Action crucial to save kea from extinction

With no action Kea will soon be extinct in Nelson Lakes National Park. Image by Jared KellyKnown as a cheeky character and scourge of the skifield, the kea certainly has its own brand of charisma but there are now fewer than 5000 of the endangered mountain parrots left in the wild.

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Technology tracks rare birds

Two rehabilitated Baudin’s cockatoos have been fitted with satellite tracking devices.Two endangered Baudin's cockatoos are being tracked by scientists in a bid to learn more about their behaviour.

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Kakapo dung linked to rare plant

"SURPRISING" DISCOVERY: Researchers have found that kakapo may be able to pollinate wood rose, an endemic New Zealand plant.Researchers are hoping to pollinate one of the country's threatened plants with the critically endangered kakapo.

Landcare Research palaeoecologist Janet Wilmshurst said Landcare Research, the Department of Conservation and the University of Adelaide had made a ''surprising'' discovery while analysing 1000-year-old fossilised dung from the kakapo, a rare flightless parrot.

The dung, found near Nelson, contained high concentrations of dactylanthus pollen, or wood rose, an endemic New Zealand plant that parasitises the roots of native trees.

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Fears for endangered parrot as numbers drop

This year's winter conservation count for one of Australia's rarest birds has returned the lowest number of sightings since counting began.

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Logging back on the election agenda

Fashion designer Liz Davenport with a Carnaby's Black Cockatoo. Picture: Ian MunroActivists who spearheaded a grassroots campaign to protect old-growth forests ahead of the 2001 State election have again vowed to make logging a key issue at the March election.

Environmental campaigners, once again led by Perth fashion designer Liz Davenport, met yesterday to start a hard-hitting campaign against a plan by logging interests to sell up to 800,000 tonnes of native timber a year from South West forests for plywood, paper pulp and biofuel.

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