Cameroon: 17 wildlife traffickers sentenced

Seized Grey Parrots. Image by LauraA court in Yokadouma, East Region of Cameroon has handed out fines and damages amounting to FCFA 77,169,060 (US $ 160,000) and prison terms as high as 30 months severally on 17 poachers. The ruling unprecedented in the history of poaching cases in the Southeast of Cameroon, especially as it comes barely months after the same court sentenced four traffickers of 44 ivory tusks to a mild 30-day jail term.

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Sanctuary provides home for unwanted, orphaned exotic birds

Ryan Trevithick holds a pair of cockatoos that have adjusted to their life at the sanctuary. Some of these exotic birds can live as long as 60 to 80 years. WALTER HINICK/Montana Standard BUTTE — A scream emanating from a second floor window on West Broadway Street one afternoon stunned a passer-by.

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Cameroon: African grey parrot butcher arrested

The face of the Illigal trade in African grey parrots and partsA notorious parrot trapper, Roger Atangana, and three of his accomplices, have once again been arrested. Atangana was caught with 113 parrot heads, 43 death parrots, 85 smoked parrots, 13 live parrots and 1650 tails inside Lobéké National Park, in the East Region of Cameroon. Two motorbikes were also seized from the capturers.

Atangana was arrested on March 21, by game rangers and elements of Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Brigade, known in French as BIR. The World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF provided financial and logistics support for the anti-poaching operation.

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Alex the parrot’s last experiment shows his mathematical genius

Alex, Whats different? Image courtesy The Alex FoundationEven in death, the world’s most accomplished parrot continues to amaze. The final experiments involving Alex – a grey parrot (Psittacus eithacus) trained to count objects – have just been published.

They show that Alex can accurately add together as many as eight Arabic numerals and three sets of objects, putting his mathematical abilities on par with (and maybe beyond) those of chimpanzees and other non-human primates. The work was just published in the journal Animal Cognition.

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Self-plucking parrot on the mend in foster home

Muriel, the African Grey parrot, is in a protective collar to prevent herself from further self-mutilation. Photo: Kerry PowelWhen a badly damaged African Grey named Muriel was surrendered at a local shelter, the bird appeared to be beyond hope. But before the "execution" papers could be signed, an employee reached out to Patty Blau, a volunteer with Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue. Maybe Muriel could be saved?

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