Dean Arthurell, Carnaby’s Crusader
In 2021 Birdlife Australia warned our state Labor government that Carnaby’s Cockatoos would begin to starve to death, if their plans to fell their remaining significant feeding site in the Gnangara Pine Plantation went ahead. The once 23,000-hectare plantation was eroded to just 1,800 hectares before a referral to the EPA by Curtin University wildlife biology expert Dr Hugh Finn in June 2022, eventually resulted in the government finally abandoning the harvest. The Pines, located on the Swan Coastal Plain hosted up to 70% of the entire population of Western Australia’s Carnaby’s cockatoos counted during the 2019 Great Cocky Count.
Fast forward 3 years to May 2024 and Perth Zoo vets begin to receive starving and emaciated Carnaby’s Cockatoos in the metropolitan area, with up to 5 birds per day presenting with identical symptoms. Continued clearing of Endangered Banksia woodlands along with no significant rain until May saw the bird’s natural food reserves dwindle and fail to set seed, further exacerbating the food crisis. Equally concerning was Leeuwin Group zoologist Professor Don Bradshaw quoting a five-fold influx of starving birds.
Add to this DBCA’s unwavering commitment to burning regimes whereas other states move towards new early detection technology, and you essentially have an extermination taskforce at the hands of a WA Labor government. Carnaby’s Cockatoos are being displaced and starved into extinction under the watch of an environment minister asleep at the wheel. Despite a comprehensive Supplementary feed Station Proposal submitted to Environment Minister Reece Whitby, the Minister contests that science does not back this as a viable short-term mechanism. Even with a 25+ year history of the Moora Carnaby population being sustained via supplementary feeding by Wally Kerkhof, feeding an endangered urban population of Carnaby’s Cockatoo’s is not worth trailing. However, sitting idle and watching them starve while offering special exemptions to Mining Giants Alcoa and South 32’s continued clearing of our Northern Jarrah Forest is palatable to our environment minister. These forests are home to all 3 of Western Australia’s endangered Black Cockatoo’s, Including the Critically Endangered Baudin’s Cockatoo.
Supplementary feed stations are a last resort to sustain a starving population of Cockatoos through to a depleted environment that can once again support its native species. To suggest that a starving animal would turn up its nose at a free feed during a famine is insane. To simply allow an endangered species to slip away while we watch does not meet community expectations, and is a violation of animal ethics.
In November we fabricated a feed-station prototype with the aim of trialling uptake from our Bindoon breeding colony. We stocked our station with native species of Banksiaattenuata, Banksia menziesii and Corymbia calophylla (Marri Nuts). The station was monitored with a motion camera and was quick to attract attention. Despite the local colony not experiencing any food shortages like the SCP population, Carnaby’s were quick to investigate and devour the forage on offer within 36 hours.
In Western Australia it is illegal to feed wildlife, however for a fee you can feed Dolphins in Monkey Mia, Pelicans in Kalbarri and crocodiles in the Kimberley’s. Yet our Environment Minister Reece Whitby is allowing an extinction to transpire right before our eyes. These beautiful, iconic Black Cockatoos exist nowhere else in the world, and need protection from progress and politics. If you would lend your voice to support these endangered cockatoos and a supplementary feed-station trial then please contact Minister.Whitby@dpc.wa.gov.au
