A rare photograph of a western ground parrot. Image by Jennene RiggsThere are only 140 western ground parrots in the wild and now the Perth Zoo is hoping to bring them back from the brink of extinction with a captive breeding program.
Arthur Ferguson, Perth Zoo's Australian Fauna Supervisor, said the population is in serious trouble.
"Historically they were found south of Geraldton right around to Israelite Bay in patchy heathland habitats," Mr Ferguson told 720 ABC Perth.
"These days the population is restricted to two Nationals Parks - Fitzgerald River and Cape Arid, on the south coast of WA.
"It is almost 100 years since a ground parrot's nest was found in the wild. They are very secretive and difficult to observe by sight, and we rely on bird calls to count them."
In July seven western ground parrots were moved from a facility on the south coast to purpose built aviaries at the Perth Zoo.
After 45 days in quarantine, the parrots are now living in pairs, and the zoo has high hopes they will breed.
"Each pair has a 10 metre by three metre aviary," Mr Ferguson explained.
"It has a soft netting inner lining, to guard against collision injuries - we're wrapping them in cotton wool in that sense.
The zoo also has an elaborate CCTV video monitoring system set up to watch the parrots.
"Because the birds are so secretive and cryptic it is very difficult for the keepers to observe them. With the CCTV we can monitor the birds' feeding and activity patterns.
"We can also identify the onset of courtship and breeding behaviour, which we're hopefully going to see any day now."
Arthur Ferguson said being able to be part of such an important program was very exciting for the staff at the Perth Zoo.
"If we don't intervene the breed will surely become extinct," he said.
"Our eventual aim would be to release birds back into the wild to build on that population.
"That would be a fantastic outcome."