I am sometimes asked what contribution could aviculture make to conservation and to help focus my reply I ask:
'Why do you think we should bother?'
The replies have been interesting and often very thoughtful.
The predominant reply has been that if you love birds how could you stand by and watch any of them become extinct if there was anything you could do to help?
How would you feel if your grandchildren asked you what you personally did to stop x y or z bird from becoming extinct?
Many aviculturists are also bothered by the bad image that aviculture has in some quarters of the general public.
There is an element of the general public who think keeping birds in captivity is cruel.
Some think that all we are is a gang of illegal trappers and smugglers.
The high publicity which is given to the odd individual with criminal tendencies who gets caught smuggling or illegal trapping doesn't help our case either.
It puzzles me a little that even a core of vets point a finger at aviculture as a potential source of exotic disease.
So all these people are against us, some out of ignorance, some out of populist publicity and some because a few bad apples have given us a bad name. This latter category irks me. Every group of people has its criminal element but the newspapers don't label all bankers 'dodgy' because a few have been sent to gaol!
Some of us just have a love of wildlife, perhaps birds in particular, and just feel driven to help wildlife in whatever way they can.
Conservation can start in your own backyard; towns and cities often supply good habitat in the form of gardens and parks. What they usually lack is hollow bearing trees to provide refuge and nesting sites. So fixing up a variety of nest boxes in your own backyard can replace the old trees with hollows the developers cut down, Encouraging your neighbours, friends and local council to do the same can make the difference between survival and local extinction for many species.
Making your garden more wildlife friendly can make a difference as well as giving you the enjoyment of watching the growing variety of wildlife. There are good books on this subject you could get from your local library.
There are a few other areas where aviculture could make a huge contribution to conservation:
WORKING WITH ZOOS
As well as serving an educational and recreational role, largely as a result of public pressure, zoos these days are heavily into conservation and work hard at portraying the image that they are maintaining nearly extinct or seriously threatened species by captive breeding programmes.
Now although they do excellent work the reality is that there is a serious limitation to what they can achieve due to lack of space and financial resources. As a result they tend to concentrate on high profile showy birds or animals which will interest the paying public.
They do, however, have a very professional set up with their own highly qualified and specialist vets, scientists and highly trained staff etc.
Now how good would it be if aviculture could combine and cooperate with the zoos to provide breeding and holding facilities for rare and endangered birds of all kinds?
This would potentially extend a 1000fold the ability of the zoos to contribute to conservation.
With our expertise, space resources and volunteer time zoos could become THE world leaders of bird conservation.
I have superficially discussed this idea with one or two zoos and they were quite enthusiastic. Their main problem was trust. What would happen if they gave some rare birds to some bright spark who then bred them and sold the juveniles off at high profits or even worse sold all the original stock!!
I am fairly sure any problems could be overcome perhaps by entering into a contractual relationship.
Whatever the solution imagine the publicity aviculture would get if one of you out there could pull this one off!!
What a wonderful opportunity to work with some of the worlds rarest birds. What a sense of satisfaction that would be if we could breed up sufficient to re release into the wild and maybe even enough surplus to introduce them into aviculture.
BREED AND RELEASE PROGRAMME
On the surface at least this looks like the most obvious contribution that aviculture could make to conservation.
However, as always, life aint that simple!
There are a number of problems to overcome to make a breed and release programme successful.
First of all one needs to determine why a bird has become endangered and threatened in the first place. There is no point in releasing birds back into a habitat which will no longer support them.
If human interference has changed the habitat then it is either necessary to find a new location or one way or another revitalise the habitat.
The next problem is teaching domesticated birds what a predator looks like and how to avoid them. Otherwise all we are doing is breeding predator tucker!
Then there are the life skills-where and how to find seasonal food and water and even recognise what food looks like in its natural state!
One would also have to ensure that we were releasing as broad a base of genetic diversity as possible and , of course, no mutations!!
So quite a difficult process which has been done successfully in quite a few cases but also there have been many failures.
So this is a tactic that would tend to be used when there was no real alternative. It is very expensive to set up and of course needs to be handled by skilled and experienced scientists.
