Experts Warn Pet Trade Is Putting Caribbean Parrots At Risk Of Extinction
The long-standing Caribbean tradition of keeping parrots as pets is pushing some of the region’s native species closer to extinction.
That’s according to experts from across the region gathered in Trinidad and Tobago for the first-ever Caribbean Parrot Conservation Summit, hosted by Birds Caribbean, to discuss how the illegal pet trade, poaching, deforestation and natural disasters are affecting the species.
The Caribbean is home to 11 endemic parrot species, many of which are considered among the most vulnerable in the world.
President of Birds Caribbean, Andrea Thomen, warned that the long-standing tradition of keeping parrots as pets is placing significant pressure on wild populations.
« It’s culture within the tradition to have them as pets, it’s very engrained in the public and other Caribbean nations, but this is a tradition that we need to stop right now. Because a lot of these species are heading toward extinction, and for some species it’s not about occasional international smuggling, but in the case of the Dominican Republic at least, we think that 3% of households have a parrot, and this means over a hundred thousand birds are in captivity right now, this exceeds the number of parrots in the wild. »
She stressed that some of the parrots in the wild are aged, in addition to the current decline.
Nine months after Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica, President of BirdLife Jamaica Justin Saunders said that the island unfortunately lost 50% of its forest to the natural disaster.
« So what that meant is instead of having nice, green trees, you literally had matchsticks all across the Caribbean country, all across the cockpit country, and so if you look at the cockpit country now, on the Western side of the island, you would see a lot of greening, but the forests haven’t recovered. You won’t see fruits, you won’t see flowers, you won’t see birds feeding, and so what we are really encouraging Jamaicans to do now is to take a moment, look at the birds around you, and look at the trees around you, plant a tree. It may take twenty years, but a tree was planted twenty years ago, and the parrots benefit from it now. »
He shared one of the solutions, which involves the creation of artificial nests for the parrots.
« So parrots live in nest cavities, but unlike a woodpecker, for example, they aren’t able to excavate that cavity themselves, so if you can create, like, a PVC housing and then right at the edge you attach wood to it so that it still appeals to natural wood design, and you give parrots an opportunity to breathe and to have, because a key thing to note is you can see a stable parrot population over the years because they live so long, but if they’re not breathing, you won’t get an expansion. »
New York University biologist Jarome Ali, whose research focuses on bird colouration and behaviour, said the summit provided an important platform for bringing together bird enthusiasts and experts from across the Caribbean.
