The hunt for the Night Parrot: a fat, dumpy, green parrot that lives in the desert and comes out at night.
The Night Parrot was supposed to be extinct and became a legend among birdwatchers in Australia: a fat, dumpy, green parrot that lived in the desert and came out at night. The last bird seen alive was promptly shot dead in 1912.
Over 90 years later, a decapitated Night Parrot was found beside a fence in outback Australia, and the hunt for a living bird was on. Ornithologists descended onto the arid plains of Australia’s vast arid interior, but it took another seven years for a single photograph of a live bird.
Incredibly, a population of night parrots had survived. Their exact location is kept secret, and people are still looking for more – or more precisely, listening for more, using acoustic traps to identify calls.
Dr Ann Jones from ABC Australia takes a huge microphone for a spin in the desert to join the hunt for the legendary Night Parrot.
(Photo: Ullala Boss is a Birriliburu Indigenous Ranger, Elder and Traditional Owner and knows the dreaming stories of the Night Parrot. Credit: Dr Ann Jones)
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Mon 4 Feb 2019 20:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview, Europe and the Middle East & News Internet only
- Mon 4 Feb 2019 21:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Australasia & East Asia only
- Tue 5 Feb 2019 05:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Online, UK DAB/Freeview, News Internet & Europe and the Middle East only
- Tue 5 Feb 2019 06:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean & South Asia only
- Tue 5 Feb 2019 07:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service East and Southern Africa & East Asia only
- Tue 5 Feb 2019 11:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service West and Central Africa
- Tue 5 Feb 2019 14:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Australasia
- Tue 5 Feb 2019 18:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 11 Feb 2019 00:32GMT³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service
Space
The eclipses, spacecraft and astronauts changing our view of the Universe
The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry
Podcast
-
Discovery
Explorations in the world of science.