Gouldians are possibly the most popular finch in South African aviculture.
It is a bird which has given thousands of people from all over the world a lot of pleasure.
Would it not be sad if we, who have possibly gained the most from it, allow it to become extinct in the wild?

On a separate note, under the premises of bad news sells, if any member of the avicultural community is found to be doing anything underhanded it is splashed across the media! As a result the public image of aviculture is poor. To address this, we need to be seen as net contributors to wildlife, not one of the key reasons why some birds are declining!

Saving any species is a very expensive exercise. For example, it has been estimated that every Golden Tamarind monkey which is released into the wild has cost $USA1,000,000!

Gouldians live in one of the worlds remaining wildernesses in remote areas, so setting up a base for and conducting field work is very expensive.

However, we are happy to say that all this infrastructure, which did cost millions of dollars, is already funded.

This is important to you in estimating whether your donations will be wasted and in calculating whether we have a genuine opportunity to save the Gouldian.

Many new recovery plans are started by well meaning people, but flounder through lack of funds.

Because a lot of money has already been spent on Gouldian research and we have made good progress, we have a high chance of success. We were encouraged this year when higher numbers were reported and importantly, in areas where they had not been seen for many years. Funnily enough though, it actually raises more questions than it answers. Why this year have they been able to recolonise bits of habitat from which they had previously disappeared and is this sudden expansion sustainable?

Well, I guess that goes a long way towards why the Save The Gouldian Fund was first formed – to arrest the decline in numbers of the wild Gouldian and to allow aviculturists to have an input into saving the species to show the world that we care enough to try to make a difference.

What’s In It For You?

What are we actually funding?
At present we have assisted towards the salary of a full-time Gouldian Researcher operating out of the AWC (Australian Wildlife Conservancy) property at Mornington in Western Australia.
We have supplied an Argo all terrain vehicle to Mornington so that researchers could follow the Gouldians throughout the wet season.
We have supported the work of Dr Sarah Pryke on nutrition and behaviour of captive Gouldian finches and are looking at establishing another field station in the Kimberley region to supplement the work coming out of Mornington.

Trust me it will be up to me to get the updates out to you so I will leave no stone unturned to do that!!

Why do we need your donations?
At the moment there are 6 full time researchers working on the Gouldian, all these are funded by private donation. If we can raise the money to keep this number of scientists, we have a high probability of saving the Gouldian within a foreseeable future. The fewer scientists, the less likely this outcome will be. It is a simple as that!

In case you are complacent and reckon there’s no need for you to do anything at all, here is a quote from only 1954:

"Early one morning they (Fred & Mick Lewitzka) were awoken by a loud buzzing noise. Within a few moments thousands of Gouldian Finches moved into and through their camp area, all flying either to water or to a feeding ground. The flow of Gouldians continued for about an hour………" (Hutchins, pers.comm.1954 in Fidler & Evans 2005)

Ladies and gentlemen we have a VERY long way to go and a wise man once said in order to save the Gouldian finch we must know everything about the bird – can we rely on you to help us realise just that aim?