CAPTIVE BIRD RESEARCH
Having a captive bird research station has made a huge difference to the quality and speed of research into the Gouldian.
As I always jokingly say, the problem with field research is that the birds keep flying away just when they are getting interesting!
So being able to set up experiments and studies of birds in captivity can make a huge difference to understanding what is taking place in the wild.
There is no reason why our local bird clubs couldn't organise to provide facilities for their regional universities.
Initially they might think the idea was novel but I am sure most would jump at the opportunity.
Originally as a result of my friendship with Stewart Evans of Newcastle University(UK), it is something I have been doing for years albeit on a relatively small scale compared with the current set up.
Arrange a meeting with the head of zoology at your local uni. I would be surprised if you don't find them best pleased!
MONEY
The simplest thing to provide and possibly the most beneficial is money.
Research and restitution programmes are hugely expensive and basically the more money we have the more we can achieve.
The best form is money which is pledged to be provided on a regular basis ie a person or society promises to provide $x a month or quarter.
Having money which is pledged allows the conservation body to plan cash flows and projects ahead otherwise we just have to wait for the money to come in before we can plan how best to spend it.
The money which funds Save The Gouldian Fund comes in basically from three sources: from individuals who kindly donate sometimes large sums which makes a huge difference and to whom we are very grateful.
A donation which really touched my heartstrings was a donation of $22 from an infirm pensioner who apologised for the small size of his donation but explained he had to pay for nursing care out of his pension and that was all the money he had left that month.
Mate, I wrote, if everyone who loves birds sends us $22 a year we would Save The Gouldian!
One of our most important sources of income is societies and clubs who by a variety of means raise money on our behalf. Some societies send us regular donations which are hugely helpful and are a mainstay of our funding. However small or large, regular or one off, we are hugely grateful and even more gratifying is seeing these funds put to such good use.
Our third source of income is corporate donations. At the moment this is our biggest source of income.
These donations are made because the executive of the companies are trying to put something back into the country which supports them. Many are able to use their contribution to STGF to exhort their customers to donate also.
To all our donors and to all those people who donate to other charities, society owes you a big thanks. Without you there would be a huge number of excellent causes which just would not happen at all.
It is as simple as this. If STGF can raise enough money we CAN save the Gouldian. And even more important in saving the Gouldian we will also save a whole host of other birds, animals, insects and plants which are suffering from exactly the same problems.
So if you know a friend in business whom you could encourage to help or get your local club to run a fund raiser or simply dip into your own back pocket----you know whom to contact!!!!
VOLUNTEERS
Like many other organisations STGF has managed to get this far using volunteer labour only.
Volunteers mainly from the local Hunter Finch Club operate the Open Day.
Arthur Orford, our general manager and David Myers our communications manager-all volunteers.
Marcus Pollard who at one time used to do huge amounts of work - a volunteer.
The annual census of the Gouldians in the Kimberley attracts volunteers from all over the world.
STGF country manager from Germany, Joerg Landenburger and STGF USA country manager Bill Van Patten have all done a Kimberley bird count season.
A number of Australian aviculurists have enjoyed the experience too including STGF donors from South Africa and Japan.
Giving your time to a charity can be a rewarding experience and a way of contributing to conservation when perhaps you are unable to do so in other ways.
The STGF and other charities appreciate the help our volunteers give and most would not operate without them.
So in summary. We all have a role we could play, and if every bird lover in the world did something positive every year, we would make a great difference.
But you know what? The biggest difference we could make is to only vote for politicians who, instead of just paying lip service, would promise to actually implement something.
In Australia our Government is concerned [ rightly ] about Global Warming. A 30% reduction in carbon emission is being talked about and they expect to achieve this by implementing Carbon Taxes.
30% of Australia's carbon emissions are produced by wild fires. The same wild fires which are decimating the Gouldians and the other savannah wildlife. The same wildfires that are reducing the amount of grass available to the cattle industry, burning homes and destroying food crops.
At the next election, will you vote for a government who promises to attack Global Warming by issuing more taxes or will you vote for a government who promises to stop wildfires?