The Plight of Yellow-crested Cockatoos

The Rarest Cockatoo is
On the Doorstep of Extinction:
Is it Too Late To Save the Masakambing Cockatoo
( Cacatua sulphurea abbotti ) ?
Stewart Metz, Director &
Bonnie Zimmermann, VP
With the indispensable in-field work of Dudi Nandika
and Dwi Agustina (Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia)
The Ravages of the Illegal Wild Bird Trade can be
Rapid & Devastating
(in certain situations)
Cacatua sulphurea abbotti :
Discovered by
Dr. WL Abbott
in 1907
Written up by H.
Oberholser in 1919
(Proc US Natl Museum)
At first, present in large flocks
In 1980’s, oilmen and traders from
Bali and Sumbawa trapped them in
the hundreds, often using nets.
By the 1990’s, the large flocks had
disappeared and in a single decade,
the cockatoo was on the verge of
extinction
Mysteries of Yellow-crested Cockatoos
(putatively, Abbott’s cockatoos)
Prambanan Temple is the largest Hindu Temple in Indonesia
Built ~ 850-900 A.D. in Yogyacarta (essentially between Bali and
Jakarta). The temple contains a series of bas reliefs of YCC:
Similar reliefs are seen at the
Buddhist Borobudur temple
(one of the Seven Wonders)
at Cirebon in West Java.
Construction started ~ 750 AD
The Most ‘Recent’ Censuses** of Masakambing Island,
Prior to Involvement of IPP and Konservasi Kakatua
Indonesia
1994: 10 individuals
1995: 8
1996: 7
1997: 5
1998: 6
1999: 5,
showing an almost linear and unchecked decline
Most of the reports are unpublished and written in bahasa
Indonesia
Note: Cockatoos were wiped out on Masalembu Island, leaving
Masakambing as their sole range
APPROACH # 1: Working Towards a Paradigm Shift
The Conservation-Awareness-Pride (C-A-P) Program
For schoolchildren:
Age-appropriate games and tools
e.g., Instructional videos** ;
t-shirts and backpacks;
stickers for notebooks;
coloring books (“ Burung Apa Itu?”), etc
bird-watching trips
**Questionnaires given both before and after
the in-class programs, have shown remarkable changes
in attitude towards the cockatoo
Some of the Tools of the Conservation-Awareness-Pride Program
For adults *
For men: Meetings with local leaders, police, military ; placement of signposts,
banners in key locations (eg, harbors); “Forest Warden” approach to protect
cockatoos**
For women: Make souvenirs with cockatoo logo
Brimob (Special Police Unit)
*
**
Signpost at Harbor
The Program is designed to nurture long-term community involvement and empowerment
not just to deter smuggling but to prevent disturbance to nesting cockatoos—e.g., from noise
Mackeral crackers
made by village women
as souvenirs
“Beka”=Cockatoo
An Event with a Hint of Optimism:
Villagers Return a Fallen Fledgling
to its Nest
(photo taken using a cell phone)
Approach #2: Ecological studies related to survival
Masakambing (Abbott’s) Cockatoo feasting
on the male fruit of the Sukun plant
FLORA
The flora used by the cockatoo were identified
during line transects
47 foodstuffs were identified,
including fruits, flowers, and seeds
5 of these also act as nest trees
HOWEVER
Masakambing Island has lost
90-95% of indigenous habitat.
Therefore, we trained students to
plant new crops critical to both
cockatoos and villagers: sunflower;
corn; and mangrove. Women of the
village are involved in this
and other activities, such as
souvenirs (pens,candy,cups,soap)
Planting Mangrove
Ecological Studies, II:
Breeding : pairing, nest seeking, copulation, fledging
were all observed
Pre-Mating
Copulation
Approach #3: Legal Protection
Working to Heighten Awareness—and to Protect the
Cockatoo through New Laws
The first ‘Perdes’ (Local Law) was passed in 2009-- primarily
through the efforts of Dudi Nandiki and Dwi Agustina, our
colleagues in Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia
A key paragraph reads
“Everyone [is] forbidden to catch, hurt, kill,
save, possess, keep, bring and trade cockatoo ;
[and] is forbidden to [export] the cockatoo
from Masakambing ... Every person who lives
inside or outside of Masakambing is forbidden to ….trade it. “
Some Other Potential Obstacles
Still Facing Masakambing
Cockatoos
•Risk of annihilation from natural disasters*
•Decrease in genetic diversity
(due to small population size, in-breeding)
•Aging population; ratio of females to males**
•Food Depletion as Population Rises
•Disease
Any approach will require a long-term solution
with benefits to local villagers
( capacity building )
*Also includes possible “bottleneck effect”
(ensuing genetic drift in the surviving population)
** Currently, this ratio appears to be 1:1, or very close to it
73% of the World’s Population (2011)
in one tree
…and
vulnerable to a single natural catastrophe
C. sulphurea sulphurea,
(wild) in Sulawesi
Is there Psittacine Beak and Feather
Disease in Wild Yellow-crested Cockatoos?
C. sulphurea,
confiscated
from Jakarta “Bird
Market”
and PBFD is known to be present in a breeding center
What is the status of
the Masakambing
cockatoo now (2013) ?
RESULTS OF SEQUENTIAL CENSUSES OF MASAKAMBING ISLAND
(Due to the tiny size of Masakambing Island –5 km.²,
data represent assessments of the entire island)
--Results from 1994-1999 (on the left) preceded those of IPP.
--Results from 2008 (on the right) represent our work.
They appear to indicate, least in a hyper-short time frame, a reversal of an
inexorable decline towards extinction .
FLASH: The May, 2013 census was just completed and indicated a further
increase to 17 individuals, more than 300% of the basal starting point
…but one bird was lost
CONCLUSIONS
•Like most beautiful and rare things,
the value of the Masakambing cockatoo may rise;
recognition of its location and isolation
may increase it as a target for poachers
• Constriction in habitat and foodstuffs
poses even greater threats
•Thus it still faces extinction in the absence
ongoing, multi-faceted efforts to conserve it
“ By this intricacy, this supreme delicacy
and elegance, understand that neither you
nor a multitude of you could make such
a creature… If you could make even a replica,
you could not make it live… If it did not exist,
you could not imagine it. Since it does exist,
please do not neglect…it” (Wendell Berry, 1991)
We hope that our talk
didn’t do this to you…

We are grateful to
Loro Parque Fundacion,
Disney Worldwide Conservation
Fund, and World Parrot Trust for
support and/or collaboration in
various aspects of this work
We would like to express special thanks to Mark and
Marie for inviting us, and to Rich and Kathryne
Thorpe, for making our talk possible, and for their
long-term dedication to the protection of cockatoos
and other parrots
Stewart & Bonnie