Mine-site revegetation monitoring detects feeding by threatened black-cockatoos within 8 years

Wildlife may return to restored habitats once revegetation begins providing key resources such as food and shelter, a process that may require decades (Vesk et al. 2008). Such time-lags are a concern in Western Australia’s Jarrah-Marri Forest, where bauxite and gold-mining operations clear and then restore feeding habitat for three nationally threatened black-cockatoos: Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris (CBC), Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus baudinii (BBC) and Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii naso (FRTBC) (Chapman 2007; Nichols & Grant 2007). Although post-mining restoration of Jarrah-Marri Forest habitat has been wellstudied (e.g. Supplement to Issue 15:4 of Restoration Ecology), no published studies have indicated when black-cockatoos return to feed within restored habitats and if time-lags relate to species’ diet and foraging ecology. Within the Jarrah-Marri Forest, CBC consume flowers and seeds of proteaceous shrubs (e.g. Banksia and Hakea spp.), eucalypts (Jarrah Eucalyptus marginata and Marri Corymbia calophylla) and non-native Pine (Pinus spp.); FRTBC feed mostly on Jarrah and Marri; and BBC are typically Marri specialists (Johnstone & Kirkby 1999, 2008; Cale 2003; Cooper et al. 2003; Chapman 2007). We describe an on-going study of the feeding ecology of the three black-cockatoos within mine-site rehabilitation areas in the Jarrah-Marri Forest and present initial findings that blackcockatoos can begin feeding in these areas within 8 years.