Tis’ the Season for Parrot Poaching

Poached parrots nestlings at the rescue centre. Illegal trafficking of native parrots for house pets has been an escalating problem over the past several years. These birds are captured at a very young age to be sold as pets in the illegal pet trade market. The process results not only in the destruction of trees and life-long nests, but usually the death of the majority of the hatchlings that are taken for the pet trade.

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23 cages filled with parrots, mynas seized in Palawan

MANILA – At least 23 cages filled with blue-naped parrots and mynas were seized in Narra, Palawan on Tuesday.

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Qatar efforts give hope to rare parrot species

Daniel Neumann performing artificial insemination in a Spix’s macaw at AWWP.Pioneering efforts by Qatar’s Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation to conserve the extinct-in-the-wild Spix’s macaw have achieved a key milestone with the world’s first artificial insemination in the parrot species native to Brazil, under a partnership with a German firm.

Founded by Sheikh Saoud bin Mohamed bin Ali al-Thani, AWWP, which has been a champion in Spix’s macaw conservation for over a decade, holds over 77% (64 out of 83) of the world population of the bird and is actively involved in grassroots conservation in its home country.Given that a narrow genetic pool is one of the biggest problems for the worldwide breeding programme, as it causes suboptimal fertility in the population, researchers from AWWP together with Parrot Reproduction Consulting from Germany decided to help the species through artificial insemination.

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Forest deal 'greenmails' the green groups

Green groups have had their rights taken away faster than a swift parrot crosses Bass Strait. Credit: Margot FosterThe deal designed to end years of protest in the forests of Tasmania hamstrings green groups, barring them from future protest. It is a dangerous precedent.

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Squawking Duets of Puerto Rican Parrots

Puerto Rican parrots at Rio Abajo (photo by Brendan Borrell)Last Friday, David Logue, an old friend and biologist from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez took me out to see the island’s imperiled parrots and explain how deciphering their duets could improve efforts to save them.

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