• The molecular phylogeny of the family Cacatuidae.  David Brown and I sequenced a 433 base-pairs region of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal subunit, to explore several unresolved questions about the evolutionary relationships with the family Cacatuidae.  Because our work was based on relatively few base pairs, our results await confirmation.  However, some  results were fairly well supported.  The motivation of this research was to discover, if possible, the exact relationship of the cockatiel, Nymphicus hollandicus, to the other cockatoos.  Its placement in the phylogeny has always been controversial, perhaps because of its unusually small size and related characters.  We discovered that the cockatiel is most closely related to the black cockatoos of the genus Calyptorhynhus, and that these two genera and Callocephalon group together as a clade. These results are in good accordance with morphological and behavioral characters, so are in hindsight unsurprising:  This clade therefore contains all of the sexually dimorphic cockatoos.  All taxa are melanistic as their base feather color, with various patterns of white or yellow/orange/red pigment especially on wing, tail and face feathers.  Within each species, either the female or both sexes possess a round facial spot.  Females of all taxa possess barred feathers on the body, wing and tail feathers in contrast to males which have unpatterned feathers in the same locations.  Thus the cockatiel is morphologically consistent with the other species in the clade, in spite of its small size. Other results showed that the Major Mitchell's cockatoo, Cacatua leadbeateri, does not belong in the clades with the other white cockatoos, but rather diverged from the ancestral lineage before the radiation of the white cockatoos of the genus Cacatua.  The white cockatoos in turn form two clades, the corella clade (includes C. hamematuropygia, C. goffini, C. sanguinea, C. ducorpsii) and the "galerita" clade (includes C. galerita, C. moluccensis, C. alba, C. ophthalmica, C. sulphurea).   Our mtDNA phylogeny suggested that the family of cockatoos arose in Australia and at least two separate lineages radiated into the island region of the South Pacific, New Guinea and Indonesia.
• Poaching and the commercial trade in wild caught parrots.  With the passage of the Wild Bird Conservation Act in the United States, wild-caught parrots are no longer legally imported, certainly not on the commercial scale prior to the passage of this act in 1992 when the U.S. accounted for 48% of the end market of wild-caught parrots from the Neotropics.  We studied the illegal take of parrots from the wild, which are typically taken as helpless nestlings from the nests of their wild parents.  Parrot biologists from all over the neotropics combined their data from observing nests in the wild; nearly all researchers encountered and recorded poaching from their study nests.  We discovered that poaching of nestlings from the wild is widespread and has continued throughout the past two decades. Poaching was greater:  the greater the price that species commanded in the U.S. market;  the less protection provided the nests by authorities or biologists; on mainland Central and South America vs. the Caribbean islands (where parrot species are highly protected); and before the passage of the WBCA. We concluded that poaching is directly related to the volume of the legal trade, hence we propose that if the legal trade is prohited, then the illegal trade will be significantly reduced.  We also concluded that poaching rates remain high on some large, valuable species of parrots and we propose that these species have particular life histories (high longevity, late age and low rate of reproduction) that cannot sustain such high rates of harvest.

Brown, D.M. and C.A. Toft. 1999. Molecular systematics and biogeography of the cockatoos (Psittaciformes: Cacatuidae). Auk 116(1):141-157. PDF

Wright, T.W., C.A. Toft, E. Enkerlin-Hoeflich, M. Albornoz, S. Beissinger, V. Berovides A., A. T. Brice, J. Eberhard, X. Gálvez A., J. Gilardi, J. Gonzalez-Elizondo, S. E. Koenig, P. Martuscelli, J. M. Meyers, K. Renton, A. M. Rodríguez, A. Rodríguez-Ferraro, F. Rojas-Suárez, V. Sanz, M. Sosa-Asanza, S. Stoleson, A. Trujillo, F.Vilella, and J. W. Wiley. 2001.  Nest poaching in Neotropical parrots. Conservation Biology 15:710-720. PDF

Gilardi, J.D. and C.A. Toft, in preparation.  Foraging ecology of parrots in the Peruvian Amazon:  Nutrition, toxicity, and seed predation.

Non-peer reviewed publications:

Toft, C.A. 1990. Aviculture and the conservation of bird species: The role of captive propagation. Bird World 13(1):49-53. [Reprinted in the Avicultural Association of San Francisco Newsletter, September 1990]

Toft, C.A. 1990. The genetics of captive propagation. Part I. Bird World 13(2):16-21. [Reprinted in the Avicultural Association of San Francisco Newsletter, November 1990]

Toft, C.A. 1990. The genetics of captive propagation. Part II. Bird World 13(3):42-57. [Reprinted in the Avicultural Association of San Francisco Newsletter, February 1991]

Toft, C.A. 1991. The genetics of captive propagation. Part III. Bird World 13(5):42-58. [Reprinted in the Avicultural Association of San Francisco Newsletter, April 1991]

Toft, C.A. 1992. Hybridization: Does it have a place in aviculture? Proceedings of the Parrot Biology Symposium for Aviculturists. October 17, 1992. Psittacine Research Project, Department of Avian Sciences, University of California, Davis. pp. 4-9. [Reprinted: The Squawker: The Official Publication of the Northwest Ohio Exotic Bird Club. January 1993, Volume 5(1) 1-5; Squawk: Big Apple Bird Association. February 1994, Volume 3(2):1 and March 1994, Volume 3(3):1.; Pionus Breeders Association Newsletter. Issue No. 23, Spring 1994.]

Toft, C.A. and A. T. Brice. 1993. Conservation status of the yellow-naped amazon in Guatemala. The Amazona Bulletin 12(3):10-14.

Toft, C.A. 1994. The genetics of captive propagation: A manual for aviculturists. Special Publications of Psittacine Research Project, Number 1. Ann Brice, Ed. Department of Avian Sciences, University of California, Davis.

Toft, C.A. 1994. Straight talk about inbreeding. Part I. Bird World 15(6):39-41.

Toft, C.A., C.H. Langley, and D.Brown. 1994. Studies of parrot evolution at University of California, Davis. The Amazona Bulletin, in press.

Toft, C.A. 1995. Captive propagation: what is its role in parrot conservation? Exotic Bird Report. 7:1-2.

Toft, C.A. 1995. Straight talk about inbreeding. Part II. Bird World 16:34-5.

Toft, C.A. 1997. Aviculturists: Allies or Foes of Conservation? Pionus Breeders Association Newsletter. 34:5-6.

Toft, C.A. A look at cockatiel genetics. 1998. In: The Complete Book of Cockatiels by Diane Grindol. Howell Book House, New York.pp. 123-134.

Brown, D.M and C.A. Toft.  1999.  A cockatoo's who's who:  Determining evolutionary relationships among the cockatoos.  Exotic Bird Report 11:5-7.

Wright, T.F. and C.A. Toft.  2001.  Nest poaching for trade:  Europe should bring in the equivalent of the U.S. Wild Bird Conservation Act.  PsittaScene 13:6.

Toft, C.A. 2001.  The mystery cockatoo.  PsittaScene 13:11.

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