Conserving the World's Rarest Cockatoos : The abbotti and sulphurea Races of C. sulphurea

Stewart Metz, M.D. Collaborators: Bonnie Zimmerman, Dudi Nandika & Dwi Agustina

Indonesian Parrot Project and Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia

Phoenix Landing December, 2010

© Indonesian Parrot Project & Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia, 2008-2010

DUDI NANDIKA

DWI AGUSTINA

The Indonesian Team: Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia

Photo: Dudi Nandika

Cacatua sulphurea abbotti : The Masakambing Cockatoo

The Rarest Cockatoo on Earth

“Lesser Sulphur” or “Yellow-crested” Cockatoos (Cacatua sulphurea)

The Masalembu Archipelago Java Sea Indonesia

Masalembu Is. (M. Besar)= 2000 ha Karamian Is.= 300 ha Masakambing Is. (M. Kecil)= 500 ha 5 km² ; Pop. 1400

(Masakambing Is.)

(Masalembu Is.)

In the middle of the Java Sea, reached only by boat

Abbott’s cockatoo; photo by Dudi Nandika [IPP & KKI]

The “Cockabbott”

Discovered by W. Abbott in 1907

“ Solombo Besar [= Masalembu] Island… is approximately 2 by 4 miles in extent… The soil is fertile and is extensively cultivated…. Nearly all the heavy forest has been cleared… …In color like Kakatoe parvulus parvulus but decidedly larger… The principal individual variation consists in the depth and extent of the yellow on the retrices…”

Doctor Abbott reported them in hundreds on Solombo Besar .”

Reported by Harry Oberholser in 1919:

Of the “hundreds” of cockatoos seen by Abbott on Masalembu

Island in 1907, how many remain there today?

000

0

Masalembu Is= 0 Karamian Is.= 0 Masakambing Is.= 8-10 indiv.

* -- June-July, 2008 [IPP & KKI]

-- March, 2009 [IPP & KKI; partnering with Loro Parque] -- April-May, 2009 [ “ “ “ “ ]

Current Populations*

Censuses in the Wild: Races of C. sulphurea

•parvula: thousands (esp. Komodo and Rinca Is.)

•citronocristata: ~2000

•sulphurea: ~ <200

•abbotti: ~ 8-10

Basic Ecology of the

Masakambing Cockatoo

Flocking and Roosting

60% of the World’s Wild Population

Playing ( Cockatoos will be Cockatoos ! )

Flora used by Cacatua sulphurea abbotti ( out of 47 plants identified on Masakambing Is. )

No Local Name Scientific Name Use Part Eaten

1 Kelapa Cocos nucifera Food & Nesthole Fruit

2 Sukun Artocarpus comunis Food & Nesthole Male flowers

3 Kapuk or randu Ceiba petandra Food & Nesthole Flowers

4 Asem Tamarindus indica Food & Nesthole Fruit & flowers

5 Kedondong Spondias piñata Food Fruit & flowers

6 Belimbing Averhoa bilimbi Food Fruit & flowers

7 Galompe Lagerstroemia sp Food Flowers

8 Lontar Borassus sundaica Food Male flowers

9 Rumbia Metroxylon sp Food Flowers

10 Kelor Moringa oleifera Food Fruit

11 Duluk duluk Lumnitzera racemosa & L. littorea Food Flowers

12 Tanjang Bruguiera gymnorrhiza Food Fruit

13 Pidada Sonneratia alba & S. caseolaris Food Fruit

14 Api-api Avicennia sp Nesthole -

Also: maize, cassava, beans

Feeding Ecology

Coconut “Lontar” [Borassus sp.]

Some Foodstuffs of the Masakambing Cockatoo

Reproductive Ecology of Masakambing Cockatoo

• Dates of breeding season require more study

• Total active nests: 1 ( one yr.= 3)

• Choice of foodstuffs indicative of breeding season:

• ---Breeding season, “lontar” [38%] and coconut [35%] are major foods

• ---After breeding, lontar falls to [8%] and coconut rises to [68%]

Courtship

Mating

Nestholes

Searching for a good deal on a condominium…

Characteristics of Nestholes • Uses five types of tree with pre-existent hole or chink, often in a snag • Diameter 28-105 cm.

• Height: 8-25 m. • Nests 6-15 m. from ground

• Entrance: globular or oval 12-23 cm. diameter

• Depth: ~ 68 cm.

