Some animals are generalists – they eat all sorts of different foods. Other animals are fussy. They are specialists, and only eat a select type of food. The Glossy Black Cockatoo is SUPER fussy. They only eat the seeds from She Oaks (Allocasurinas and Casurinas). Sometimes they eat the odd grub too, but on the whole they have what you would call a very specialised diet.
Recognising this, Annangrove Public School applied for, and received, a mini grant in 2019 to be able to plant lots of She Oaks for the locally endangered population of Glossy Black Cockatoos.
What an outstanding result!
The project involved over 100 students and willing adult helpers who collected local seed, prepared the site and planted lots of trees. The project was a fantastic way to educate the local community about the Glossy Black Cockatoo and the need to retain and increase she oaks groves so that the birds have plenty of food as they move across the wider area.
Projects like this are critical to provide stepping-stones to connect up habitat that is being more and more fragmented by housing and other human impacts.
As a bonus to enjoying the sounds of chomping cockatoos in the not to distant future, the sound that the She Oak makes in the wind is delightful too. Great work Annangrove PS!
JGIA acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands and pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present.