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What Threatens The Black Cockatoo

Over the past few decades, these beloved birds have faced dramatic population declines due to relentless habitat destruction. 

However, the greatest challenge facing the Black Cockatoo is the lack of effective government action. Current laws and recovery plans are failing to protect these iconic birds.

Recovery plans for these species have previously been created but the recommendations have not been fully implemented or funded. It is critical that new policies and laws prioritise the protection and restoration of Black Cockatoo habitats. These birds depend on their habitat remaining intact for survival.

The decline of these species has a profound impact, because if we cannot protect a species that is highly adaptive and mobile, it signals larger issues with protecting other biodiversity, wildlife and habitat.

We need new ways of thinking and working together to save the Black Cockatoo and protect our precious wildlife and biodiversity, in a rapidly changing climate. Find out more what needs to change here.

What Threatens The Black Cockatoo

Clearing bushlands and alterations in the landscape since colonisation has had an adverse affect on the Black Cockatoo critical habitats, nesting places and food sources. In the South West about 90% of the original vegetation has been cleared for cities, towns, farms, vineyards, orchards and industrial areas. Today, bushland is often cleared despite its significance. As a result, critical patches of habitat continue to be wiped out across multiple regions, leading to a cumulative decline of critical habitat that negatively impacts the species.

Mining expansion, which involves vast clearing of West Australia’s threatened forests and woodlands, is having devastating impacts on these beloved birds. The Jarrah-Marri forest adjacent to the South Coastal Plain bioregion has been significantly altered in the past few decades by the expansion of bauxite mining. Tens of thousands of trees are being felled for bauxite mining in the Northern Jarrah Forest alone. Further, new research shows rehabilitation efforts by mining companies are failing.

Prescribed burns in the South West are killing wildlife and destroying remaining areas of long-unburnt old growth forest that provide important sanctuary for all three species of Black Cockatoos and other threatened and endangered animals including Quokkas and Western Ringtail possums. All three species are affected by these inappropriate fire regimes.

Climate change is one of the primary threats to biodiversity, and WA's South West has been assessed as being particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Declining rainfall, for example, has already altered the foraging behaviour, distribution and, in some areas, migration patterns of cockatoos. The lack of food and diminished habitat influences breeding and survival of the Black Cockatoo.

Black Cockatoos face many other threats, including

  • Vehicle hits/strikes on roads
  • Competition from ravens and invasive species
  • Gun shots from illegal shooting
  • Poaching
  • Agricultural pesticides or similar products in breeding areas 
  • Trampling revegetation and degrading remaining nesting trees 

 

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