Endangered Parrot Finds New Life in Colombia
8/4/99
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Title: Endangered Parrot Finds New Life
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 4, 1999
Byline: FRANK BAJAK
IN THE CENTRAL CORDILLERA, Colombia (AP) - Three yellow-eared parrots
swoop down into a glade of wax palms, switching from wide arcs to
tightly synchronized barrel rolls, screaming raucously.
A sight to behold in a breathtaking alpine setting. But a vision that
may be fleeting.
This parrot, Ognorhynchus icterotis, thrived in the cloud forests of
the northern Andes a century ago. Now, it is among the world's most
critically endangered species. Fewer than 75 are known to exist.
Ironically, this bird has become a beneficiary of Colombia's civil
conflict. Its habitat is deep in rebel-dominated territory, and the
guerrillas have banned hunting wildlife to preserve Colombia's rich
biological diversity.
On a waning Sunday afternoon, the bright green-and-yellow parrots
alight on the conical rim of a dead palm and clamber down to a nest,
where the female regurgitates lunch to two loudly chattering chicks.
The mating couple, their young helper and the chicks are among 61
yellow-eared parrots whose discovery in mid-April was ecstasy for bird
conservationists.
``It's wonderful that they have survived. Now there's a real chance of
saving the species,'' said Niels Krabbe, a Danish ornithologist. His
sighting of 17 yellow-eared parrots in neighboring Ecuador five years
ago was the first scientifically recorded observation in nearly 80
years.
Among nations, Colombia is the second richest after Brazil in
biological diversity. It has the world's greatest variety of birds,
with 1,850 species, as well as 358 kinds of mammals and more than
45,000 types of plants.
Yet the varied ecosystems of its Andean ridges and valleys are in
grave danger - due mainly to deforestation. Scientists say the risk of
mass extinctions has never been greater.
``Parrots need fruit, canopy trees and hard woods,'' said Paul
Salaman, an Oxford University ornithologist directing efforts to keep
Ognorhynchus icterotis alive. ``They're a sensitive barometer of
threats to the environment because they often suffer first.''
Over the past century and a half, 80 percent of the woodlands on the
slopes and in the valleys of the three-spined Colombian Andes
disappeared as settlers cleared land for farming and cattle ranching,
said Luis Miguel Renjifo, conservation director for the government-
affiliated Alexander von Humboldt Institute.
The shrinking habitat of the yellow-eared parrot, one of 80 birds
native to Colombia in danger of global extinction, is a case in point.
Bernabe Lopez-Lanus, an Argentine ornithologist, spends his days
observing the birds from a blind built of dead palm fronds among
grazing cattle.
This particular parrot appears to nest only in wax palms and eats the
tree's thumb-sized fruit ``like we would a coconut,'' he said. Yet the
majestic palm - Colombia's national tree - is itself in danger of
extinction, with just a few thousand acres of groves remaining.
All are in the Central Cordillera, and most can be seen from the palm-
studded pasture at 8,200 feet where Lopez-Lanus sits, denuded hills
and rushing rivers below, oak and ficus forest and wind-swept paramo
above.
Cutting down wax palms was prohibited by law in 1986, but cattle eat
their seedlings as well as surrounding vegetation that provides shade
the young plants require.
Preserving the yellow-eared parrot in captivity is not an option,
Krabbe said. Although millions of people worldwide keep parrots as
pets, there is just one known case of a yellow-eared parrot surviving
outside the wild, he said.
That fact might not deter poachers, however, which is why the
ornithologists trying to protect this species - and raise money to buy
its roosting site - asked that the location be kept secret.
Global trade in parrots has taken many species to the verge of
extinction.
Alberto Gomez, a Colombian expert on illegal trafficking in plants and
animals, said that from 1992 to 1996 nearly half the 1,540 birds
confiscated from people trying to smuggle them out of Colombia were
parrots - most from endangered species.
However, another longtime threat, from hunting by peasants struggling
to feed their families, has waned in this area, thanks to the rebel
prohibition on killing wildlife.
Fearing punishment, inhabitants strictly heed the ban. They don't even
shoot the pesky and abundant bronze-winged parrot, which regularly
plunders their corn patches.
``I've only heard three shotgun blasts in the month I've been watching
the nest,'' Lopez-Lanus said, grinning contentedly.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.