Yellow cockatoo cichlid license#

It’s also the last safe haven for three globally threatened freshwater turtle species, which just like the cockatoos, have been over-exploited in the wild. Hong Kong, despite its urban sprawl and concrete veneer, is a stronghold for several endangered species, including Chinese pangolins, Hong Kong groupers, and the black-faced spoonbill. The wildlife trade isn’t just a problem for the yellow-crested cockatoos. “You could apply it to cockatoos in the market to test if they have recently been taken from the wild,” says Andersson. While wild cockatoos eat a variety of leaves, shoots, flowers and fruits, captive birds are often fed a diet high in corn, which has a very distinctive carbon ratio, she says, adding that the test yields results in just one week, and is inexpensive. Related: Scottish wildcats bred in captivity released to the wild in a bid to save the species from extinction So Andersson developed a method using “stable isotope analysis” to evaluate the carbon and nitrogen in feathers, which reflect the bird’s diet, to help spot wild versus captive birds. Tom Booth/CNNĭriven by demand from the exotic pet trade, Andersson says were reports of poaching in Hong Kong during her PhD. “There is no record-keeping for the home breeding, so we don’t know, if any, how much home breeding of yellow-crested cockatoo is actually going on here in Hong Kong,” says Andersson.Īstrid Andersson takes a sample from a cockatoo feather for analysis at the University of Hong Kong.

Yellow cockatoo cichlid license#

You can’t tell which ones have come from the wild illegally, or which ones are actually from a breeding facility, just using your eyes.Īstrid Andersson, postdoctoral researcherĪccording to a spokesperson for the government’s Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), “the last import of a yellow-crested cockatoo for commercial purposes was in 2004,” and currently, there is no CITES-registered breeding operation or valid license for the possession of a yellow-crested cockatoo for commercial purposes in the city. “However, you can’t enforce that because you can’t tell which ones have come from the wild illegally, or which ones are actually from a breeding facility, just using your eyes.” While the cockatoos are listed under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( CITES) Appendix 1, which bans their commercial trade, there is a “ gray area where cockatoos can be traded if they’ve come from a captive breeding facility,” says Andersson. “Hong Kong is a thoroughfare for legal wildlife trade – everything from reptile skins to exotic pets, to seafood – and that provides a cover for the illegal wildlife trade as well to operate in parallel,” says Andersson.Īs part of her PhD research, Andersson conducted weekly surveys at Hong Kong’s bird market where she would often see yellow-crested cockatoos for sale. Quadrupling in numbers since the 1970s, “the population in Hong Kong could potentially have an important role in the conservation of yellow-crested cockatoos worldwide,” says Andersson.īut even these cockatoos aren’t entirely out of harm’s way.Īndersson began researching the yellow-crested cockatoos in 2016, to explore the “multiple issues that impact traded species.” “With the numbers in Indonesia dwindling, and subject to pressures like climate change, habitat loss and ongoing trapping, the population in Hong Kong represents a safe haven – a population that is removed from those threats,” says Andersson. Now critically endangered, it’s believed that between 1,200 and 2,000 mature individuals remain in the wild – and Hong Kong’s feral population accounts for around 10%. Many of these birds were imported into Hong Kong, where they escaped or were released. But soaring demand for the mischievous birds as pets in the 20th century saw tens of thousands taken from the wild, with up to 96,000 birds exported between 19. Yellow-crested cockatoos were once widespread in the rainforests of Indonesia and Timor Leste.

“(It) shows that humans and wildlife can coexist, even in highly developed areas,” she says. But to Astrid Andersson, a Swedish-born, Hong Kong-raised postdoc researcher in the University of Hong Kong’s conservation forensics laboratory, they’re a story of survival. To some, these screeching birds are a noisy nuisance.