As Hispaniola parrots’ mating season begins, so do perils
Friday, April 24, 2009 at 4:49 
Hispaniolan Parrot (amazona ventralis) Sierra de Bahoruco, Dominican Republic. Photo: Mario Davalos
SANTO DOMINGO.- The mating season of the Hispaniola parrots begins and they again face the same perils: poachers will sack hundreds of nests for the pets market, and many people will buy their chicks, heightening the bird’s endangered species status.
The ecologist Simon Guerrero hopes there’s some advance this year, since members of the ecological group Jaragua and the National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA) will monitor the Jaragua National Park’s Sabana de Algodon (southwest), the parrot’s main mating area for the first time.
In a report for newspaper diariolibre.com, Guerrero said the Humane Society, the National Zoo and the Environment Ministry (Semarena) actively support the effort to preserve the species and prevent the destruction of the ecosystems in which they live. “We must prevent the reduction of protected areas, over which the threat of tourist predators always hangs.”
He said although the parrots (Amazona Ventralis) nest in hollows of trees, they can’t build them. “Each sacked nest is one less young and the poachers often cut the tree at the nest, killing or injuring some of the chicks.”