CANBERRA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A study finds the endangered golden-shouldered parrot is at greater risk as its northern Australian grassland habitat rapidly disappears.
Woody plant encroachment has reduced open grasslands, forcing the rare parrots, native to the Australian state of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, to abandon nests and face higher predation risks, according to a statement released Thursday by the University of Adelaide in South Australia.
Researchers studied 555 parrot eggs from 108 nests and found that higher woody vegetation density leads to increased predation, especially by butcherbirds, while parrots fare best in open grasslands where they can better evade predators that use trees to ambush them.
The study, published in the online journal PLOS One (Public Library of Science), links these changes mainly to land management shifts, where cattle grazing replaced Indigenous fire regimes, reducing fires needed to control woody plant spread.
"Similar processes may explain the decline of grassland birds across the globe, including from African savannas and North American prairies," said Gabriel Crowley from the University of Adelaide, who led the study.
Crowley stressed the importance of using controlled fire as an ecological tool to restore grasslands, vital for the golden-shouldered parrot's survival, calling for urgent conservation to halt habitat loss and protect biodiversity. ■
