Good post, Stephen, and an ideal approach to conservation of the species. Idealistic, perhaps, given the agencies involved. I wonder if it isn’t wise at this stage to take some night parrots into captivity to ensure the survival of the species; as has happened with Orange-Belly Parrots. Controversial, certainly, but I’m reminded of a story by an old birder of someone who advocated capturing Paradise Parrots when it was possible. Allegedly, the responsible Qld minister told him he’d rather see the species extinct than in captivity – and he soon got his preference. Stephen C
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Stephen The problem with taking a group into captivity to breed is that the breeding biology might well require special stimuli or special foods that we can find out about only through a lot of trial and error (and the errors we cannot afford) or a good knowledge of the bird’s natural history and breeding cycle. The kiwis seem now to have cracked the kakapo cycle, but it took a lot of doing, especially to avoid producing all male chicks (the female kakapos interpreted plentiful food as a signal to invest in male offspring; they have evolved a lek breeding system, so a successful male, when populations were in their more natural state, cleaned up big time; so females made males when times were great; girls when times were leaner, but still good enough to breed. So to successfully induce female chicks took a lot of research, and a lot of failure). Of course, no course of action, even with the best will in the world is risk-free, once populations fall to critically endangered levels, as one assumes must be the case with the night parrot. I agree with the general line of response in support of Young and his efforts over the last day or so, and the general reluctance to place too much trust in the parks authorities, given how much under the thumb they are from current political imperatives; they are civil servants; they are bound to follow official policy whether they like it or not. But I do agree with the remark that the audio files should be released so others can search for other populations; even a single other one could be precious, especially as I assume we know very little about the genetic diversity, age structure, or sex ratio of the ones that Young has found. Kim Kim Sterelny, School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia Kim.Sterelny@anu.edu.au or Kim.Sterelny@vuw.ac.nz 61-(0)2-6125-2886 ________________________________________ Sent: Wednesday, 25 February 2015 4:53 PM Good post, Stephen, and an ideal approach to conservation of the species. Idealistic, perhaps, given the agencies involved. I wonder if it isn’t wise at this stage to take some night parrots into captivity to ensure the survival of the species; as has happened with Orange-Belly Parrots. Controversial, certainly, but I’m reminded of a story by an old birder of someone who advocated capturing Paradise Parrots when it was possible. Allegedly, the responsible Qld minister told him he’d rather see the species extinct than in captivity – and he soon got his preference. Stephen C
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