Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!texsun!texbell!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au!spam!wvenable
From: wvenable@spam.ua.oz (Bill Venables)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Indoor Antics
Message-ID: <339@spam.ua.oz>
Date: 15 Jul 90 02:09:27 GMT
References: <840@cfiprod.UUCP> <332@spam.ua.oz> <674@mtune.ATT.COM>
Organization: Statistics, Pure and Applied Maths, University of Adelaide
Lines: 52

In article <674@mtune.ATT.COM> kac@mtune.ATT.COM (Kathleen Cavanagh) writes:
>In article <332@spam.ua.oz>, wvenable@spam.ua.oz (Bill Venables) writes:
>> 
>> 1) Are any other Australian birds popular pets?
>> 
>
>How about cockatoos!  We have an umbrella, but there are many
>other varieties that are popular (greater and lesser sulfars, galas,
>mullacans to name a few!)
>
	These are not all Australian, of course, but all cockcatoos
	seem to come from this part of the world rather than South
	America, for example.

	In particular we have no "umbrella" cockatoo known by that
	name, but if it is the one I think it is, it comes from
	Indonesia.  I don't know what "mullacans" are either, unless
	they are the cockatoos from the Moluccas, in which case they
	are also Indonesian. We do have a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
	(I'm not sure if it's the greater or the lesser) and Galahs -
	they're *really* Australian!

	In fact Galahs and Corellas (two other kinds of large raucous
	white cockatoo) are often agricultural pests in Oz and there
	is a debate whether the farmers should not be given permits to
	catch and export them rather than permits to poison and shoot
	them, as sometimes happens now.  It's an emotional issue.

>And they are such affectionate pets! (hand raised ones!)
>

	It's curious how the "white" group of cockatoos, and galahs,
	are such common caged birds, whereas the much more impressive
	(to my mind at least) "black" group (Red-tailed,
	Yellow-tailed, White-tailed, Casuarina, Gang-gang, Palm, ...)
	are virtually unknown in captivity.  Any flock of cockatoos in
	the wild is something to see, but to see a large flock of
	red-tailed black cockatoos is a real privilege.

	BTW I understand that some taxonomists regard cockatiels as
	rather junior members of the "white" group of cockatoos.

>
>Wouldn't give Rigbey up for the world!
>
	Rigbey??  If you ask him you will probably find his *real*
	name is "Malik Rigbi Soerkarno" :-)


-- 
  Bill Venables, Dept. Statistics,        | Email:   wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au
  Univ. of Adelaide,  South Australia.    | Phone:           +61 8 228 5412