Within a few hours, they had picked all 20 trees completely clean, and I didn’t manage to salvage a single nut. They were so close, I could almost taste them.īut before I even had a chance to harvest a single nut, a large flock of cockatoos flew in, perched in the branches and started breaking open the nuts with their sharp beaks. As harvest time approached, I’d walk down every day to check if they were ready. I spent months thinking about all the things I wanted to do when those nuts were finally ready to harvest. They also have an uncanny ability to determine the precise moment a crop is ready to harvest, often beating the farmer to the punch and harvesting his entire crop for him.Ībout 9 years ago, we lived on a property that had about 20 almond trees. They fast learn when the farmer has sown a new crop of plants, and immediately set about undoing his hard work by removing all the seeds from the ground, returning a few weeks later to pick at the tender, young shoots from the seeds they might have missed. But remember how we said cockies are smart? Well that intelligence means they also adapt quickly to new environments. In the wild, cockatoos thrive on a diet of nuts, seeds, berries, leaves, shoots, roots and bugs. So if they are so loved and so intelligent, not to mention protected by law, why would anyone want to kill such a spectacular, iconic bird?ĭespite their loveable personalities, cockatoos are a well-known agricultural and environmental pest, contributing to more than $300 million in agricultural damages each year. Protected under Commonwealth Law, destroying a cockatoo without the correct permits or permissions can carry hefty fines and even jail time. They can also be taught to do tricks and even fetch on command. In the wild, their lifespan is between 20 and 40 years, but in captivity, they can live up to 70 years. In fact, many Australians have fond memories of someone’s backyard cocky being taught to swear and cuss, and yell insults at the neighbours! They range in size from 44cm – 55cm (17.5 – 21.5in) and their raucous screeching calls can be heard from quite a distance away.Ĭockies are highly intelligent creatures that have been compared to chimpanzees by wildlife experts. In this article, we will focus on one of the more common varieties of cockatoo, the sulfur-crested cockatoo ( cacatua galerita), which is the species that Rod hunted in the episode and the species most often found in aviaries around the world.Ī predominantly white, large-bodied bird with a distinctive yellow crest of feathers on the top of its head, they are listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN, with an unquantifiable population in the wild. Ironically, all but one or two of those endangered species live outside of Australia, but perhaps that is why cockatoos are protected under Australian Commonwealth Law – to ensure our iconic avian stars never suffers the fate of its South East Asian and Oceanic cousins.
Known colloquially as the cocky in Australia, there are actually 21 species of cockatoos that are native to Australia, Indonesia and Oceania, with 8 of the 21 species considered endangered or threatened by the IUCN. In this article, we hope to demonstrate the convoluted relationship Australians have with the cockatoo and show why even icons have to be managed. You may have seen Rod hunt some sulfur-crested cockatoos in episode 8 of I Am Hunter and wondered why anyone would want to kill a cocky. Perhaps that’s why the humble cocky is both loved and hated in Australia, depending on which side of its path you are standing on.
But to anyone familiar with the destructive trail such a flock is likely to leave in their wake, it can be the sound of impending doom. To hear them coming over the horizon, and watch them descend into a tree or onto a field, is a thing of beauty to the casual observer.
There’s nothing more synonymous with the Australian bush than the raucous calls of a large flock of noisy cockatoos.
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