Growing more tucker for the Glossy Black-cockatoo
The nationally threatened Glossy Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) feeds almost exclusively on the seed cones of Allocasuarina species. In eastern Victoria, Black Sheoaks (Allocasuarina littoralis) are the predominant feed tree species.
Supported by the Natural Resource Conservation Trust (NRCT), Biodiversity Legacy, and Rendere Environmental Trust, Wildlife Unlimited’s Helping Hands for the Sheoak project is revegetating stands of Sheoaks on private land, an important action to help recover the Glossy Black-cockatoo population.
From a group of Sheoaks, Glossy Black-cockatoos will choose only specific individual female trees to feed on. It is not known if genetic, social or environmental factors (or a combination of all three) lead to an individual becoming a preferred feed tree for a group of Glossies. Glossies will revisit select feed trees year after year to feed on seed cones.
If genetic factors play a part, collecting and growing seed from feed trees may help increase the number of favoured Sheoaks in the landscape. Misty Anderson from the Moogji Aboriginal Council Nursery, an important project partner, has collected seed from the Sheoaks that the Glossies have been observed feeding at.
Misty has propagated them with great care in the Moogji Nursery, ready for planting through this project. Hopefully, by planting seeds from known feed trees, we may gain more insight into genetic factors that will improve revegetation efforts for the future.
Sheoaks may take up to 10 years to produce cones and even longer to have branches thick enough to support the weight of Glossies feeding on them. This project is a powerful investment into the future of the Glossy Black-cockatoo population in eastern Victoria.
This project continues the recovery of valuable Sheoaks, building on the Landcare, Birdlife and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action Sheoak recovery works that were undertaken as part of the 2019/20 Black Summer Bushfires response. Project sites range from Lakes Entrance and Marlo through to Wangarabell and Genoa in the east.
Banner photo: Glossy Black-cockatoo feeding on a Sheoak, with thanks to Peter Murrell.
