Two wedge-tailed eagles soared high in the sky as supporters of the Raptor and Wildlife Refuge of Tasmania gathered to mark another milestone in the organisation’s history.
The refuge’s founder, Craig Webb, announced the launch of a dedicated 24-hour hotline on which members of the public could report injured and dead raptors.
Despite being given endangered status, eagle numbers in Tasmania are under severe threat. There are only about 100 nesting pairs in the state and at the current rate of decline this population is unsustainable.
The hot line, at 1800 Raptor, is designed to centralise data collection in Tasmania and provide statistical weight to existing evidence about the threats facing our magnificent birds of prey – including “the wedgie” and another Tasmanian eagle under threat, the white-bellied sea eagle. It will also help identify locations were mitigation measures could be implemented to reduce eagle death and injury associated with electricity infrastructure, vehicles, wind turbines, fences and persecution.
Since it opened more than a decade ago, the raptor refuge has specialised in rehabilitating not just injured raptors but other birds and animals, and returning survivors to the wild.
Craig admits that the refuge’s efforts in this regard will not halt the decline of eagles but says the eagle releases especially, often reported in the press and on television, serves to put the threat to raptors in the spotlight and raise public awareness.
The Tasmanian Government has provided funds for the hotline, which was officially launched late last month by the Environment Minister, Elise Archer. At the same time she said the government had amended the Threatened Species Act to increase penalties for those harming wildlife.
“This sends a message that killing eagles will not be tolerated,” she said as to the two eagles spiralled overhead.
Craig Webb has in the last year visited South Africa where ground-breaking work has been carried out to protect eagles and other wildlife from that country’s extensive electricity transmission network.
South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust has worked in partnership with the government-owned power utility and Craig has developed a similar relationship with TasNetworks to alleviate the ongoing threat to eagles from electricity infrastructure in Tasmania.
Craig described the problems faced in South Africa “as mammoth”. The power authority had to deal with rhinos, elephants, buffalos, cranes, eagle and other bird species coming into contact with power lines.
“However, I witnessed first-hand how these two organisations have worked together to find solutions and their system works. It has taken awhile to achieve and it’s not without some heated debates, but they have built their relationship up over two decades. They are getting the job done and they are doing it well. They’ve implemented solutions that include preventing elephants using power poles as scratching posts!”
He said he had established a similar working arrangement with TasNetworks in Tasmania to alleviate what he described as the ongoing threat to Tasmanian raptors.
Officials from TasNetworks were at the raptor hotline launch.