Peri’s paper characterising the population genetics of the Gouldian finch in the wild was published last week in the open access PLosOne. This paper focuses on birds sampled from across the range of the Gouldian finch including samples from Mornington and Wyndham in the Kimberley, Western Australia; a number of sites in the Northern Territory, and Chidna in Queensland. DNA extracted from blood samples taken from the wild birds was analysed using three molecular approaches and indicates that there is no clear genetic structuring across the sampled areas. This is consistent with a view that Gouldians are quite mobile, and individuals may be found across a wide range. An implication of this molecular work is that the species may be more difficult to reliably census than species which have a higher level of genetic structuring, and are more restricted to particular areas or sites.

The rationale for undertaking this work was to help inform management of this species, and this work was part of our submission to the committee responsible for the Federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, who on the 7th December announced their decision to retain the status of the Gouldian finch as ‘endangered’ which is a great outcome and maintains a good degree of protection for the species and its habitat.

The full paper is open access and can be found here.