Thesis abstract:

«p»In Queensland's Cape York peninsula, there is a small and declining population of palm cockatoos («em»Probosciger aterrimus«/em»). These ancient parrots are best known to ecology for their ‘drumming’, a behaviour considered wholly unique within the non-human world. These ritualised performances are an endemic behavioural quirk, as they are only practiced by particular groups of the birds. For some ecologists these facts raise a number of questions regarding the existence of culture in the non-human world. With the charismatic palm cockatoo as an anchor point, or boundary object, I provide an ethnography of conservation in Cape York, illustrating the points at which radically diverse organisations and groups converge and clash around ideas of vulnerability and extinction in a rapidly changing world.«/p»