![]() The birds are very slow breeders, laying just two or three eggs at a time once a year. The BKSDA says that cockatoos are hunted in West Nusa Tenggara to order, meaning they are only taken from the wild when a buyer has already been lined up. ![]() Yellow-crested cockatoos also live on several other Indonesian islands but are in decline throughout their range, mostly because of unsustainable trapping for the pet trade and deforestation, according to BirdLife International, which estimated the total wild population for the species at fewer than 7,000 individuals in 2007. Another survey by mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara-which operates the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine near a key cockatoo habitat-found just 20 more. The West Nusa Tenggara chapter of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam or BKSDA) conducted surveys of yellow-crested cockatoo populations in several conservation areas and counted just 87 birds. The average annual income in Indonesia is just over $1,400, making the birds worth as much as most workers can earn in four months. The cockatoos are protected by international and Indonesian law, but they are also highly valued in the illegal pet trade, where they can fetch more than $500 each. The population of critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoos ( Cacatua sulphurea) in the Indonesian province of West Nusa Tenggara has reached an all-time low of 107 individual birds, according to a recent report from The Jakarta Post.
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