The
REAL Rainbow Lorikeet:
DOC
claims RBLs “may carry avian disease”
DOC
knew that RBLs were breeding in Auckland in May 1995. It was not until February
1999 that they killed 17 birds and sent them for testing by MAF. Not one showed
any trace of avian human disease, nor any internal or external parasites. If
DOC felt that these birds were such a disease threat, why wait three and a years? And DOC have still not made public the welcome news that RBLs pose no
disease threat to native birds or humans. Why not?
DOC
claims RBLs “are prolific”
RBLs
usually have one clutch a year of two nestlings. This is low compared to many
birds, and is about a quarter of that for the Kakariki. Why then aren’t we
knee deep in Kakariki?
DOC
claims RBLs “are a nuisance in Perth”
RBLs
were liberated in Perth in 1966. In 33 years not one
complaint has been made to the Vertebrate Pest officer in Perth by any
private or commercial fruit grower. The birds still live only in mature suburbs
full of winter flowering trees: there is not enough food to live in the new
suburbs or the native bush. Nor are they a nuisance to native birds: many birds
in central Perth have increased in that time: Brown Honeyeaters and Twenty Eight
Parrots increased 400% between 1952 and 1995. Prof. Recher of Edith Curtin
University in Perth says “the effect of the Rainbow Lorikeet on the avifauna
of Perth is neutral”. What nuisance?
DOC
claims RBLs “will travel to offshore
islands and compete with native birds for food and nest sites”
RBLs
feed on flowers (87% to 95%) in the tops of flowering trees. Living on this rich
diet of pollen and nectar has resulted in irreversible anatomical adaptations:
the tongue is primarily adapted for harvesting pollen (for protein) and nectar
(for carbohydrate), the gizzard is weak, and the gut is short due to the simple
digestive needs. They need to spend only 2-3 hours each day eating this rich
diet, leaving plenty of time for other birds to feed. With these adaptations and
diet RBLs occupy a unique ecological niche quite different to that of
Honeyeaters. Honeyeaters eat nectar and fruit when available but their major
source of protein is insects not pollen. Indeed insects are their major source
of food through the winters in the Gondwana derived wet forests of Tasmania and
New Zealand. Three Honeyeaters in
Tasmanian forests live entirely on insects all year round, while in NZ, Tui,
Bellbird, and Stitchbird have had to adapt to live on insects to get through our
flowerless winters. But RBLs starve without flowers -although they have visited
Tasmania frequently over many millennia, they have never survived the winter
there. Nor can they survive a winter here without help from introduced winter
flowering trees and bowls of sugar water. Both of these they get in Birkenhead,
but without them they cannot survive and breed in the native bush, on Little
Barrier, or on Tiri. Hence they pose no threat to any of our special native
birds. But they may be a slight threat to one urban bird in Birkenhead: RBLs are
one of the few birds which can oust Indian Mynahs from nest holes (according to
DOC).
DOC
claims RBLs “are dominant to all other
birds”
In
Australia, RBLs have lived for aeons with approximately 61 species of
Honeyeaters, and 43 other species of Parrots. Ornithological opinion there is
that Rainbow Lorikeets have no effect on any Honeyeater, any Parrot, or any
other species of bird. In many cities RBLs and other larger Parrots, and larger
Honeyeaters have increased in recent decades due to the planting of flowering
trees. However both in cities and bush remnants many smaller Honeyeaters have
declined because the thin understorey gives them no protection from aggression
by large Honeyeaters. This has led in one instance to the culling of larger
Honeyeaters to save a population of the very rare Helmeted Honeyeater. Because
this decline has coincided with the increase in RBLs, it has led to a few
mistaken claims, including those made by DOC. Further observations in NZ
indicate that as small birds including Bellbirds are ignored by RBLs and feed
with them, they may actually benefit from the protective presence of RBLs
against aggression by Tui, a factor which could help the Bellbird restore the
range it once held.
DOC
claims RBLs “are a significant pest of
fruit”
In
temperate areas of Australia, RBLs have a negligible impact on fruit or other
crops which are grown in New Zealand, and cause much less problems than many
birds such as Rosellas, Starlings, Blackbirds and White-eyes. And where are all
the letters to the local rag complaining of fruit damage in Birkenhead? What
pest?
DOC
could have told the simple truth: that any new introduction is
unpredictable in effect. But perhaps that was not sufficiently
convincing. It must be that the very paucity of adverse data on the Rainbow
Lorikeet forced the use of exaggeration and invention in DOC’s “Fact”
Sheet. This biased and untruthful propaganda (parrotted without verification in
Forest and Bird magazine) has been successful in alarming and terrifying the
public about the potential danger of Rainbow Lorikeets to fruit crops, to native
birds through competition, and to both birds and humans through disease. In so
doing the Department of Conservation and the Royal Forest and Bird Society have
mislead the public.
A
plague of Lorikeets
To
exert their power over unruly citizens of Birkenhead
who have seen Rainbow Lorikeets with Tui and other birds, and who ask if
DOC really knows what it is doing, the Department has been finally reduced to
invoking the sledgehammer of the Biosecurity Act to well and truly flatten this
fly. In doing so they have elevated the Rainbow Lorikeet to the peak of infamy,
its special status as an “unwanted organism” now suggesting it is a more
dangerous plague than Rats, Stoats, Ferrets, and Weasels, all of which are
merely unprotected in spite of the devastation they are known to cause. DOC can
do nothing if you want to breed Rats in your house and let them go- but if you
release a Rainbow Lorikeet, DOC can now break down your door and could jail you
for a year. How did DOC come to the incredible conclusion that Rainbow Lorikeets
were more dangerous than rats?
Exterminate
. . . Exterminate . . .
DOC
will now spend a quarter million dollars trapping and killing (by neck
dislocation/lethal injection according to a DOC report), or quietly poisoning
this harmless bird, one of the most beautiful and intelligent birds in the
world, and an inspiration to all who behold it.
The
Department of Conservation calls this ”protecting our biodiversity”. Others
call it as a prostitution of science.
“Birds
have been flying from continent to continent long before we were
they
reached the coldest place Antarctica long before we did
they
can survive in the hottest desert
some
can remain on the wing for years at a time
they
can girdle the globe”
“Now
we have taken over the earth and the sea and the sky
but
with skill and care and knowledge
we
can ensure that there is still a place for birds
in
all their beauty and variety
if
we want to
and
surely we should”
David Attenborough from “The Life Of Birds”
The
Rainbow Trust
The
Rainbow Trust was formed by a group of Birkenhead residents at the time that the
Department of Conservation killed 17 Rainbow lorikeets in February 1999. The
members felt that the action taken was unnecessary from an ecological viewpoint
and that the disregard for animal welfare shown by the Department of
Conservation would lead to eroded public support for their proper task of
providing for New Zealand’s rare species.
We
are astounded that the Department of Conservation should introduce such a
draconian measure as the Biosecurity Act against these harmless birds, while
excluding from that same persecution real predators on native birds like rats
and stoats.
We
are convinced that the time money and effort earmarked for the possibly
unsuccessful persecution of the Rainbow Lorikeet would be better spent helping
Kakapo, Kokako, and Kiwi, or fostering more island sanctuaries for our native
birds.
The
full report complete with original documents and supporting evidence will be on
our web site opening soon:
rainbow.org.nz
If
you would like to support us in any way, please write to
THE
RAINBOW TRUST, PO BOX 34-892 BIRKENHEAD