visiting a balcony in eastern Sydney for bird seeds|alt=A cockatoo is perched on a city balcony several floors above the ground. A suburban landscape is in the background. Cockatoos were known in Europe from at least the 13th century and probably came by ship from the islands to the north of Australia. Human activities have had positive effects on some species of cockatoo and negative effects on others. Many species of open country have benefited greatly from
anthropogenic changes to the landscape, with the great increase in reliable seed food sources, and available water contributing to their survival, as well as their adaption to a diet including foreign foodstuffs. This benefit appears to be restricted to Australian species, as cockatoos favouring open country outside Australia have not become more abundant. Predominantly forest-dwelling species have suffered greatly from
habitat destruction; in the main, they appear to have a more specialised diet and have not been able to incorporate exotic food into their diet. A notable exception is the yellow-tailed black cockatoo in eastern Australia.
Pests Several species of cockatoo can be serious agricultural
pests. They are sometimes
controlled by shooting,
poisoning or capture followed by
gassing. Non-lethal damage mitigation methods used include scaring, habitat manipulation and the provision of decoy food dumps or sacrifice crops to distract them from the main crop. They can be a nuisance in urban areas due to destruction of property. They maintain their bills in the wild by chewing on wood, but in suburbia, they may chew outdoor furniture, door and window frames; Birds may also target external wiring and fixtures such as solar water heaters, Galahs and red-tailed black cockatoos have stripped electrical cabling in rural areas and tarpaulin is targeted elsewhere. In 1995 the
Government of the
state of
Victoria published a report on problems caused by long-billed corellas, sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs, three species which, along with the little corella, have large and growing populations, having benefited from anthropogenic changes to the landscape. Subsequent to the findings and publication of the report, these three species were declared unprotected by a
Governor in Council Order under certain conditions and are allowed to be killed where serious damage is being caused by them to trees, vineyards, orchards, recreational reserves and commercial crops. Damage covered by the report included not only that to cereal crops, fruit and nut orchards and some kinds of vegetable crops but also to houses and communications equipment. The little corella is a declared pest of agriculture in Western Australia, where it is an aviculturally introduced species. The birds damage
sorghum, maize,
sunflower,
chickpeas and other crops. They also
defoliate amenity trees in parks and gardens, dig for edible roots and
corms on
sports grounds and
race tracks, as well as chew wiring and household fittings. In South Australia, where flocks can number several thousand birds and the species is listed as unprotected, they are accused of defoliating
red gums and other native or ornamental trees used for roosting, damaging
tarpaulins on grain bunkers, wiring and flashing on buildings, taking grain from newly seeded
paddocks and creating a
noise nuisance. Several rare species and subspecies, too, have been recorded as causing problems. The
Carnaby's black cockatoo, a
threatened Western Australian endemic, has been considered a pest in pine
plantations where the birds chew off the leading shoots of growing pine trees, resulting in bent trunks and reduced timber value. They are also known to damage nut and fruit crops, and have learnt to exploit
canola crops. The Baudin's black cockatoo, also endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, can be a pest in apple and pear
orchards where it destroys the fruit to extract the seeds.
Status and conservation is a
critically endangered species endemic to the
Philippines.|alt=Two mainly white-plumaged cockatoos facing each other in a cage. Some feathers at the base of the underside of their tails are red is a
vulnerable species endemic to
New Britain.|alt=The upper body of a mainly white cockatoo that has raised its left leg to its black beak. Pale-yellow crest feathers are just seen under the more prominent white crest feathers. It has a wide circular rim of featherless blue skin around its eyes. Its irises are brown. According to the
IUCN and
BirdLife International, seven species of cockatoo are considered to be
vulnerable or worse and one is considered to be
near-threatened. Of these, two species—the red-vented cockatoo and the
yellow-crested cockatoo—are considered to be
critically endangered. The principal threats to cockatoos are
habitat loss and the
wildlife trade. All cockatoos are dependent on trees for nesting and are vulnerable to their loss; in addition many species have specialised habitat requirements or live on small islands and have naturally small ranges, making them vulnerable to the loss of these habitats. Cockatoos are popular as pets and the capture and trade has threatened some species; between 1983 and 1990, 66,654 recorded
salmon-crested cockatoos were exported from
Indonesia, a figure that does not include the number of birds caught for the domestic trade or that were exported illegally. The capture of many species has subsequently been banned but the trade continues illegally. Birds are put in crates or bamboo tubing and conveyed on boats out of Indonesia and the Philippines. Not only are the rare species smuggled out of Indonesia but also common and rare cockatoos alike are smuggled out of Australia; birds are sedated, covered in nylon stockings and packed into
PVC tubing which is then placed in unaccompanied luggage on international flights. All species of cockatoo except the cockatiel are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (
CITES), which restricts import and export of wild-caught parrots to special licensed purposes. Five cockatoo species (including all subspecies)—the Tanimbar corella (
Cacatua goffiniana), red-vented cockatoo (
Cacatua haematuropygia), Moluccan cockatoo (
Cacatua moluccensis), yellow-crested cockatoo (
Cacatua sulphurea) and palm cockatoo (
Probosciger aterrimus)—are protected on the CITES Appendix I list. With the exception of the cockatiel, all remaining cockatoo species are protected on the CITES Appendix II list.
