A type of West Australian parrot has been found to be a distinct species from its eastern counterpart and needs special protection as one of the world's rarest birds, scientists say.
Only about 110 of the western ground parrots are known to survive in the wild.
An Australian research team used DNA from museum specimens up to 160 years old to reveal that populations of the parrots in eastern and western Australia were distinct from each other.
The team, led by Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Stephen Murphy, has concluded that the western populations should be recognised as a new species, Pezoporus flaviventris.
Dr Murphy said the western ground parrot had declined rapidly in the last 20 years and there were only about 110 birds surviving in the wild, most of them in one national park.
It was now critically endangered and one of the world's rarest birds, he said.
Allan Burbidge of WA's Department of Environment and Conservation said a single wildfire through the national park or an influx of introduced predators, such as cats, could rapidly push the species to extinction.
"There is now an urgent need to prevent further population declines and to establish insurance populations into parts of the former range," he said in a statement.
Director of CSIRO's Australian National Wildlife Collection, Leo Joseph, said that even after 200 years of study, scientists were still recognising new species of birds in Australia.
The team's findings have been published this month in the international conservation research journal Conservation Genetics.
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