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Komodo Dragons and Cockatoos
The dragon’s home is a stronghold for cockatoos!
© Claire Witham
Due to trapping for the pet trade, the talkative and showy Yellow-crested Cockatoo is now considered critically endangered. But scientists recently discovered a stronghold for the species: Komodo Island — yes, the one with the dragons. The Komodo population of Yellow-crested Cockatoos appears stable. The island has been an Indonesian national park since 1980. Park rangers may have helped deter poachers, but community support for conservation and the literal dragons have played a role, too.
BirdNote®
Komodo Dragons and Cockatoos
Written by Rebecca Heisman
This is BirdNote.
[Yellow-crested Cockatoo calls, ML 518060, 0:10-0:13]
Yellow-crested Cockatoos are victims of their own charisma. Talkative and sociable, they stand over a foot tall, with snowy white plumage and a showy yellow crest.
Due to widespread trapping for the pet trade, this bird has disappeared from many of the Southeast Asian islands where it once lived. Today it’s considered critically endangered. But scientists recently discovered a stronghold for the species: Komodo Island. You know, the one with the dragons?
[Komodo Dragon hiss, 0:31-0:35]
Past surveys of the island focused on easy-to-access coastal valleys, and they suggested a sharp decline in the Yellow-crested Cockatoo numbers to just a few hundred individuals.
But when researchers surveyed locations across the island, including the forbidding interior, they arrived at a more accurate population estimate: eleven hundred individuals. It’s a stunning number considering the worldwide population could be as few as 3,000 adult cockatoos. This suggests that, unlike many other islands, the Komodo population of Yellow-crested Cockatoos is stable.
[Yellow-crested Cockatoo calls, ML 518060, 0:10-0:13]
Komodo Island has been an Indonesian national park since 1980. The scientists think that park rangers may have helped deter poachers, but community support for conservation and the literal dragons have played a role, too.
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Yellow-crested Cockatoo ML 518060 recorded by L. DeCicco.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote June 2022 October 2024 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# YECCOC-01-2022-06-13 YECCOC-01
References
https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/122/4/duaa042/5905884
http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/yellow-crested-cockatoo-…
Rebecca Heisman
Writer