• Base filled to 10cm. with leaves or wood chips

Mating

Caring for the Young

Causes of Decline of Cacatua sulphurea abbotti 1. Loss of habitat [foodstuffs; nestholes]

2. Illegal Wild Bird Trade • Remote (1980’s): visitors from Sumbawa [oil exploration] and Bali took them by the 100’s • Current: chicks [by special order] • Pets (local)

3. Other

• Predators [raptors?; reptiles: consume eggs or young] • Disturbance during nesting

Conserving the Masakambing Cockatoo: Strategies

• Other Sustainable Income [chicks bring only ~$US 15] --- eco-tourism? --- plant crops** [for birds & villagers]; protect mangrove --- local villagers hired as ‘Forest Wardens’ **Sunflower • Legal Interdiction • Local Awareness and Pride

• Misc.: Restore habitat ? ; Artificial nestboxes? ; “Tin” the bases of nest trees or cut away limbs from contiguous trees to reduce access of predators ; plant ‘cockatoo’ crops • Captive Breeding Program w/ re-stocking? [how does one prove identity?]

Conservation-Awareness-Pride (C-A-P) Program

• Similar to that instituted by IPP and KKI in Java {Jakarta} and Maluku {Seram and Ambon} • Utilize age-appropriate “fun” activities and tools to foster interest in the birds and their welfare in the schoolchildren ---slide shows and DVDs (created by Bonnie Z.) ---coloring books ---stickers for notebooks ---t-shirts ---posters, banners, and billboards ---bird-watching

Tools of the Conservation-Awareness-Pride {CAP} Program

Youngsters in Masakambing village holding pages from cockatoo coloring book

Posters placed in the Village

Successfully building Pride in this rare and unique bird— found nowhere else on earth– will be one key to the success or failure of this conservation program

From: Quentin Blake. Cockatoos, 1992

Every child on Masakambing Island has participated in the C-A-P Program

Preventing Illegal Taking Of Cockatoos: Pass local laws to protect them

The first local regulation is signed, May 14, 2009:

“PERATURAN DESA MASAKAMBING VILLAGE LAW

Number 1 (2009) about

Protection of Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea abbotti) and their Habitat”

Anti-smuggling Billboards at Critical Harbors

Getting the Support of the Local Police

The Nominate Race (Cacatua sulphurea sulphurea ) Found only in SE Sulawesi Extirpated from rest of Sulawesi

Cacatua sulphurea sulphurea in Flight

Brief Comparison to C. sulphurea abbotti : •Almost all in SE Sulawesi: Censuses of 45 and 37 in 2005 and 2009, resp. • Habitat not the ‘rate-limiting’ factor; illegal trapping & trade are

•New discovery of gold, and issues of indigenous peoples imp’t •Very low pop.density makes nest monitoring not feasible

•Focus on interdiction and C-A-P

Note greater yellow on ear coverts cf. to Masakambing cockatoo

Kindergarten on Sulawesi

Pet Cockatoo from Kadatua Island, caught with simple snare

Prof. Dupont asks: Can the Cockatoos Be Saved from Extinction?

Quentin Blake, 1992

“ In [the future], the profit will be forgotten, and only the loss will count. Nothing short of the preservation of…habitat, the control of human disturbance and persecution within them, is going to prevent that loss, and now is the time to start. The [cockatoos] are still with us, but they are some way off in the distance, and traveling away from us, towards an empty horizon.” Modified from Nigel Collar’s Foreword to Abramson et al., The Large Macaws

WON’T YOU JOIN US ON THIS GREAT ADVENTURE?

Is there a future for these two subspecies of cockatoo?

Thank you, Ann and your colleagues at PL, for inviting us! …and for your fight to provide a better life for all parrots

EXTRA SLIDES

“ Competitors”

Pet cockatoo kept locally

Known Losses of Masakambing Cockatoos [from interviews] • In 2007-8, 4 chicks were sold [one locally; one to Java; one as pet; one given to local police]. • There are two known pets • Chicks sometimes taken by visiting officials to lobby for civil servant positions • In addition, two chicks died when nesthole tree was cut down. Other nests have been abandoned EACH BIRD LOST COMPRISES ~ 10% of TOTAL POP. IN WILD!

Averages for other species [from Forshaw, Parrots of the World, 3rd Ed.]: parvula Wings: 212-235 Tail: 103-129 sulphurea Wings: 211-245 Tail: 98-115 citron-crest Wings: 231-257 Tail: 110-130

Masakambing Cockatoo: similar to parvula, but slightly larger abbotti Wings: 256-264 mm. Tail: 135-136 [140]

Sulawesi Hanging Parrot on Masalembu

Yellow-crested Cockatoo (nominate race)

Some tools of the Conservation-Awareness-Pride (C.A.P.) Program

•PowerPoint and Video presentations •T-shirts •Coloring Books •Stickers •Posters •Bird-watching •Billboards?

