Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00635:reg:1:p3
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00635
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 1 (pt 3/23)
Character Range: 9816–13080

Critically Endangered on the list of threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.    The species is believed to have undergone a population decline of > 80% within three generations (Garnett et al., 2011). The probable major cause of long-term decline is the clearing and fragmentation of woodland and forest habitat containing the bird's preferred eucalypt species. The major continuing threat is habitat degradation, particularly on-going reductions in habitat quality, lack of regeneration of key habitat types, and potentially altered flowering patterns of preferred habitat. The species also faces increased competition from larger, more aggressive nectivores, such as the noisy friarbird (Philemon corniculatus), red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata) and the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala). Recent research also suggests nest predation is impacting the species' ability to recruit sufficiently in favourable years. Improvement in the extent and quality of preferred regent honeyeater habitat is the key conservation objective of this recovery plan.
There has been an ongoing captive breeding and release program for regent honeyeaters. Ideally birds should not be released to supplement wild populations until suitable and available habitat has been restored. However, the fact that several of the birds released in 2008, 2010 and 2013 have been subsequently resighted up to seven years post-release suggests that they were able to find suitable habitat in which to survive, and in a few cases breed. This could be due to recovery in health of semi-natural habitat, or the maturation of replanted habitat, or because the ongoing decline is due to some other cause, such as high nest predation or competition with large honeyeaters. Releasing captive-bred regent honeyeaters probably increases the chances of them forming aggregations, which may reduce the risk of nest predation and interspecific competition. Further, it provides potential mates, as shown by pairing of wild and released birds, and may reduce the risk of inbreeding and loss of genetic variability in small populations. The maintenance and expansion of the current captive breeding program is critical to the success of this recovery plan, as without supplementation the wild population may not survive in sufficient numbers to enable recovery after habitat issues and other threats have been resolved.
The accompanying Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) provides additional background information on the biology, population status and threats to the regent honeyeater. SPRAT pages are available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/sprat.pl

2.1 Conservation status
The regent honeyeater is listed as threatened under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and in all parts of its range.
Table 1: National and state conservation status of the regent honeyeater
Legislation                                                               Conservation Status
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)  Critically Endangered
Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995                                  Critically Endangered
(New