The history and success of noisy scrub-bird re- introductions in Western Australia: 1983-2005

Summary

The noisy scrub-bird (Atrichornis clamosus), Vulnerable and confined to a narrow stretch of southwestern Australia's south coast, was rediscovered in 1961 at Two Peoples Bay after 72 years without records, with a population index of just 45 singing males (roughly 100 birds). Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation pursued translocation using wild-caught birds after a five-year captive breeding trial produced only a single additional bird, developing capture, holding and transport techniques through a long series of releases from source sites at Mount Gardner, Lakes, Angove and Manypeaks into new habitat patches between 1983 and 2007. Outcomes varied widely across at least eleven translocation attempts: early releases to Manypeaks (1983, 1985) and several 1990s sites succeeded, with released male counts exceeding release numbers within a few years, while translocations to Nuyts, Quarram, Bald Island, the Darling Range's eight sites, Porongurup and a second Mount Taylor attempt mostly failed, with wildfire eliminating at least two successful populations after establishment. By 2001, cumulative translocation and habitat management had driven the population index to a peak of 770, though wildfires between 2000 and 2005 destroyed over half the optimal habitat around Albany and reduced the index to 343 by 2005. Major difficulties included the species' low fecundity of a single offspring per breeding female per year and repeated large-scale wildfire losses. The project rates itself Successful overall, crediting translocation with meaningfully expanding the species' population size, range and resilience against total loss to any single wildfire event, alongside the successful development of reliable capture and relocation techniques.