The story has come to light in a new book just released in the UK in which author David Webb tells how a pet cockatoo on a large copra plantation in Papua-New Guinea helped spearhead a breeding and conservation programme in the UK during the mid-sixties.
The bird in question was called Joe, a member of the rare Blue-eyed cockatoo species (cacatua opthalmica) whose natural environment is the lowland tropical bushland on the island of New Britain. It was there that Joe became the pet of Bessie Donald, a young girl whose parents managed the Wangaramut copra plantation nearby.
The two became inseparable friends as Joe soon became ‘boss cocky’ of almost everyone and everything that moved at the homestead, including five large dogs and a hundred native plantation workers..
Then came the day, in 1965, when Bessie and her family left New Guinea to return to live in Australia and Joe was left in the care of a family friend. Just a year later, an English ornithologist visiting the islands arranged to take Joe and four other Blue-eyed cockatoos back to England with him to form the original breeding stock for the inaugural conservation project started at Chester Zoo.
As the only identified male among the group, Joe fathered numerous offspring to begin a fast-growing family of the birds in captivity. As a consequence, today there are Blue-eyed cockatoos – now officially regarded as a threatened species – in zoos and private collections throughout the UK and Europe, including Belfast, Germany, France and the Netherlands as well as the Canary Islands and South Africa.
Paradise Park, home of the World Parrot Trust, was one of the new habitats for two of the birds which, records show, were among 43 Blue-eyes comprising the European population in 1998. Newquay and Paignton zoos also joined the conservation program.
Joe, the true-life adventures of a Blue-eyed Cockatoo, is written for young readers. Journalist David Webb was working in New Guinea at the time of Joe’s earlier life and subsequently followed through the bird’s extraordinary journey. The book is now available from the shop at Paradise Park.
Reviewer Desi Milpacher wrote in the most recent World Parrot Trust’s Flock Talk newsletter: “Adults and children alike will enjoy the story … both for the truth and the tale.”.
Joe, the true-life adventures of a Blue-eyed Cockatoo
By David Webb
