{"id":822068,"date":"2026-07-25T02:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822068\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T02:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:14:16","slug":"indian-mynas-were-introduced-to-control-pest-insects-but-now-they-are-the-pest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822068\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian mynas were introduced to control pest insects but now they are the pest"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is one backyard bird nobody wants.<\/p>\n

The Indian, or common, myna, Acridotheres tristis, has a dark brown body, black head and distinctive yellow features.<\/p>\n

It was introduced to Australia in the 1860s to tackle insect pests. Now it has become the pest.<\/p>\n

President of the Canberra Indian Myna Action Group (CIMAG), Bill Handke, said the myna outcompeted native birds for food and nesting sites, destroying eggs and chicks.<\/p>\n

“This is a highly invasive species, very aggressive to native birds,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

“It affects both large birds and small birds, particularly hollow nesting birds like crimson rosellas and eastern rosellas, but also the small little birds that people like in their gardens.”<\/p>\n

The Indian myna has been so successful as a species, breeding at a prolific rate, that it has spread up and down the east coast of Australia.<\/p>\n

Tackling the cane toad of the sky\"A<\/p>\n

Bill Handke says the species can be very aggressive to native birds. (ABC News: Dave Sciasci)<\/p>\n

CIMAG formed in 2006 to raise awareness of the impact of the birds and offer a free backyard trap loan scheme.<\/p>\n

Over the years, they have consulted with government, animal welfare groups and the community to deliver a control program.<\/p>\n

They say more than 3,000 households across Canberra, Queanbeyan and Murrumbateman have been involved in trapping efforts, removing more than 80,000 birds.<\/p>\n

“When we first started, they were the third most common bird in Canberra, according to the local birdwatcher’s weekly surveys. And within a dozen years or so, we had them down to the 24th most common,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

But Mr Handke said that progress has stalled, and the number of Indian mynas has “exploded”.<\/p>\n

“There’s a huge backlog of people wanting traps, and that’s an indication that mynas are on the way back,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said a recent survey placed mynas back at the 10th most common in the region.<\/p>\n

Government support has ‘waned’\"Two<\/p>\n

The Indian myna was introduced to Australia in the 1860s to tackle insect pests. (Getty Images: Ronen Goldberg)<\/p>\n

When mynas were declared a pest species in 2021, CIMAG hoped it would trigger a coordinated government control effort around public land including schools, hospitals and government-owned buildings.<\/p>\n

“When [environment and heritage minister Rebecca Vassarotti] declared mynas as a pest animal in 2021, we thought that that would be the start of a major concerted effort by government to lend their hand to the control of this pest animal,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

“But it didn’t happen, and it’s a bit of a mystery.<\/p>\n

“This is the real disappointment, that the ACT government isn’t actively doing anything to control mynas.”<\/p>\n

A 2023 petition to the ACT government, signed by more than 2,100 Canberrans, “went nowhere”, he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re not getting the support that government should be providing, including controlling on public lands around public buildings, schools, hospitals, airports, stuff like that,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

An urban specialist bird\"A<\/p>\n

ACT Conservator of Flora and Fauna Bren Burkevics says common mynas are not a priority species to be managed. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)<\/p>\n

The ACT government does not dispute the myna is a pest, but ACT Conservator of Flora and Fauna Bren Burkevics said the species has adapted well to the urban environment and is not a priority species to manage.<\/p>\n

“If there was a definite threat, there might be a need to take action,” Mr Burkevics said.<\/p>\n

“What we’re not seeing is a threat to matters of national significance, our native birds, and particularly those in reserves.”<\/p>\n

CIMAG challenge this.<\/p>\n

“The environment is more than just a nature reserve,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

“The environment is where we live.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ACT government declared Indian mynas a pest species in 2021, but did not introduce a control program for the species. (Source: Pexels)<\/p>\n

CIMAG argue mynas outcompete native hollow-nesting birds, such as crimson and eastern rosellas, and prey on threatened invertebrates including the golden sun moth and the Canberra earless dragon.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just culled some kangaroos to protect the grassland. And they were the animals, these little critters, that the kangaroo cull was to help,” Mr Handke said.Changed advice on disposal<\/p>\n

Part of the complexity hinges on the most humane method of trapping and disposing of the birds.<\/p>\n

CIMAG’s protocol uses carbon monoxide from a cold petrol engine, a technique Mr Handke said was identified as the fastest, least stressful option available.<\/p>\n

Carbon dioxide is now the preferred method of disposal.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michelle Robertson says any potential myna population control would need a clear framework to ensure humane disposal. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

RSPCA ACT chief executive Michelle Robertson said the organisation was not opposed to managing myna numbers in principle, if it is necessary and justified.<\/p>\n

“We’re not saying you can’t do any of these things,” Ms Robertson said.<\/p>\n

“We’re just saying it needs to occur in a very carefully managed framework by qualified people so that it is humane.”<\/p>\n

The ACT government has also taken this approach.<\/p>\n

“The government supports the view of the RSPCA, their policy position that encouraging trapping and killing of common mynas should not be encouraged,” Mr Burkevics said.<\/p>\n

This problem is not unique to Canberra. In an effort to manage the birds, some councils provide disposal service at local depots.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bill Handke says CIMAG has encouraged the ACT government to provide a myna disposal service to the community. (ABC News: Dave Sciasci)<\/p>\n

“We’ve suggested that to the government here, but it doesn’t happen,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

“If they’re concerned about the method of disposal, they should be providing a disposal service to the community.”<\/p>\n

Flying under the radar<\/p>\n

Mr Handke is calling on the government to act as a precautionary measure, saying without a sustained effort to manage the population the myna bird could become a major problem.<\/p>\n

“It’s a real shame that we’ve let, and by we, I mean the ACT government and the ACT Environment Directorate, have really let this opportunity that we provided initially with our massive control program, they’ve let that slip and we’ve now got mynas right across Canberra in very big numbers,” Mr Handke said.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Conservator of Flora and Fauna said their work has not gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n

“We absolutely respect their passion, but I think the likelihood of an all-in Canberra effort would be unlikely,” Mr Burkevics said.<\/p>\n

That leaves Canberra with a pest species everyone agrees is unwelcome, but no-one is sure exactly how to get rid of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is one backyard bird nobody wants. The Indian, or common, myna, Acridotheres tristis, has a dark brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[396621,396619,2667,396620,81609,43,10165,8969,396617,44,89780,396618,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-822068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-act-conservator-of-flora-and-fauna","tag-bill-hanke","tag-canberra","tag-canberra-indian-myna-action-group","tag-common","tag-headlines","tag-indian","tag-invasive-species","tag-myna","tag-news","tag-pest","tag-rspca-act","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}