This is Bird Note.

Yellowcrested cockatuz are victims of their own charisma.

Talkative and sociable, they stand over a foot tall with snowy white plumage and a

showy yellow crest.

Due to widespread trapping for the pet trade, this bird has disappeared from many of the

Southeast Asian islands where it once lived.

Today, it's considered critically endangered, but scientists recently discovered a stronghold

for the species, Komodo Island.

You know, the one with the dragons?

Past surveys of the island focused on easy-to-access coastal valleys, and they suggested a sharp

decline in the yellowcrested cockatuz numbers to just a few hundred individuals.

But when researchers surveyed locations across the island, including the forbidding interior,

they arrived at a more accurate population estimate, 1100 individuals.

It's a stunning number, considering the worldwide population could be as few as 3,000 adult

cockatuz.

This suggests that, unlike many other islands, the Komodo population of yellowcrested cockatuz

is stable.

Komodo Island has been an Indonesian national park since 1980.

The scientists think that park rangers may have helped deter poachers, but community support

for conservation and the literal dragons have played a role too.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.