Karak was the mascot for the 2006 Commonwealth Games

2006 Commonwealth Games

The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 15 March and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.The site...

. He was modelled on a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo , also known as Banksian- or Banks' Black Cockatoo, is a large cockatoo native to Australia. This species was known as Calyptorhynchus magnificus for many decades until the current scientific name was officially conserved in 1994. It is more common in the drier parts...

, a threatened species

Threatened species

Threatened species are any speciesg animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future.The World Conservation Union is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories,...

 within the host country, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

His biography, according to Commonwealth Games organisers:

Comes from a long line of squawkers. His Mum nested at an early age and foraged for the family. His Gran was famous in the area for her seed cakes. He has two brothers who were well-known badminton shuttlecocks, and a sister who passed her school exams with flying colours!

Four years at Treetops College studying Australian Endangered Species. Ran the Uni Sports Society. Apparently egged the principal's car during Orientation Week but nothing's ever been proven.

Despite his initial acceptance by Australians, particularly children, and despite appearing on a lot of the foreign made merchandise, Karak was noticeably absent from the Games, particularly the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, where he was inexplicably replaced by a white duck.