From the brink of extinction: successful recovery of the glossy black-cockatoo on kangaroo Island

Karleah Berris, Michael Barth, Trish Mooney, David Paton, Martine Kinloch, Peter Copley, Anthony Maguire, Gabriel Crowley, Stephen Garnett

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The last remaining population of the South Australian subspecies of glossy black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus, Fig. 9.1) has been confined to 4400km² Kangaroo Island for ~40 years. The diet of this subspecies of glossy black-cockatoo is one of the most spacialised among birds, comprising almost exclusively of the seeds contained within the hard, particularly large, cones of drooping she-oak (Allocasuarina verticillata). The bill of this subspecies is corrspondingly larger than that of the eastern Australian subspecies, which feeds on smaller coned casuarine species (Schodde et al. 1993). As recently as 4000 years ago, Allocasuarina forests covered vast areas of south-eastern Australia (Bickford and Gell 2005) and the distribution of the cockatoos may have stretched from the hinterland from Eyre Peninsula in South Australia through to western Victoria (Schodde et al. 1993).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRecovering Australian Threatened Species
Subtitle of host publicationA Book of Hope
EditorsStephen Garnett, Peter Latch, David Lindenmayer, John Woinarski
Place of PublicationAustralia
PublisherCSIRO Publishing
Chapter9
Pages75-84
Number of pages10
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)9781486307432, 9781486307425
ISBN (Print)9781486307418
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2018

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