Unleashed dogs cause a twitter in Glebe

Free-roaming dogs are scaring off Glebe’s already thinning native bird life, locals say.

Experts warned in a report last year that the locally adored Superb Fairy Wren, also called the Blue Wren could become “locally extinct” if community action wasn’t taken.

But members of the Blue Wren committee, an offshoot of the Glebe Society, are still pressing Council to act on the recommendations of the report, which names dogs as a danger to the habitat of the low-dwelling birds.

“They decided to have dogs unleashed in all these parks without any real knowledge of what effect it has on native animals,” said Glebe resident, Tim Peach, who used to see White-Faced Herons on the Glebe foreshore, but says dogs have chased many of them away.

“The young were chased by dogs the minute they came out of the nest,” he said.

Despite overwhelming support for off-leash areas in Glebe’s parklands early last year, many say it was irresponsible not to research the impact the decision would have on local wildlife.

Glebe environmental educator and Blue Wren committee-member Judy Christie says it is reckless to allow off-leash areas where there are known sensitive species.

“The whole issue is that biodiversity is not really being considered in the implementation of a lot of policies, and dogs-off-leashes is the obvious one that could probably do with a bit more consideration,” she said.

However, a City of Sydney spokesperson said that the City had done much to improve wildlife habitat in the area, and disputed that dogs had an effect on native species.

“International studies suggest that off-leash dogs have no effect on the abundance of birds or small mammals in urban parks, and that the amount of wildlife usually relates more to the type of environment and the amount and type of trees and plants,” said the spokesperson.

Also a member of the Birds in Backyards organisation, Christie has been documenting native birds in the Glebe area for 21 years.

She said the Super Fairy Wren Habitat report, which was commissioned by the City, revealed the slim numbers of Fairy Wrens left in Glebe. “We think we’ve got one breeding pair, probably doomed to extinction,” she said. However, Christie couldn’t say whether dogs had contributed to the downfall.

University of New South Wales ecologist Dr Peter Banks said that the presence of dogs could cause some bird species to permanently migrate from the area.

“We did a study where we looked at the effects of dog-walking on birds and we found that when you walk a dog on a lead you see about 40 per cent fewer birds…compared to when there was no dogs walked there,” said Dr Banks, adding that unleashed dogs would only make it worse.