Cheerful cockatoos

And other strange beasts

I did some drawings of some Sulphur Crested cockatoos some years back, in various media. We have a lot of them around our area, and they’re very playful. I’ve seen them hanging on powerlines, swinging by their claws upside down, squawking encouragingly at each other.

Cockies can live a long time. Cocky Bennett, a famous cockatoo in Sydney, is said to have lived for 120 years. One man recently recounted how his cockatoo, “Luv” was his companion for 54 years, from his childhood until he became a grandfather.

Of course, if cockies are kept by humans, their longevity makes it difficult to look after them—what if they outlive their human companions? Lawyers being what they are, of course, we have looked into this (see eg, this article on the topic here).

In fact, there is an old English case involving a successful trust for the maintenance of a parrot, from 1908: Re Howard (reported in The Times, 30 October 1908, page 3). Alas, it’s not clear what species of parrot was provided for. Don’t believe me? Have a look…

(Taken from The Times archives, here).

The law is a very strange beast.