Saving WA’s Threatened Species – the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos

Artificial Nesting Hollow created by Dr. Denis Saunders, Rick Dawson (Parks & Wildlife) and volunteers. Photo: Rick Dawson

Approaching 50 years, Dr. Denis Saunders has dedicated his life’s work to Australian Threatened Species – the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo. WA Parks Foundation volunteers had the pleasure of spending a day with Dr. Saunders, as well as Rick Dawson PSM, and Karen Smith from the Parks & Wildlife Service, and the research team from Murdoch University Carnaby’s Cockatoo Project (Dr. Jill Shepard, Kris Warren, Jo Burston and PHD student Karen Riley) observing their work of repairing and creating artificial nesting hollows, tagging chicks and installing trackers on fledglings to gather vital data on their movement behaviour.

In a world first, researchers at Murdoch University have teamed up with industry to track endangered Carnaby’s cockatoos in the southwest of Western Australia, using state-of-the-art technology developed in the Netherlands that will provide insight into threats to the endangered species. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk4tUEBNrVk

 

A rare pair of sibling fledglings from one set of parents. Photo: Rick Dawson

Fluffy Black Carnaby’s Cockatoo Chick nesting in Artificial Hollow. Photo by Rick Dawson