Endangered birds might wipe out apple crops
A BALINGUP orchard has been devastated by attacks from Baudin’s cockatoos that threaten to destroy an entire crop of Sundowner apples before they are ready for harvest in May.
According to experts, it is possible the birds have moved to the orchard due to limited food sources in the forest surrounding Balingup following the Ferndale fires early last year.
The protected cockatoos have so far caused about $100,000 damage by destroying fruit, stripping trees and breaking limbs when they land, representing a 50 per cent loss of this year’s crop – with more than three months remaining before harvest.
Orchardist Elina Buttaccio has been firing an empty air rifle and driving up and down the rows blasting her horn to scare them off because her bird scarer no longer works.
However, she can’t be there 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mrs Buttaccio saidshe had never seen anything like it in 40 years of growing apples in the same orchard.
“I’m paying for electricity and water, I need to get this crop off,” she said.
“You work 12 months for it and at the end there’s nothing left.”
Mrs Buttaccio said she just wants something to control the cockatoos. “Netting is too dear, it’s not like there’s a great deal of money in the industry,” she said.
WA Fruit Growers Association (WAFGA) and Fruit West executive manager Jonathan Cutting said his organisations were worried that growers were expected to carry the cost of conserving Baudin’s cockatoos.
“Every indication is that the problem is going to get worse,” he said.
“To have so much food packed into such a small area suits their feeding patterns.”
The issue was extremely important for individual growers, Mr Cutting said..
“For Mrs Buttaccio it’s probably the most pressing issue she faces this season,” he said. “We’re not anti the cockatoos; a co-existence solution needs to be found. What farmers can’t accept is that they must bear the full cost of the co-existence.”
Principal zoologist for the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) Peter Mawson said netting was the best solution.
However, netting an orchard was expensive, with quotes ranging from $40,000 per hectare to $70,000 per hectare depending on the site.
“The problem is the significant capital outlay, but the grower will get 100 per cent protection, plus protection from sunburn and hail damage,” Mr Mawson said.
DEC has been looking at the issue of netting and discussing it with the Agriculture Minister , Mr Mawson said.
To be adopted by growers on a broad scale, it would need government assistance, subsidies or low-interest loans, he said.
“It depends whether financial assistance makes it more attractive to people.”
Mr Mawson, who is directly involved in conserving the cockatoos, said attacks on orchards varied from year to year. “It’s hard to predict which years to put protection in place,” he said.
The cockatoos feed on marri seeds and last year’s Ferndale fires may have destroyed their food source.
Mr Mawson said Perth hills orchards were attacked in the two to three years between a 2003 fire that burned out 27,000 hectares and the marri trees in that area recovering their seed production.
“In that time there was a major problem with cockatoos that we hadn’t seen before and that hasn’t been as bad since,” he said.
While funding for netting is still in the discussion phase, Mr Mawson said the department was always willing to issue damage licences to scare using blanks.
According to a DEC Fauna Note, Baudin’s cockatoo is rare and likely to become extinct because it had declined from over 50 per cent of its range during the past 50 years.
Because it is large, noisy and congregates in large flocks in the non-breeding season, few people realise it is endangered.
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