City living is poisoning the last Ibis bastion

City living is poisoning the last Ibis bastion

The toxic pollution of City life is threatening the livelihood of the Australian White Ibis, a new study has shown.
Researchers at the Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre at UNSW found toxic industrial pollutants in the city’s Ibis eggs were seven to nine times higher than those in the wild.
The tests revealed widespread contamination from a range of environmentally hazardous man-made pollutants. These included DDT released from pesticides, flame retardants and cooling agents used by industrial incinerators.
UNSW researcher Camila Ridoutt said: “The good news is that pollutant levels found in ibis eggs are not as bad as in other parts of the world.”
She said levels were lower than other major urban cities in the United States and China.
“The bad news is that the levels were much higher in urban centres compared with those detected at inland wetlands,” said Ridoutt.
“We also found that the urban eggs were substantially smaller in size, weight and volume compared to inland eggs and the pollutants may be contributing to this.”
These findings raise questions about potential impacts on the breeding success of the Ibis; a bird species that is becoming more populous in city areas.
Director of the centre, Professor Richard Kingsford said: “Small eggs can lead to lower reproductive success, which may be a problem faced by our city Ibis.”
Ursula Munro, Animal Behaviourist of the University of Technology Sydney, said Ibis populations are declining in their natural rural habitat and moving to urban areas due to drought and irrigation practices.
“Ibis virtually get pushed out of their inland wetlands because of irresponsible irrigation practices that stop them from breeding at natural numbers.
“It’s a real big problem as it’s quite possible that all major breeding is occurring in the cities,” she said. “We need to consider this with the culling programs.”
Sydney Ibis populations have been managed by the NSW Governmet’s cull licenses since the 1970s.
John Martin, Wildlife Management Officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, has been doing research on the Ibis for the past seven years.
He said that the management program at the Gardens, which involves removing nesting sites, has minimal impact to the broader population of the Ibis.
“We do nest destruction; we are deterring nesting in specific locations such as trees and around cafes.
“Within the Gardens themselves, we have about 100 Ibis and within the Sydney region there are about 7000,” he said. “Management here at this site is nothing in comparison to the broader population.”
However, while the Gardens may be having a minimal impact on Ibis populations, Ms Munro does not have such an optimistic outlook on the management practices occurring in the broader Sydney region.
“In Sydney, the managers go in and destroy eggs, nests and cull adults and they do so without any scientific basis,” she said.
“They simply throw a bomb in it.”

By Kristie Beattie

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