Tracking black cockatoos

Murdoch University PhD student and Perth Zoo veterinary resident Anna Le Souëf is working to solve the problem of tracking rehabilitated black cockatoos.

Significant threats to Carnaby’s cockatoo populations include injuries caused by vehicle strikes and shootings, those that are saved are handed over to wildlife rehabilitators for further care before being released back into the wild, where possible.

Tracking black cockatoos using radio or satellite transmitters has never been done in WA, and only undertaken with small groups of birds elsewhere in Australia, so there’s no knowledge of what happens to the birds once they’re released back into the wild.

“The skills involved with caring for and treating the cockatoos have been well-honed over many years but there is still no information on the survivability and movements of released rehabilitated cockatoos,” Dr Le Souëf said.

In collaboration with the Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo Project’s Dejan Stojanovic, Dr Le Souëf is trialing different types of radio and satellite transmitter attachments on captive black cockatoos.

“Challenges associated with tracking wild cockatoos include the risk of damage to the transmitters by the birds’ powerful beaks, injury to birds caused by snagging of the transmitter attachments and obtaining transmitters within the very light weight range required to lessen the impact on flight,” she said.

The current trial

The trial, which is still underway, involves Carnaby’s cockatoos, Baudin’s cockatoos and red-tailed black cockatoos housed at the Black Cockatoo Rehabilitation Centre in Martin.

Dr Le Souëf said so far, the cockatoos appear to be very comfortable wearing their transmitters and the majority haven’t attempted to remove them.

“A few of the cockatoos have shown a curious interest in the strange object on their backs and have had a bit of a nibble - as you can imagine, a cockatoo ‘nibble’ can result in considerable damage to a small transmitter unit,” she said.

“For this reason, the next stage of the trial involves reattaching transmitters strengthened with layers of clear dental acrylic.”

Future trials to refine tracking

Murdoch’s program Chair of the Conservation Medicine Program and Dr Le Souëf’s PhD supervisor, Dr Kris Warren, said the outcomes would be provided as recommendations on the types of transmitters and attachment systems that are suitable for use on Carnaby’s and other black cockatoo species.

“We hope to follow up on the trial with collaborative research involving Perth Zoo, Alcoa and DEC, to radio-track black cockatoos which are released following treatment for injury and rehabilitation,” she said.

Dr Warren said the research would offer a unique advantage and significance as the only opportunity in Australia to access large numbers of wild black cockatoos, allowing sampling and fitting of radio-transmitters to collect previously unattainable demographic, health, movement, critical habitat and breeding data.


Source of photographs: Dejan Stojanovic, Birds Australia and Rick Dawson, DEC