The Wompoo Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus) is just one of the twenty-eight threatened fauna and thirty threatened flora species that are benefitting from the $554,000 co-funded project being delivered by Big Scrub Landcare through the NSW Government’s Saving our Species program.
The Wompoo Fruit Dove is an iconic and beautiful species of the Big Scrub that is represented in the logo of Big Scrub Landcare. Listed as Vulnerable in NSW, the Wompoo Fruit Dove is identified by its distinctive brilliant green, purple and yellow plumage. It devours fleshy fruits high in the rainforest canopy and, although difficult to spot at this height, its distinctive ‘wompoo’ call (after which it is aptly named) can be heard (listen here). It is one of the most important seed distributors, taking larger fruits (up to 2cm in diameter) than any other bird. A majority of Big Scrub tree species produce seed within fleshy fruits.
Major threats to the Wompoo Fruit Dove and other threatened fauna in the Big Scrub are fragmentation and degradation of their core rainforest habitat that results in scarcity and dispersion of feed trees. Weed invasion is the major cause of habitat degradation.
Systematic, well-planned weed control to conserve and enhance endangered lowland subtropical rainforest remnants is the primary focus of the co-funded Saving our Species project. This work is restoring twenty-six important Big Scrub remnants of two NSW Threatened Ecological Communities, Lowland Rainforest in the North Coast and Sydney Bioregions and Lowland Rainforest on Floodplain.
Restoration work, including weed control and detailed monitoring, is being undertaken across these sites. Improvements in the condition and structure of rainforest vegetation resulting from ongoing weed control are monitored. To date over 200 days of work by professional bush regenerators has been undertaken over the past twelve-months, a significant and valuable contribution to the conservation of the habitat of threatened species including the Wompoo Fruit Dove
The project is a making significant contribution to Big Scrub Landcare’s long-term Remanent Care program, which contributes to the ecological restoration of more than fifty lowland rainforest remnants of the Big Scrub, with a total area of more than 600 hectares.
For more information of this project contact info@bigscrubrainforest.org
To find out more about the Saving our Species program visit https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/saving-our-species-program
