Western Austrlaian researchers to recruit up to 1,000 volunteers to conduct population surveys of the Baudin’s and forest red-tailed cockatoos
Tuesday 20 January 2015 01.07 GMT
Researchers in Western Australia are crowdsourcing population surveys about black cockatoos in an effort to save two rare species.
BirdLife WA received $255,000 from the West Australian government’s Lotterywest fund on Monday to conduct population surveys of the Baudin’s and forest red-tailed cockatoos.
Dr Jessica Lee, threatened black cockatoo project officer at BirdLife, said both species were endemic to the forests of south-western Australia, stretching from Bunbury to Albany, and their large range made it difficult to get an accurate count.
She aims to recruit up to 1,000 volunteers to survey the black cockatoo populations in their local area to build up an estimate of the surviving population.
“The idea is to develop a volunteer base who are able to go out and survey the birds on their own property in their own time to give us a snapshot of the birds that are there,” she said.
