Arguably the shire’s best loved bird, gang gangs are back and ready to nest. And wherever you find gang gangs, you also find gang gang researchers.
Eurobodalla Council is working with scientists, government agencies, community groups and citizen scientists to better understand the breeding behaviour of gang gangs since the 2019-20 bushfires, to improve conservation outcomes for this iconic and endangered parrot.
Eurobodalla gang gang project research lead Dr Susan Rhind said gang gangs had declined by nearly 70 per cent in the last 20 years and their presence in Eurobodalla was pretty special.
“Right now, the birds are gearing up for the breeding season and busy checking out hollows. So our focus is on finding the trees and hollows they decide to use,” Dr Rhind said.
“In addition, we want to see if they are interested in the special cockatubes – nest boxes for cockatoos – that we installed last year around gang gang hotspots at Long Beach, Broulee, Mogendoura, Bingie, Meringo and Tilba.
“We checked all the cockatubes recently and one third had been occupied by various mammal species. So we know the tubes are attractive – we just need to see if the gang gangs think so too.
Council’s natural resources supervisor Courtney Fink-Downes said cameras had been installed at ten of the tubes, with researchers receiving a daily photo from each camera.
Meanwhile, the gang gang project team are again seeking public involvement; report any sightings of gang gangs at tree hollow by email to ganggangfarsouthcoast@gmail.com or log your observation on iNaturalist.
Above: Gang gang numbers have declined by nearly 70 per cent in the last 20 years. Photo credit Giovanna Hounsell.
