Three Australian bird species are being tipped as the next to go extinct from their King Island home unless invasive predator numbers can be controlled, says University of Tasmania’s Matthew Fielding.
A study of the declining populations of the King Island brown thornbill, the King Island Scrubtit and the Orange-bellied parrot could be saved through a process Fielding calls “trophic re-wilding”.
This proposed 're-wilding' process would see the re-introduction of native predators - such as Tasmanian Devils and Golden Eagles - back onto the King and Flinders Islands. It would be then hoped that these native predators will help to combat the introduced-predator species