DEC - Department of
Environment and Conservation
 DEC has recently drafted a new recovery plan for Carnaby’s cockatoo with the aid of funds provided by the Commonwealth Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA). The recovery plan is nearing completion and will be made publically available once it has been assessed and endorsed via the normal processes.
DEC in conjunction with Birds Australia WA is monitoring breeding performance of Carnaby’s cockatoos at a number of key breeding sites throughout the species range. Nests are located each year and the health and growth of nestlings checked against known standards. This monitoring has been conducted since 2003 and provides the most reliable and efficient way of determining whether key breeding populations still have the capacity to produce healthy chicks. Chicks are leg banded with individually number leg bands that provide a means of identifying birds in the event that they are encountered dead or alive at some time in the future. While this is a slow and long-term strategy, it is proving very successful already with several birds being encountered up to 14 months after they have left the nest.
 For a variety of reasons black cockatoos, including Carnaby’s cockatoos, are found sick, injured or orphaned. A network of volunteer wildlife carers in cooperation with DEC and the Perth Zoo provide high quality care and rehabilitation for these birds for periods from a few days to years. At the end of this process about 30 per cent are able to be released back to the wild where they will have a second chance to reproduce and contribute to the next generation of cockatoos. Each bird is micro-chipped and leg banded prior to release to maximize the chances of recovery. More than 200 cockatoos have been returned to the wild in recent years. Sadly, life for a Carnaby’s cockatoo is always a challenge and the birds may be involved in collisions with vehicles, natural predators or adverse weather events such heat waves and freak storm events. Survival is a numbers game, and the longer a bird can stay in the game the better the species’ prospects.
 Much of the habitat that Carnaby’s cockatoos needs for its survival is also prime real estate for people. Knowing exactly what type of habitat the cockatoos use and where it is located can be very useful when making land use planning decisions. DEC and the Department of Planning are involved in projects to gather data on critical habitat (roosting, feeding and nesting) used on the Swan Coastal Plain and parts of the wheatbelt, with a view to producing high quality maps that will inform planners, land owners and prospective developers about when conflicts might arise.
 Nesting habitat for Carnaby’s cockatoo is at a premium in many parts of the wheatbelt and must be shared with a range of other native and introduced species. European honey bees (feral hives), mountain and wood ducks, galahs and western corellas as well as Baudin’s, Inland and Forest red-tailed black cockatoos will all use the same nests as Carnaby’s cockatoos. Some of this nest competition is normal but in other cases, such as with galahs and western corellas the competition is a very recent event (only since the 1950s or sooner), or the level of competition is now far greater than it ever was. DEC in conjunction with some private land owners undertakes targeted control programs to reduce the level of competition by culling over abundant species at key breeding sites for Carnaby’s cockatoos.
 Simply having remnants of native vegetation left in parts of the landscape is not enough to guarantee its survival. In most cases these remnants need to be fenced to exclude domestic livestock and actions taken to manage grazing pressure from introduced herbivores such as rabbits. DEC in conjunction with Birds Australia WA has been identifying remnants of critical habitat with a view to providing funding to assist landowners to fence the vegetation to improved its prospects into the future. Advice on ongoing management requirements will also be developed where requested by the landowners.
The plight of Carnaby’s cockatoos is well known, but despite this there a still a few people in the community that think it acceptable to poach cockatoos eggs and chicks from the wild and sell them into the aviculture trade or illegally export them overseas. DEC in conjunction with researchers at Murdoch University have been developing third generation wildlife forensic technology to help reduce the incidence of poaching and improving the prospects of successful prosecutions.
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