I don't really wish to become embroiled in a controversy about whether or not Night Parrots still live. I have my own opinions on the topic, and in due course, they will be proved to be either correct of incorrect. But let's suppose the bird does exist; what should we, as Birdform members, do about this? Our first response surely should be to look to the welfare of these birds, because the controversy, the potential reward, and the implications for mining could all pose a threat to whatever birds are out there. So could an incursion of large numbers of twitchers - if they found their way to the birds' habitat at all. :-O
As Tannin says, there can hardly be a controversy when a body has been found - a juvenile at that, so some birds, at least, have been breeding. :t: Yet this baby was lost to a wire fence, a circumstance for which its innate survival mechanisms did not prepare it. These are birds of places more isolated than most people can possibly imagine; how many of those who have voiced opinions in this thread have stood out in the Australian Outback where these Parrots have been seen? We drive for days, and our minds struggle with the immensity of the place, and our own isolation. There is no human habitation. We are days away from the next place. Yet this is not the "Middle of Nowhere" or the "Back of Beyond" or any of the other pat phrases people use to describe it. People use such terms because they are unable to come to terms with the place; the vastness, the isolation. :eek!:
We must stop, and we must spend some time being very still. Then we will come to know that the emptiness is a fallacy. These places abound with life; but that life is not so foolish as to show itself to large unknown creatures like us. Even being very still, much of this life we will never see. Small footprints will appear, whose owners we have not seen. :h?: Calls and scrapes and rustlings will be all around, but most often, we will not see what makes them. We will realise quite quickly that our chances of seeing a small parrot that prefers to remain on the ground, and move about at night, and that does not want to be seen, are actually quite small. :flyaway:
The wisdom of the First Australians are the best clue to where the bird is likely to be found. In order to utilise that, we have to be capable of casting aside all our ideas about ourselves and our "civilisation". The desert will teach us quickly how erroneous we are in our use and understanding of the word "civilisation". Those places are so different from the altered worlds we have made for ourselves in places less wild - including many of the places we commonly consider to be wilderness. The wildness of the Night Parrot's habitat can mess with our heads. But that's not something we can learn here, with words. Neither is it "scientific fact" of the sort that satisfies skeptics.
Whatever else we say or think or feel about the subject, the overwhelming need here is the bird's protection. Parallels with the debate about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker are not useful, as there is no doubt at all about the Night Parrot's existence. The vital evidence that proves that has, as Tannin pointed out, been found. We are fortunate in that we have been able to go past the raging debate that follows when no definitive evidence has come to light. So let's not trivialise this issue by saying "Ivory-billed Woodpecker " and considering that a reasonable argument. And for those who believe that the IBW still lives; please don't imagine for a moment that I mean to trivialise your arguments by the comments above. I am simply pointing out that the two debates have no real parallel.
No Jane, the bird's body was not found on the internet.
What made you think it was? :h?:
Very few of us have been fortunate enough to be able to take a birding trip far into the Australian Outback. To go where we would need to go to really do a good job of it, we would need four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with the food and water that we do not have the knowledge to find for ourselves in that country. We would need months of free time, to remain out there. There are those who have tried, but the equipment alone won't get you there.
Other qualities are needed, and these are harder to define. They cannot be purchased. I wish that I were in command of either the qualities or the financial resources - but as it is, I can only look on, like everybody else. I wish, however, that people would not offer financial rewards for the finding of a Night Parrot. This is not in the birds' best interests. Neither is using a sighting, fictional or otherwise, to prevent the opening of a mine. This bird doesn't need powerful corporate enemies, or angry debates; it needs us all standing firm to ensure its continued survival, because clearly, it doesn't exist in great numbers - because if it did, it would be seen more often.
Do we love birds enough to overcome our egos and lobby for the protection of this bird, without further "proof" of its existence? To take the chance that we may be proved wrong? Or are we simply going to mutter about Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and continue to argue amongst ourselves while Night Parrot numbers decline to an increasingly low level?
