1/3 of Carnaby Black Cockatoos wiped out in 1 year (1 Viewer)

Land clearing decimating cockatoos in W Australia

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/13120903/black-cockies-decimated-by-land-clearing/

viator said:

Land clearing decimating cockatoos in W Australia

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/13120903/black-cockies-decimated-by-land-clearing/

Click to expand...

Shocking if the counts represent the population trend. Another year of that and it'll be IUCN/BL Critical.

cheers, a

Just depressing...

viator said:

Land clearing decimating cockatoos in W Australia. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/13120903/black-cockies-decimated-by-land-clearing/

Click to expand...

To add a subjective view, Carnaby's was difficult to find in WA this year. It was largely absent from sites where I had seen them in 2001.

The survey teams will know well the species' behaviour and habitats, and so I don't doubt that they have identified a major likely cause of the decline. However, there may well be an additional problem affecting this and other bird species. Last October and November, there was considerable concern expressed on the Web about massive die-back of old-growth mature original forest in parts of WA, some forecasts being of greater than 70% loss. The proximate cause of the die-back was believed to be the excessively high temperatures (45C) over long periods during the previous summer.

Even if the areas of die-back weren't breeding areas for Carnaby's, they might well have been non-breeding dispersal roosts. As I understand it, the forest clearance activity is centred in areas of original forest that largely were not affected by die-back. The circumstances therefore seem best described as a 'double-whammy'...:-C
MJB