushfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

A significant area of habitat for the critically endangered western ground parrot has been lost on WA’s south coast during a recent bushfire, according to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).<\/p>\n

The western ground parrot \u2014 also known by its Nyungar name, kyorling \u2014 once populated large swathes of Western Australia’s southern coast.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The western ground parrot is critically endangered, with just 150 believed left in the wild. (Supplied: Jennene Riggs)<\/p>\n

Now, there is only an estimated 150 birds left in the wild.<\/p>\n

It is believed populations have declined due to loss of habitat, predation by feral cats and foxes, increasing fire activity and low rainfall.<\/p>\n

The last wild population lives in a tiny sliver of Cape Arid National Park and the neighbouring Nuytsland Nature Reserve, 100 kilometres east of Esperance.<\/p>\n

Fire sweeps through park<\/p>\n

Last weekend a bushfire sparked by lightning quickly swept through the national park before being brought under control.<\/p>\n

The bushfire area is currently still being monitored by DBCA.<\/p>\n

DBCA regional ecologist Sarah Comer said it was estimated 11,000 hectares of kyorling habitat were destroyed.<\/p>\n

“Our preliminary estimates are that around 30 per cent of the core habitat was burnt, and obviously we need to do a fair bit of monitoring after the fire to confirm that,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sarah Comer’s team will monitor the kyorling population in the coming months. (Supplied: Dan Paris)<\/p>\n

It is not the first serious bushfire to threaten the kyorling<\/a> population.<\/p>\n

Dr Comer said the DBCA had extensive fire response and mitigation plans in place due to the region’s susceptibility to fire started by lightning.<\/p>\n

“This fire that we’ve just had is a really good example of how quickly the department can mobilise firefighting staff,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It could have been worse, but it’s still a fairly significant patch to lose.”<\/p>\n

\"Wildlife<\/p>\n

Cape Arid National Park sits in a remote coastal region of southern Western Australia.\u00a0 (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)<\/p>\n

Dr Comer said this fire was especially concerning, as it coincided with the time of year that the birds had young fledgling chicks.<\/p>\n

“They are strong flyers, however \u2026 the parents are much more likely to be staying with those young birds,” she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Comer said it was unclear whether the fledglings would have been strong enough to fly away from the fire.<\/p>\n

“We’re hopeful that many will have found some refuge, but we need to confirm that,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.Difficult to monitor, devices destroyed<\/p>\n

Dr Comer said the kyorling was notoriously hard to survey, and could only be tracked using acoustic monitoring devices.<\/p>\n

“All we can do is listen to their calls as they fly from feeding areas to roosting areas, and they do that before sunrise and after sunset,” she said.<\/p>\n

The ecologist said six of these monitoring devices were believed to have been destroyed in the fire.<\/p>\n

Despite the difficulty in tracking kyloring populations, Dr Comer said the species’ population over the last 10 years had been relatively stable.<\/p>\n

\"Department<\/p>\n

Sarah Comer tracking\u00a0relocated ground parrots in 2021. (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)<\/p>\n

“What we haven’t seen, which we saw in sites they disappeared from in the last 25 years, is a dramatic decline,” she said.<\/p>\n

As well as a stable wild population in Cape Arid and Nuytsland Nature Reserve, Dr Comer said a combination of translocating wild birds to establish new populations, and a captive breeding program at Perth Zoo, was providing hope for the species.<\/p>\n

“It’s very much about lots of different conservation options for ensuring that this species has a future,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.New chick gives hope<\/p>\n

Perth Zoo’s captive kyorling breeding program recently welcomed a world first \u2014 a fully fledged western ground parrot chick.<\/p>\n

Perth Zoo Australian fauna supervisor Matt Ricci said the successful breeding effort was “remarkable”.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“The little chick is going extremely well,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Watching every day as it develops, we have to remind ourselves \u2026 how amazing that is because everything we see is pretty much a world first.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Ricci said captive breeding was extremely important for the kyorlings’ survival, especially as Cape Arid faced increasing bushfire threat.<\/p>\n

“It’s likely that we’re going to see increases in extreme weather events, especially throughout the summer period,” he said.<\/p>\n

The team at Perth Zoo hopes to replicate its success in breeding other species, like the dibbler,<\/a> with the western ground parrot.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Matt Ricci releases a western ground parrot at Cape Arid National Park. (Supplied: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“Our business at Perth Zoo is \u2026 getting animals breeding in a captive setting, so we can support those populations in the wild,” Mr Ricci said.<\/p>\n

“And [for] the ground parrot, we’ll be looking at getting a very similar outcome, I would imagine, in the future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A significant area of habitat for the critically endangered western ground parrot has been lost on WA’s south…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3843],"tags":[214691,214690,3928,71812,64734,728,214689,56796,214688,214686,214692,70,16,15,29592,214687],"class_list":["post-718789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-bushfire","tag-cape-arid","tag-conservation","tag-dbca","tag-endangered","tag-environment","tag-esperance","tag-habitat","tag-kyorling","tag-parrot","tag-perth-zoo","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wa-news","tag-western-ground-parrot"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115953260699541595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}