A recent study revealed the longest living bird species in the world.
The study published in the Pacific Conservation Biology found that an endangered Carnaby’s cockatoo found in western Australia can live up to 35 years in the wild.
The Carnaby's cockatoo, a large black cockatoo with white cheeks and tail panels are found exclusively in the south -western Western Australia.
It has been officially recognized as an endangered species since 1999.
The oldest known bird, a male Carnaby’s cockatoo, is 35 years old and was first recorded as an egg in August 1986.
The report co-author Peter Mawson, a researcher with Western Australia’s biodiversity department, said the male cockatoo “looked as healthy as the day he left the nest”, and was still breeding when last seen in 2021.
He added, “They have to live that long to guarantee they can produce enough offspring to replace the breeding pair.”
They gradually become mature, produce few offspring and have a low survival rate in the first year of their life.
Mawson said birds in captivity had the advantage of being fed, and not getting eaten, “but to live more than 30 years in the wild and still be breeding is a pretty impressive effort”.
As per the reports, most of the oldest birds were still with their breeding partner, or in a nest with a nestling when last spotted.
They also have a low rate of reproduction with females typically laying only two eggs every year and raising only one chick.
Carnaby’s cockatoos were abundant in the 1950s, but their population has since declined due to habitat loss in the wheatbelt, a bounty on the birds aimed at protecting pine plantations that was ended in 1982 and frequent collisions with traffic on major highways.
