Outside Australia, they have been introduced to Singapore, where their numbers have been estimated to be between 5. Within Australia, sulphur-crested cockatoos of the nominate race have also been introduced to Perth, which is far outside the natural range. Northern Australia from West Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria Restricted to the Aru Islands in the Maluku province of eastern Indonesia Except for highland areas, they occur throughout most of New Guinea and on nearby smaller islands such as Waigeo, Misool and Aru, and various islands in the Cenderawasih Bay and Milne Bay.įound in New Guinea and the surrounding islands
They are numerous in suburban habitats in cities such as Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. In Australia, sulphur-crested cockatoos can be found widely in the north and east, ranging from the Kimberley to as far south as Tasmania, but avoiding arid inland areas with few trees. A highly intelligent bird, they are well known in aviculture, although they can be demanding pets. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being considered pests. The sulphur-crested cockatoo ( Cacatua galerita) is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and some of the islands of Indonesia. “I’m looking for the wombat in the altarpiece now,” she said.Sulphur-crested cockatoo range (in red), introduced range (in violet) The researchers also noted that the crest of the cockatoo was not raised – something the birds do when aggressive, fearful, surprised or as part of a courtship display - and concluded this probably meant Frederick’s bird “felt safe and calm” while being sketched.ĭalton said that since publication of her discovery of the cockatoo in the Mantegna work in 2014, colleagues had been sending her joke emails with various Australian animals Photoshopped onto famous artworks a joke that might resurface in light of this new cockatoo discovery. It’s a window in on what I think was quite a vibrant trading network.”īy examining the manuscript, Dalton and her collaborators, were able to conclude the images are of a female cockatoo, because red paint was used for the eyes and females have red or reddish-brown eyes, whereas male cockatoos have black eyes. “The fact that a cockatoo either from the northern tip of Australia, or from New Guinea or the islands around it, was traded to Cairo and on to Sicily is significant. “The main significance about it is we tend to think of our region, not just Australia, but the islands around it, as the very last things to be discovered the European view is it’s almost this dead continent and nothing was happening until Europeans discovered it. “I just couldn’t believe that nobody had really talked about them, this is a high-profile document.” “I was just thrilled to bits of course,” said Dalton, who collaborated with the Finnish researchers for an article published in Parergon Journal. We tend to think of our region, not just Australia, but the islands around it, as the very last things to be discovered Heather Dalton, historian The images are believed to pre-date Andrea Mantegna’s 1496 altarpiece Madonna della Vittoria, which was previously believed to be the oldest European depiction.ĭr Heather Dalton, a historian at the University of Melbourne, published research about the cockatoo in the Mantegna artwork in 2014 and, after news coverage of the discovery, was contacted by Finnish biologists who said they had seen images of a cockatoo in Frederick II’s manuscript, which pre-dates the altarpiece by 250 years. It was presented to him by al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt, meaning the bird was probably traded first from Australasia to Egypt before it was brought to Europe. They are likely to be of a single bird, a cockatoo given to Frederick II, who was known for his large menagerie of animals, including lions, panthers and elephants. Photograph: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana There are four drawings of an Australasian cockatoo in the 13th century Sicilian manuscript.
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