Two bushfires within twelve years have destroyed almost all old native pines in Wyperfeld National Park in northwestern Victoria, the Guardian reports. The area is a key breeding ground for endangered pink cockatoos (Lophochroa leadbeateri), which rely on the conifers for nesting hollows and food.
Ecologist Dr. Victor Hurley, who has observed the birds for decades, calls them “flame-crests” or sometimes simply “flame cockatoos” — because of their fiery red and yellow striped crest and the salmon-colored shimmer under their wings. Hurley told the Guardian that the species depends on native slender cypress pines (Callitris gracilis). For a nesting hollow, the trees must be at least 85 years old, ideally 125 years or older.
Even before the recent fires, very large, old pines had become extremely rare due to earlier clearing and a major fire in 2014. That fire destroyed 60 percent of the pine plain and wiped out 97 percent of known hollow-bearing trees in the burned area. In January 2025, another 70 percent of the cockatoos’ core habitat, the so-called pine plain, burned.
At the park entrance, researchers are currently observing the birds settling on Aleppo pines — a non-native species. The animals appear content there, but the native conifers they need to raise their young have largely disappeared from the park’s interior. The species is now acutely threatened with extinction.
Source: www.theguardian.com
