Perth could lose it's own wildlife within weeks

I’ve been very fortunate so far in my life to live and visit many different places around the world. However Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz was spot on when she said, “There’s no place like home”. For myself home is Perth, one of the most remote cities in the world and famous for some world class wines and stunning beaches.

I often devote my energy and attention to the plights of animals around the world, the rhinos in Africa, the Orang utans in Borneo and Northern Sumatra, the polar bears in the Arctic Circle. However what about the wildlife back at home? Do you know what’s happening in your home city?

When I left Perth about six years ago, Joondalup was as far as you went north and to get to the quaint town of Mandurah, there wasn’t a train line to get there, just a wearisome drive. In Perth, just a few years later this is no longer the case as the city has witnessed immense urban sprawl. If you aren’t familiar with Perth, the rate at which bushland was cleared for development between 2001 and 2009 was the size of ten cricket ovals a week.

Perth is abundant with beautiful animal and plants, some which are found nowhere else in the world. Astonishingly, there are more plant species in the Greater Perth Floristic District than the entire British Isles, an area over 20 times larger. The Perth and Peel regions and the rest of the Southwest Australia are considered as important to the world’s biodiversity as the Galapagos or the Amazon rainforest.

The now endangered Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo (picture above) is endemic to southwest Western Australia. Their population has halved in the last 45 years due to habitat fragmentation and the removal of nest hollows for use as firewood or just to make properties look “tidy”. Much bushland now lacks hollows as it takes over 100 years for seedlings to mature and form hollows suitable for nesting for the Cockatoo. Furthermore, other bird species such as the Galah and the Western Long-billed Corella are extending their range across the wheatbelt and out competing the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo. Australia’s love an underdog, so we have to back this poor bird.

Another local is the poor Turtle Frog (pictured below). He’s not really a looker, but he’s a battler. With a tiny head and strong, stumpy limbs but a big round body he reminds me of mini-me version of a few fellas I’ve seen at the pub. Most frogs dig backwards but this species digs forwards, like a turtle. It feeds on termites so the adaptation of the muscular limbs is useful when trying to break into a termite mound. Once again get rid of the bushland and you get rid of the Turtle Frog’s habitat and source of termites.

The Peel-Yalgorup wetland system in Perth's south is the most important area for waterbirds in Southwest Australia. It is also home to a unique community of thrombolites clotted accretionary structures formed in shallow water. They just so happen to be one of the oldest life forms on Earth.

All these are under threat and their future will be determined in very short time. The Federal and WA State Government have announced their intention to conduct a Strategic Assessment of the Perth and Peel region, to determine where future development can occur and which areas need to be protected.

Join the WWF in ensuring Perth’s unique and exquisite wildlife is protected. Click here to send an email voicing your concern about the rate at which bushland is being cleared and that you support that sufficient space to house Perth’s growing population should be found on already cleared and degraded land. To make your submission even more effective, please consider sending your own comments direct to: submission-strategicassessment@dpc.wa.gov.au

To find out more about exactly what is a Strategic Assessment and what does it mean for threatened species, go to here.

Comments must be received by Friday 7 October 2011, so please - act now!

The Carnaby Black Cockatoo

Conservation Status
Commonwealth: Endangered ( Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999)WA: 'Specially protected fauna' ( Western Australian Wildlife Conservation Act 1950).

What do they look like?
This large black cockatoo (also known as the Short-billed Black-Cockatoo) has white tail panels, white cheek patches and a short bill. It lives only in southwest Australia where large-scale clearing for farming has fragmented much of its habitat, particularly mature eucalypts such as salmon gum and wandoo that have suitable hollows for nesting.

Where do they live?
Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo is endemic to southwest Western Australia, extending from the Murchison River to Esperance, and inland to Coroow, Kellerberrin and Lake Cronion.
Most breeding occurs in areas with an average annual rainfall of 300-750 mm, typically in the Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions. For nesting, Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos require eucalypt woodland, comprising principally of salmon gum or wandoo. Their food is found in shrubland, or kwongan heath.
The cockatoos require a close association between breeding and feeding sites during the breeding season. If these two very different habitats are not within a reasonable distance of each other, breeding attempts fail. After breeding, the cockatoos move to higher rainfall areas along the coast in search of food sources such as banksia and hakea heathlands.

What do they eat?
Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos feed on the seeds of a variety of native and introduced plant species and on insect larvae. Plants include kwongan heath plants such banksias, dryandra, hakea, grevillea and also marri seeds. They have also adapted to feeding on exotic species such as pines and cape lilac and some weeds such as wild radish and wild geranium.

How many are there?
It is difficult to know how many Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos are left, but it is known that their populations have declined by over 50% in the past 45 years, and that they no longer breed in up to a third of their former breeding sites in the Wheatbelt.
They are gregarious birds and live in pairs or small flocks during the breeding season. After fledging, the young move with their parents from breeding areas to feeding areas where other family groups join the flock.
The cockatoos live for 40-50 years in the wild. A large proportion of the remaining population now is past breeding age. When these older birds die, there will be very few younger birds to take their place.

What is threatening them?
There are a number of threats facing Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo:
1. Habitat fragmentation, particularly in the northern and eastern areas of the Wheatbelt. Most habitat suitable for breeding and feeding in the Wheatbelt has been cleared entirely or fragmented. In addition, clearing of heathland surrounding breeding sites has reduced the survival rate of fledglings by decreasing the available food sources for the young
2. Removal of nest hollows for use as firewood or just to make properties look 'tidy'. Much woodland lacks hollows, and it takes over 100 years for woodland seedlings to mature and form hollows suitable for nesting
3. Competition for hollows from other species
4. Loss of native food sources caused by urban development on the Swan coastal plain
5. Poaching: illegal poaching is still a threat - trees are often cut down or the hollow severely damaged when young and eggs are taken, removing breeding sites
6. Invasive species: other bird species such as the Galah and the Western Long-billed Corella are extending their range in the Wheatbelt and are competing with and excluding Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos from traditional nest hollows.

Conservation Action
Birds Australia (WA) is leading a recovery program that assists rural communities in the management of breeding populations of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo and implementing suitable recovery actions. These recovery actions include protection of existing breeding and feeding sites, revegetation, the development of corridors between breeding and feeding sites, repair of old and damaged hollows and control of competitor species, such as feral bees.
Much effort by local community groups and school children has been put into planting feeding and nesting trees. A community group named 'Men of the Trees' received a Threatened Species Network Community Grant to help re-establish habitat for the cockatoo in the Northern Wheatbelt Region of WA. This project will also trial the effectiveness of nest boxes when hollows are not available for nesting.

Did you know...
1. Male Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos feed the female at her nest during the incubation period and fly over 12km to ensure she gets the food she needs during nesting
2. The cockatoos rarely use the same hollow to nest in if the breeding attempt the previous season was unsuccessful
3. The birds display strong bonds with their partners throughout their adult life
4. If two eggs are produced, the second egg is laid two to eight days after the first egg
5. The cockatoos can live for 40 to 50 years in the wild.

How you can help
- Protect existing hollows
- Protect remnant vegetation and banksia heathlands that support cockatoos
- Revegetate habitats

Click here to listen to the interview with Michael Roach, Threatened Species.

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