Diet and feeding behavior of the critically endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) in a nonnative urban environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT This is the first empirical ecological study on the critically endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) in a nonnative urban habitat of Hong Kong, southern China. The exotic Hong Kong population creates a conservation paradox in which efforts toward protecting the endangered species would conflict with the preservation of recipient communities and habitats. The diet and feeding ecology of Yellow-crested Cockatoo were investigated to better understand the interaction between the exotic population and its inhabiting urban environment. The results indicated that the cockatoos mainly exploited 11 plant species and 4 food types, most of which were exotic plant species. They had a moderate Levin's niche breadth of 0.41, suggesting that the birds were generalist feeders with flexible diet in a nonnative urban environment. They preferred to feed solitary or in small flocks, consistent with the low conspecific attraction rate in feeding. Conspecific attraction might increase the foraging eff...