A breed of parrot thought to be extinct since the early 20th century has been rediscovered.
Scientists in the Australian state of Queensland had long believed the rare night parrot was no more.
A breed of parrot thought to be extinct since the early 20th century has been rediscovered.
Scientists in the Australian state of Queensland had long believed the rare night parrot was no more.
The landscape where the parrot lives. Pic: Cineport
Image Caption:
The parrot lives in arid land. Pic: Cineport
The breed, endemic to Australia, was feared extinct after there were no recorded sightings after 1912.
The discovery of two dead birds between 1990 and 2006 only added to the belief that the parrot was no more.
But there was a glimmer of hope in 2013 when wildlife photographer and naturalist John Young captured a few seconds of video footage of a live bird.
And now the find has been backed up by the live capture and tagging of the elusive bird in a move that is seen as the “Holy Grail” for ornithologists.
The ground-dwelling parrot has been named Pedro.
It is so rare that ornithologists have kept secret the exact details of its location on the remote stretch of 56,000-hectare land where it was spotted.
They are trying to raise funds to buy the land to keep their bird safe.
Night parrot expert Dr Steve Murphy, who helped to confirm the discovery, is thrilled.
“I’ve been fascinated with Night Parrots ever since I was a small kid,” he told Bush Heritage Australia.
“It’s their story that grabbed me, and what it represented about what’s happened to Australia since the arrival of Europeans.
“We’ve lost more native animals than anywhere else on Earth, and for a lot of years we thought we’d lost this one as well.”
source:http://news.sky.com