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Commonwealth of Australia
Department of the Environment and Heritage, September 2005
The South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is one of five subspecies (Ford 1980). It is listed as Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and under the respective South Australian and Victorian legislation. The South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is also listed under CITES.
The endemic South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo occurs as a single population in a small area of south-eastern Australia delimited by Keith to Lucindale to Mt Gambier in SA and Portland to Casterton, Toolondo, Natimuk, Dimboola, Nhill, and Kaniva in Victoria (Hill and Burnard 2001, Figure 1). The total extent of occurrence is approx. 18 000 km˛ with 28% of this area occupied (Burnard and Hill 2002). The cockatoo is widespread but rare within this range, and breeds across much of the range. While the bird's range has been described as severely contracted (Garnett and Crowley 2000), and may well have extended further to the west than current records indicate (Hill in prep), there are no previous data to allow an assessment of decline in distribution. About half of all suitable habitat has been cleared within the bird's current range (Koch 2003). Extralimital records (Joseph 1982, Baird 1986) are likely to be vagrants and not evidence of extinct populations.
The size of the single population was estimated to be 500-1,000 birds in 1989 (Joseph et al. 1991), with a highest count of 785 birds in 2003 (R Hill in litt.). As about 42% of these were mature males in 2003 (R Hill in litt.), the minimum number of breeding birds is estimated at 660. A continuing population decline has been inferred from habitat loss (Hill and Burnard 2001), and demonstrated during 1999-2004, when the proportion of adult males increased by 6% (R Hill in litt.). This may be a seriously negative population trend as it indicates that in just six years, production of young has fallen such that the time required to replace the adult population has more than doubled from 16 to 37 years.
The additional background document includes additional information gathered during the preparation of the Recovery Plan. General information on the biology, population status, distribution and habitat of species can be found on the Species Profiles and Threats Database - www.deh.gov.au/sprat. This information is regularly updated to ensure that it reflects the most recent research.
This draft recovery plan is now closed for public comment
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