Don Kimball asked whether there are Orange-bellied Parrots in European avicultural collections. The answer seems to be ‘not any more’. During the 1950s and 1960s OBPs were smuggled out of Australia, mostly illegally trapped in The Coorong, South Australia, and were successfully held in a few private collections in places such as Germany and Belgium. However, all enquiries by the OBP Recovery Team over the last 25 years have drawn a blank. We have concluded that there are no longer any OBPs in private hands anywhere, unless somebody is keeping very quiet.
And Don, when you filmed birds at Melaleuca in 2008 the population number was nowhere near 200 birds. There were probably fewer than 80 then.
Peter Menkhorst
Orange-bellied Parrot Recovery Team member
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