The South Australian subspecies of Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) is listed as an Endangered Species at the national and state level.  It has disappeared entirely from the mainland and is now restricted to Kangaroo Island.  In 1995, the population was estimated to be less than 200 individuals and declining.  In response, a recovery program was implemented in 2005, which aims to ensure that a viable breeding population of the Glossy Black Cockatoo persists in South Australia.  Since then, the downward trend has been reversed by hard-working staff and volunteers, and numbers are on the increase.

The SA Glossy Black Cockatoo requires high-quality Drooping She-oak (Allocasuarina verticillata) woodland for foraging and large hollow-bearing eucalypts for roosting and nesting.  The chief cause of the Glossy Black Cockatoo’s decline in the 1900s was the large-scale clearing of large old gum trees and She-oaks for agriculture.  In addition to the loss of habitat, research indicated that predation of eggs and young chicks by the Common Brushtail Possum was a major cause of nest failure.

The Recovery program thanks you for your donation to help address these threats. They were able to take important actions such as re-establishing and protecting critical habitat on Kangaroo Island and putting “collars” of corrugated iron around nest trees to exclude possums.