Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
PLOS
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Natural Sciences
RAS ID
16400
Abstract
Pine plantations near Perth, Western Australia have provided an important food source for endangered Carnaby’s Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) since the 1940s. Plans to harvest these plantations without re-planting will remove this food source by 2031 or earlier. To assess the impact of pine removal, we studied the ecological association between Carnaby’s Cockatoos and pine using behavioural, nutritional, and phenological data. Pine plantations provided high densities of seed (158 025 seeds ha21) over a large area (c. 15 000 ha). Carnaby’s Cockatoos fed throughout these plantations and removed almost the entire annual crop of pine cones. Peak cockatoo abundance coincided with pine seed maturation. Pine seed had energy and protein contents equivalent to native food sources and, critically, is available in summer when breeding pairs have young offspring to feed. This strong and enduring ecological association clearly suggests that removing pine will have a significant impact on this endangered species unless restoration strategies, to establish alternative food sources, are implemented.
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0061145
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Stock, W.D., Finn, H. , Parker, J., & Dods, K. (2013). Pine as fast food: foraging ecology of an endangered cockatoo in a forestry landscape. PLoS ONE, 8(4), e61145. Available here