Glossy Blacks miss worst of fires

The Glossy Black CockatooThe endangered Glossy Black-Cockatoo population on Kangaroo Island was fortunate to escape with relatively minor damage from the December fires.

Habitats in the Western River area suffered the most damage, where significant tracts of both sheoak foraging habitat and nest trees were burnt.

Other areas of cockatoo foraging and nesting habitat were burnt in the Flinders Chase fire.

It is unlikely that any Glossy Black-Cockatoos were injured or killed directly as a result of the fires, since observations during the annual census a month earlier suggested that few Glossies were then occupying the areas that burned.

To date, the following estimates (based on perimeters of all the fires) have been calculated:

Of 20 known nest sites within the fire perimeters, four trees were totally destroyed and one artificial PVC nest hollow melted. Six trees were slightly damaged and four were untouched. Five other nest trees are yet to be examined.

Critical nesting habitat: 915ha

Sheoak feeding habitat: 425ha

In the Western River area, which has supported about 60 cockatoos in recent censuses, about half the feeding habitat, three quarters of the critical nesting habitat and a third of the potential nesting habitat was burnt.

This raises concern that the cockatoos will increase their competition for nest sites and that there may not be sufficient sheoak habitat to support this flock over the next 10 years or so, until natural regeneration produces significant seed crops.

Short and long-term management and restoration strategies will be developed in consultation with landholders and with input from the Glossy Black-Cockatoo Recovery Team.

The focus will be on maximising natural regeneration of habitat in the Western River area, coupled with some Drooping Sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata) revegetation to provide a head-start.

The fires also present an excellent opportunity to learn more about the effects of fire on Glossy Black-Cockatoo habitat species such as Sugar Gum (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) and Drooping Sheoak.

With luck, there will be good rains this season to revive the remaining habitats and allow good regeneration in the burnt areas.