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo (nominate race) Cacatua sulphurea sulphurea

The Enigmatic Abbott Cockatoo •Westernmost of cockatoos (outside of, and casting doubt, on the concept of Wallacea) •Somewhat enigmatic past history

•Relatively little known about it in the wild (complicated by its geographic remoteness in the middle of the Java Sea, as well as the complex make-up of the human population-- ie, Madurese, Bugi, etc)

“I dos papagaios” [Island of the Parrots”] betw. Buru and Ambo Seram, Ceram, Serang= Ceira

Pires first to give proper descrioption of SI, and Rodriques first to map, though neither actually went ashore there

[ “because in this I am relying on people who have been there”] It is clear from the information provided in the preceding Chapter that early European explorers reached the Moluccas at least as early as 1512 That date, however. Preced by only three years, the actual discovery of western Australia bt the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606 . The first known record of an “Australian” parrot, has been attributed in the

same year to Don Diego del Prado y Tovar [ see Chapter xxx] , who noted "numbers of parrots, some verywhite with a crest of yellow feathers and

the beak and feet black." These presumablywere Greater Sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita galerita, earning the designation of that region a “Terra Psittacorum” {Land of Parrots]. However even this sighting may have occurred in what are now the southeastern Moluccan islands of Aru. The first known drawing of an Australian parrot was not

until 1770 , by Sydney Parkinson on Captain Cook’s first voyage. Sir Joseph Banks on the same voyage took a rainbow lorikeet back to Europe,

the first Australian parrot known to have become a captive pet in.

Michael Dahl, 1690

Summary of CAP in Bekasi

The use of the appellation “ the Land of Parrots” , referring to Australia , is in fact a misnomer when used in the historical sense. The discovery of corellas there was preceded by several hundred years on Seram and Ambon Islands, in the Middle Moluccas, which Rodrigues referred to as the “Islands of Parrots.” Even this may have been preceded by a decade or so by the discovery of a plethora of parrots in Brazil and modern-day Venezuela . They would then comprise the Region of NEW WORLD Parrots. Indonesia would then properly be Land of OLD WORLD PARROTS (or of COCKATOOS)

Which is the real “Terra Psittacorum (Land of Parrots)” ?

Abbott’s cockatoo; photo by Dudi Nandika [IPP & KKI]

The “Cockabbott”

Causes of Decline of Cacatua sulphurea abbotti 1. Loss of habitat [foodstuffs; nestholes] • Use of trees for income, boat- or home-building • Planting of crops ( coconut)

2. Illegal Wild Bird Trade • Remote (1980’s): visitors from Sumbawa [oil exploration] and Bali took them by the 100’s • Current: chicks [by special order] • Pets (local)

3. Other • Killed as crop pest • Predators [raptors?; reptiles: consume eggs or young] • Disturbance during nesting

CENSUSES: 1994-1995: 8 individuals¹ 1995-1996 7 1996-1997 7 1997-1998 5 1998-1999 6 1999-2000 5 ---- 2008 10 ** 2009 8 (3-4 bonded pairs + 2 juveniles)

¹Setiawan, Cahyadin, Jepson, Putra, Agista, et al. BirdLife Internat’l—Indonesia, and Atma Jaya University, Yogyacarta

** Nandika, Agustina, Zimmermann, Metz Indonesian Parrot Project & Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia/ Loro Parque Fundacion

“ Competitors”

Possibly via Trade Routes to the West?? By end of 3rd C. “at the latest” lories and white cockatoos. Soon after, red parrots to Chinese capital (5th C),, but sev= S2 A white cockatoo to Chinese Emperor, 418 AD, 522 AD: white cockatoo sent from Bali In 631, Emperor T’ai Tsung , who had received the royal gift of a Seram cockatoo, 648 AD, S2 received at Ch’ang-an poem “The Red Cockatoo”, Po Chu-I; 772-846 AD; written ca. AD 820. “Sent as a present from Annam** A red cockatoo Coloured like the peach-tree blossom Speaking with the speech of men And they did to it what is always done To the learned and eloquent. They took a cage with stout bars And shut it up inside”

Right in the middle of Nowhere….

Eco-tourism ?

School Children of Masakambing

The C-A-P Program in Masakambing

Every person who live inside or outside of desa Masakambing Is. obliged to protect, conserve, improve, and also prevent … process of forest destruction which threatens the cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea abbotti) in their habitat.

Every person in desa Masakambing who have kind of trees for food and nest tree must preserve and manage the harvest…

From Article 4

From Article 6:

Peraturan Desa (re. habitat)

• Dates of breeding season are not yet well defined (one is ~ summer and fall) and require more study • Choice of foodstuffs indicative of breeding season: ---Breeding season, “lontar” [38%] and coconut [35%] are major

foods ---After breeding, lontar falls to [8%] and coconut rises to [68%] • Total active nests: 1 ( one yr.= 3) (Similar number of nests abandoned/yr. such that, in the past, total population did not increase)

Reproductive Ecology of Masakambing Cockatoo

C.sulphurea abbotti: the most westward cockatoo and one outside of Wallacea

Pet cockatoo kept locally

Smuggled Salmon-crested Cockatoo Seram Island, Indonesia

Posters

How long ago was the Masakambing cockatoo recognized (and worshipped)?

Prabanan Temple Largest Hindu Temple Yogyakarta, Indonesia Built ca. 850-900 A.D.