Managing the Hooded Plover - Parks Victoria

Parks Victoria Technical Series No. 4
Managing the Hooded Plover
CONSERVATION STATUS - VICTORIAN
In Victoria, the Hooded Plover is listed as Threatened under Schedule 2 of the Flora and
Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and an Action Statement has been prepared for the species
(Schulz 1992). The Flora and Fauna Guarantee (FFG) scientific committee responsible for
determining the appropriate conservation status for the species, concluded that the Hooded
Plover is:
• Significantly prone to future threats which are likely to result in extinction, and
• Very rare in terms of abundance and distribution.
CONSERVATION STATUS - NATIONAL
The national conservation status of the Hooded Plover is in a state of flux. The Hooded
Plover was formerly listed as Rare (Garnett 1993). In January 2000 the species was
removed from the federal Endangered Species Act on the basis that secure populations
occur in western Australia (M. Delahunt in litt.). Thus, the species was not listed as
threatened under the new federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act
([EPBC] 2000).
A number of factors may mean that the national conservation status of the Hooded Plover
should be reinstated and probably upgraded (i.e., changed to a more threatened level).
These considerations have arisen as a result of an increased level of knowledge about the
species. This new information stems from recent and in some cases unpublished studies.
The factors that may lead to an upgrading of conservation status are:
1. A range contraction in eastern Australia has been recognised (Blakers et al. 1984), but
there had been no examination of the extent of contraction until Cameron & Weston
(1999) reviewed historical records from New South Wales and Queensland. This review
suggested that a range contraction of over 900 km in the first half of the 20th century had
occurred. This estimate was higher than previous uncritical estimates. However, McAllan
(in press) has criticised the treatment of historical reports by Cameron & Weston (1999),
leading to a lively debate about the extent of range contraction (Weston in press).
2. Population decline had not been recognised, however a population decline has been
demonstrated in at least one section of the Victorian coast (Weston 1993).
3. Wading bird population experts had cast doubt on the current estimate of the total
population size (5000 birds, Watkins 1993) due to the lack of data on the western
populations of Hooded Plovers, which were suspected to have been underestimated.
Recent population estimates in WA (Newbey 1996, Singor 1999) have produced
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