Keeping the Carnaby’s flying
The recovery of Western Australia’s threatened Carnaby’s cockatoo population has received some heartening support in the form of a Lottery west grant of more than $1.5 million.
Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre is the only one of its kind as a black cockatoo sanctuary in Australia and in the world.
The funding will help a network of local governments, community organisations and not-for-profit groups revitalise and revegetate areas that Carnaby’s cockatoos frequent for feeding, water and breeding.
Conservation action plans will then be created for these locations, aided by years of data from tracking wild flocks of this endangered species.
The Keep the Carnaby’s Flying program is made up of a dedicated group of staff and volunteers, working to enhance and protect the birds’ habitat in the Perth and Peel regions.
It is co-ordinated by the Black Cockatoo Conservation Program within the Harry Butler Institute at Murdoch University.
Carnaby’s cockatoo is endemic to the south-west of WA. It is estimated that the species’ range has been reduced by 50 per cent and is continuing to decline due to widespread vegetation clearing since the 1970s.
Visit Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre to learn more about these wonderful birds here.
The Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo has a broad, short upper bill. It is named in honour of zoologist and naturalist Ivan Carnaby (1908– 1974). Photo credit: Western Australian Museum
