Nature conservation on agricultural land: a case study of the endangered Carnaby’s Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris breeding at Koobabbie in the northern wheatbelt of Western Australia

Culling farm wildlife for conservation and production on “Koobabbie”, a cereal and sheep growing property, in the northern wheatbelt of Western Australia

“…However, monitoring was conducted with one annual visit any time from late September to early November, so the number of breeding attempts recorded could be underestimated, depending on the timing of the breeding season. For example, the earliest Carnaby's Cockatoo have arrived on Koobabbie was during the week 19-25 June, and the latest 31 July-6 August (Saunders et al 2014). It takes a pair several weeks to select and prepare a hollow, and commence laying, so if the birds arrived late in the year and the survey was conducted in September, nesting attempts commenced later in the breeding season would not be recorded.…”

“…Saunders et al (2014) The management of Koobabbie, its soils and associated vegetation are described in detail in Doley (1995Doley ( , 2003, and the property's avifauna is described in Saunders and Doley (2013).…”

“…For example, in the mid-1990s they became interested in the population of Carnaby's Cockatoo breeding on Koobabbie, and encouraged staff from the state conservation agency, Perth Zoo, an ornithological non-government organisation and a university to monitor the birds (Figure 8). They also provided seven artificial hollows for the cockatoos (Figure 7) (Saunders et al 2014).…”

Cumulative learnings and conservation implications of a long-term study of the endangered Carnaby's Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris

“…Carnaby's Cockatoo is a regular breeding migrant on Koobabbie. The Doleys paid particular attention to the breeding of this species, and throughout this 30-year period made notes on the arrival of the species (Saunders and Doley 2013;Saunders et al 2014b). While they had some breeding records, these were too few to examine commencement of egg-laying in relation to rainfall.…”

Tribute to Alison Betty Doley AM: farmer and conservationist (28 October 1938 to 20 February 2019)

“…This involved staff from DBCA, CSIRO, BirdLife Australia, Murdoch University, Perth Zoo and WWF-Australia. This study produced important results that have application for conservation management, particularly on private property (Saunders et al 2014).…”