Worldwide there are 1253 species of birds considered to be threatened plus another 843 near threatened. This makes a total of 2096 species of bird in need of urgent conservation. The situation of birds in Australia? To quote Birdlife Australia. “27 species or sub-species are now listed as Extinct, 20 as Critically Endangered, 60 as Endangered, 68 as Vulnerable and 63 as Near Threatened” ie a total of 211 in need of help. Of course it would be impossible for aviculture to play a role in keeping and breeding all of the 2096 different species and improbable even


36 BIRD SCENE


here in Australia if we concentrated on our own 211. Furthermore, saving all these species is going to be impossible with the scarce finance and resources currently being made available. Sadly, it is probably going to be a question of trying to focus effort on those areas and species which are most likely to end in a positive result and on programmes that benefit the largest number of species within a single exercise. In that context, the Gouldian Finch is considered an indicator species for the general health of Australia’s northern savannahs. In other words, conservation activities


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