“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.
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