'Extinct' bird may actually exist
SIOBHAN DOWNEShttp://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9448301/Extinct-bird-may-actually-exist
Fairfax NZ
A stuffed South Island Kokako at the Canterbury Museum
An extinct South Island bird may actually still exist, a society dedicated to monitoring rare and endangered birds says. The South Island kokako was declared extinct in 2007, but earlier this month the Ornithological Society decided to change the bird's listing from "extinct" to "data deficient" on the New Zealand Threat Classification System.
The decision came after the society accepted that two people had seen the bird on the West Coast near Reefton in 2007. Ten further sightings of the South Island kokako between 1990 and 2008 were found to be "probable" or "possible".
Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said while it was still uncertain as to whether the bird was alive, this was the best sign yet.
"New Zealand is thought to have lost over 50 bird species. If just one of those extinctions turns out not to have happened, it would be incredibly good news," he said.
He said if the South Island kokako was still out there, it would "just be hanging on". More pest control work in the South Island was needed than ever before because of the reclassification, he said.
The North Island kokako, a different species, was considered endangered.
- © Fairfax NZ News
The decision came after the society accepted that two people had seen the bird on the West Coast near Reefton in 2007. Ten further sightings of the South Island kokako between 1990 and 2008 were found to be "probable" or "possible".
The last accepted sighting had been in 1967.
Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said while it was still uncertain as to whether the bird was alive, this was the best sign yet.
"New Zealand is thought to have lost over 50 bird species. If just one of those extinctions turns out not to have happened, it would be incredibly good news," he said.
He said if the South Island kokako was still out there, it would "just be hanging on". More pest control work in the South Island was needed than ever before because of the reclassification, he said.
The North Island kokako, a different species, was considered endangered.
- © Fairfax NZ News
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/05/night-parrot-australia_n_3548811.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
SYDNEY, July 5 (Reuters) - A nocturnal Australian parrot that hops like a kangaroo and had not been seen alive for more than a century has not only been seen but has been photographed, a naturalist said on Friday, but he is keeping the whereabouts a secret.
Scientists had previously based their knowledge of the critically endangered Night Parrot, a ground-dwelling bird, on the occasional dead specimen and recordings of its call - which is rare enough.
"I've only heard them in one place and I've been in a hundred places," said John Young, a naturalist and documentary film maker who has consulted with Australian wildlife services.
"The strangest thing about this parrot, living on the ground, it hops like a little kangaroo."
Young's alleged sighting on May 25 in the northern state of Queensland was the culmination of a 15-year quest. He told Reuters that he lured the shy, palm-sized bird out with a recorded parrot call.
"I couldn't get over it," he said.
The Night Parrot is small with yellowish green plumage, mottled with brown and black specks. It hides in spinefex grass during the day and is active at night.
In 2012, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the bird as critically endangered, its population depleted by feral cats, foxes and changes in the environment after European settlement in Australia.
With no firm estimates about how many of the birds exist in the wild, Young refused to reveal where he found the parrot.
"I think the worst thing we can do at the moment is to let too many people anywhere near it," said Young. "In the time I had with the bird the other night, it is the most sensitive bird I have ever seen."
Leo Joseph, the director and research leader of the wildlife collection at government research body CSIRO, supported Young.
"The sooner we can learn how to look for them and find them elsewhere the better," Joseph told Reuters. "For now, keeping the locality a secret is the way to go." (Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by Elaine Lies)