Aviculture s, also known as Moluccan cockatoos, are the largest white-coloured cockatoo species at about long and weighing . Cockatoos can be noisy and demanding pets.|alt=Closeup of a wing-clipped white and salmon-coloured cockatoo ruffling its wings and crest and apparently squawking. It has a ring on its left leg. Kept for their appearance, intelligence, and engaging personalities, although the
little corella is a renowned talker. As social animals, wild cockatoos have been known to learn human speech from ex-captive birds that have integrated into a flock. Their care is best provided by those experienced in keeping parrots. and they can suffer if kept in a cage on their own for long periods of time. The cockatiel is by far the cockatoo species most frequently kept in captivity. Among U.S. bird keepers that participated in a survey by APPMA in 2003/04, 39% had cockatiels, as opposed to only 3% that had (other) cockatoo species. The white cockatoos are more often encountered in aviculture than the black cockatoos. Black cockatoos are rarely seen in European zoos due to export restrictions on Australian wildlife but birds seized by governments have been loaned. Cockatoos are often very affectionate with their owner and at times other people but can demand a great deal of attention. It has been suggested that cockatoos' need for physical attention from humans may stem from suboptimal rearing techniques—young birds being removed from parental care for hand-rearing too early in the belief that this will produce a more suitable pet, leading the bird to seek out physical contact from humans as a parent substitute. Furthermore, their intense curiosity means they must be given a steady supply of objects to tinker with, chew, dismantle and destroy. Parrots in captivity may suffer from boredom, which can lead to
stereotypic behaviour patterns, such as
feather-plucking. Feather plucking is likely to stem from psychological rather than physical causes. Other major drawbacks include their painful bites, and their piercing screeches. The salmon-crested and white cockatoo species are particular offenders. All cockatoos have a fine
powder on their feathers, which may induce
allergies in certain people. The cockatiel is one of the most popular and easiest parrots to keep as a pet, and many
colour mutations are available in aviculture. A salmon-crested cockatoo named King Tut who resided at the
San Diego Zoo was nearly 69 when he died in 1990 and a palm cockatoo reached 56 in
London Zoo in 2000. However, anecdotal reports describe birds of much greater ages. A palm cockatoo was reported to have reached 80 or 90 years of age in an Australian zoo, In February 2010, a white cockatoo named Arthur was claimed to be 90 years old; he had lived with a family for generations in
Dalaguete,
Cebu, before being taken to
Cebu City Zoo. Trained cockatoos are sometimes seen in bird shows in zoos. They are generally less motivated by food than other birds; some may respond more to petting or praise than food. Cockatoos can often be taught to wear a
parrot harness, enabling their owners to take them outdoors. Cockatoos have been used in
animal-assisted therapy, generally in nursing homes. Cockatoos often have pronounced responses to musical sounds and numerous videos exist showing the birds dancing to popular music. Research conducted in 2008 with an
Eleonora cockatoo named
Snowball had indicated that this particular individual is indeed capable of
beat induction—perceiving human-created music and synchronizing his body movements to the beat.
Culture The earliest European depiction of a cockatoo is in the falconry book
De arte venandi cum avibus, written by
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The next European depiction of a cockatoo, previously thought to be the earliest, is present in the 1496 painting by
Andrea Mantegna titled
Madonna della Vittoria. Later examples were painted by Hungarian artist
Jakob Bogdani (1660–1724), who resided in Amsterdam from 1683 and then England, and appeared with numerous other birds in the bird pieces of the Dutch painter
Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636–1695). A cockatoo is the unlucky subject in
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by English artist
Joseph Wright of Derby, its fate unclear in the painting. Cockatoos were among the many Australian plants and animals which featured in decorative motifs in
Federation architecture of the early 20th century. A visit to a Camden Town pet shop in 1958 inspired English painter William Roberts to paint
The Cockatoos, in the collection of the Tate Gallery. American artist and sculptor
Joseph Cornell was known for placing cutout paper cockatoos in his works. The
government of the Australian Capital Territory adopted the gang-gang cockatoo as its official faunal emblem on 27 February 1997. The short-lived budget airline
Impulse Airlines featured a sulphur-crested cockatoo on its corporate
livery (and aeroplanes). The palm cockatoo, which has a unique beak and face colouration, is used as a symbol by the
World Parrot Trust. Two 1970s police dramas featured protagonists with pet cockatoos. In the 1973 film
Serpico,
Al Pacino's character had a pet white cockatoo and the television show
Baretta saw
Robert Blake's character with Fred the Triton cockatoo. The popularity of the latter show saw a corresponding rise in popularity of cockatoos as pets in the late 1970s. Cockatoos have been used frequently in advertising; a cockatoo appeared in a 'cheeky' (and later toned-down) 2008 advertising campaign for Cockatoo Ridge Wineries.
Intelligence A team of scientists from
Oxford University, the
University of Vienna and the
Max Planck Institute conducted tests on ten untrained
Tanimbar corellas (
Cacatua goffiniana), and found that they were able to solve complex mechanical puzzles. ==Notes==