Conservationists are releasing Bali mynahs in Bali, Indonesia, hoping to boost the wild population of critically endangered birds. The birds are being released by working with bird breeders and sellers — the very group that contributed to them becoming critically endangered two decades ago.
More study and monitoring are needed, experts say, but the conservation concept has shown promise over the last decade and might be duplicated for other vulnerable species in Indonesia. Due to its distinctive white plumage and singing, the Bali mynah has been a highly sought collector’s item in the worldwide cage bird trade for more than a century. The Bird was listed as ‘threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1988 and upgraded to ‘critically endangered’ in 1994. Indonesia’s deeply engrained bird-breeder culture led to the need for captive breeding programs to boost their numbers.
The conservation method is compatible with Indonesian culture, where it’s common to have cage birds and people rely on the bird trade for their income. If approved, breeders are given mynahs by the government and allowed to keep 90% of the offspring for private sale. The remaining birds are rehabilitated and released at West Bali National Park, where they can be monitored by park authorities.
Bird keepers can still keep birds and follow their hobby without causing real problems for wild populations. Early mynah releases were plagued with issues: some birds were infected with a parasite that caused high fledgling mortality, and others were killed by natural predators. Poaching also continued — and the national park’s captive breeding facility was even robbed at gunpoint, with nearly 40 birds stolen.
Conservation efforts in the last decade have seen greater success through increased monitoring of the birds. Agus Ngurah Krisna Kepakisan, the head of the West Bali National Park, attributes the success of the breeding program to ‘buffer villages’ around the park. Villagers get assistance in obtaining permits to breed Bali mynahs there. Conservation efforts have spread to Tabanan Regency, a three-hour drive from Kepakisan National Park. The breeding program’s strides are visible throughout the park, where 420 Bali mynahs now live. The area is a recent release site for Friends of the National Parks Foundation, an Indonesia-based non-profit.
The organization’s conservation efforts, according to veterinarian I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha, who created it and has worked in Bali mynah conservation for years, rely in part on grassroots community engagement in the birds’ care. Historically, populations near protected areas believed there was no money to be earned from them, he explained. However, Wirayudha feels that the presence of rare birds would attract tourists, providing additional tourism revenue to the region, as it has in other regions of Bali province where mynahs have been released.
Community outreach appears to be effective. At the organization’s April release of mynahs, groups of students, police, soldiers, and neighbours gathered to see the mynahs take their maiden flight into the wild. The conservation technique, according to Squires, might be used for other vulnerable or endangered species in Indonesia, such as the black-winged mynah.
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