![]() Good technical and enc value = a worth FP candidate IMO. Taken in Swifts Creek, Victoria in July 2007 Alternative 1 Alternative 2 - mid air flight! Reason A high quality image of an unusual species of cockatoo - I say unusual as I only ever see them once a year if that. None of us want that.Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo Original - An adult Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo perched in a tree. I just don’t want the last song of the Carnaby. “We have so much data about these birds, we know what we need to do. “If we can’t save the Carnaby, we can’t save anything,” he continues. “They’re survivors and they are so special to this place. “The Carnaby has been here for 10 to 20 million years,” Dixon says. While this needs to happen at a government and industry level, individuals can help by planting native trees like banksia, hakea and eucalyptus species. Warren says the only way we can reverse Perth’s cockatoo population decline is to “shift from net habitat loss to net habitat gain”. The Baudin’s black cockatoo, which looks very similar to the Carnaby, is now critically endangered, with a population decrease of 90% over the past three generations. Murdoch University found that the decline of the species is causing great distress for some Noongar communities. The Ngoolark (Carnaby) also has great cultural significance to Noongar people and they take on multiple meanings, including rain carriers, spiritual messengers and family totems. Their gentle, knowing eyes and gleeful expression.’ Photograph: Georgina Steytler Their exquisite bodice of black and white scalloped plumage. We’ve wiped out 70% of the landscape in the south-west, and there’s a continued carelessness still going on today.” “Perth is a utopia through the eyes of humans, but we are the extinction centre of the planet. “Many people don’t realise how dire this situation is,” says Kingsley Dixon, a botanist and the former science director of Kings Park. Meanwhile, experts say the state government’s plans to continue logging the Gnangara pine plantations – the bird’s most significant foraging and roosting habitat in the Perth-Peel region – could spell catastrophe for the species. Plus much of the remaining population is beyond breeding age. It is a death by a thousand cuts for these magnificent creatures, which face a gamut of other threats including motor vehicle collisions, increased competition for nesting hollows and disease. If we can’t save the Carnaby, we can’t save anything Botanist Kingsley Dixon ![]() The main culprit is land-clearing and deforestation, which has seen more than 90% of their main foraging, breeding and roosting habitat disappear since European settlement. The Carnaby population is estimated to have decreased by between 50% and 80% over the past 45 years and continues to decline 4% each year. But our the love for the bird is at odds with its rapid decline. Across Perth, colourful murals illustrate their cheeky personalities and bird watching groups go berserk over sightings. Now, you’d be lucky to see 100.”Įndemic to Western Australia’s south-west, the Carnaby’s cockatoo (Ngoolark in Noongar language) is somewhat of an icon. “Only 50 years ago, when I was growing up, you’d see flocks of up to 7,000 in Perth. “They used to blacken the sky,” says Prof Kris Warren, a specialist in Western Australia’s endangered black cockatoos. But as it turns out there’s much more to it. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Carnaby’s cockatoos in the wild, which I assumed was owing to my urban, itinerant lifestyle.
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