Farmers say parrots devastating fruits

Wild Cayman parrots along the Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman. Image by Paul-WTo environmentalists and tourism officials, they are the National Bird of the Cayman Islands; and as such are treated as living national treasures, with no exceptions.

But to Franklin Smith, and the dozen or so other specialist farmers who make their living by painstakingly coaxing delicious tropical fruits from the rugged Cayman soil, the same feathered creatures which have appeared on Cayman postage stamps with the Queen, are viewed as heart breakers.

Walking through some of the more than 55 acres of fruit trees which make up the New Hut Gardens in East End, Mr Smith points out the tops of scores of mango trees that have been virtually stripped bare of their luscious fruit by flocks of the seemingly ravenous parrots.

And on the ground, around still more trees, lay hundreds more not-yet ripe mangos with often a single parrot bite in them. The amiable Mr Smith, who has been a fruit farmer for nearly 30 years, shakes his head in genuine sadness at the prospect of having his entire April crop destroyed. And he says that it has been happening for years.

"Believe me, I don't want to harm these birds. Several years ago I used to shoot them, to protect my crops. But after Ivan and then Paloma, I felt that God had spared my life and so I should not take the lives of other creatures. After both of those storms, I saw whole flocks of the parrots gathering near the ground for shelter. And I could have easily dispatched them with a bird gun. But I didn't. I do not want to destroy these birds -- but I don't want them to destroy me, either.

"Parrots are far too smart for scarecrows. We are willing to work with the environment department, and the National Trust, and the Agricultural Department, but they are not helping us. No one wants to hear how bad it is for us" [fruit farmers].

Mr Smith, whose father Ashton was also a fruit farmer and taught him the trade, grows a wide variety of mangos, including the Julie, Carrie, Jakarta, Nelson and the especially sweet Nam-doc, which he brought in from Asia; he also grows avocado, star fruit, guava, papaya, sweet sop, naseberry and longan.

However, the Cayman Parrot apparently has a powerful fondness for mangos, and they are destroying his business. "The National Trust, and the Department of Environment, are saying that this bird is endangered. But this is just not true. I often see flocks of 50 parrots fly overhead, and now they come all year long. And, each year, I see more and more. People are lying about this, because, for them, it is a political issue. They are worried only about CITES [the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora]. But for me, and all other farmers, it is our livelihood that is at stake."

"From the 1940s to the 1970s," Mr Smith says, "the government had a bounty for the parrots. They even gave the farmers free birdshot. Just as they did for agouti [a member of the rodent species that resembles a rabbit, and imported from Central America in Cayman's early days]. If they won't allow us to reduce the parrots to a reasonable level, they should compensate the farmers for their loss."

Mr Smith contends that Cayman is the only territory in the Caribbean where the government does not compensate a fruit farmer for their losses due to damage caused by protected species.

Another fruit farmer who also grows mangos, lime and avocado, Mr William H. Ebanks, of North Side, strongly agrees with Franklin Smith about the number of parrots on Cayman. "A couple of years ago, just after a storm, I saw a flock of birds that could not have numbered less than 80. And it is not just on the east end of the island. I have talked to other farmers and these birds are an island-wide problem.

"But the politicians simply want to look the other way." Mr Ebanks had approached the government, offering to catch the excess parrots without harming them, so that they could be used to create an additional attraction for the Botanical Park. "But they just weren't interested," says Mr. Ebanks. He has even tried a tin-rattle type of scarecrow to frighten the parrots, "but nothing works, we farmers have tried everything, but the government just don't want to help us at all."

He says: "I can tell you this, if a poll today asked if we should name the Cayman parrot the 'National Bird' or a 'National Nuisance", 99 percent of the people who did not live in an apartment would call it a nuisance. Because, aside from its beauty, that's exactly what it is." He adds that a very senior government official has had his own avocado garden ravished by the locust-like parrots, but will not touch on the topic, publically, because it is too political.

According to the National Trust's own website, the Cayman parrot is, in fact, a subspecies of the Cuban Parrot [Amazona Leucocgphala]. And it is the Cuban Parrot that has been listed as "near threatened" by CITES.

Mr Frank Balderamos, General Manager of the National Trust confirmed to the Cayman Net News the Cayman Parrot "is a protected species, and cannot be killed, sold, or traded." He added that the problem caused by the birds to farmers was really a problem for the Department of Agriculture.

The Net News contacted Mr Brian Crichlow of the Department of Agriculture by phone and email, but he had not responded at press time.

The National Trust provides a protected habitat for the parrots at the Salina Reserve, and Mastic Reserve on Grand Cayman, and a protected breeding ground at the Central Mangrove Wetland's fringe at Black Mangrove.

Normally Cayman parrots feed on sea grapes, berries, flowers and seeds. They mate for life, and use the same nesting sites over and over, in mangroves or rural dry forests.