The Battle For Parrot Souls In Southeast Cameroon

African grey parrots: Now endangered by notorious capturers Two "notorious" parrot capturers, Roger Atangana and Ignace Onana were recently arrested and detained pending trial, for illegally trapping African Grey Parrots.

The duo is responsible for the capture of over 5,000 parrots each year in Lobeke National Park and its buffer zone, in the East Province.Their arrests were orchestrated by local forest and wildlife authorities in Boumba et Ngoko Division, in collaboration with the gendarmerie, facilitated by WWF.

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Why do parrots have the ability to mimic?

Michael Schindlinger, an assistant professor of biology at Lesley University, fields this question about our feathered friends.

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Free-range Parrots - a meeting with John Strutt in Cumbria

Scarlet macaw hanging around in the gutter.I'd first heard of John Strutt in 1999 via an Internet Forum - For the Love of Greys. I was seeking advice on free flying my baby CAG hen but the subscribers advised me to clip Artha 'for her own safety.' In one message I was told that someone in UK free flies a flock of greys. The writer doubted whether it was possible. Fifteen months later, I had tracked John down via The Parrot Society and he had invited me to Cumbria to see for myself.

So in June, we were driving from the railway station down blossom-edged lanes through the nearest village. Four blue and gold macaws swept past our car going in the same direction. It was like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
'Some of ours going home,' said John. Artha on my shoulder, wearing a harness, might have looked wistful if parrots can show that emotion.

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Introduced African Grey parrot on Tenerife

African Grey (Psittacus erithacus) living in Puerto de la Cruz, TenerifeWe always wondered why we hear so few rapports about feral African Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) that have escaped and live feral lives. Handbook of the birds of the world (vol. 4) mentions that many African cities have feral populations. But that's about the extend of the reports. No mention of population size or breeding success. We know African Greys are capable of living free-range lives. Many people that free-fly their parrots have second guesses with African greys as they are supposed to get lost more often than other species of parrot. But in Cumbria UK many free-range grey parrots live in and around the country house of our friend there and he does not experience any trouble with them.

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A Thinking Bird, or Just Another Birdbrain?

Alex the Parrot

TUCSON, Ariz. -- "Calm down," Alex, an African Gray parrot, told Dr. Irene Pepperberg, the scientist at the University of Arizona who owns him. "Don't tell me to calm down," Dr. Pepperberg snapped. Sometimes Dr. Pepperberg and Alex squabble like an old married couple. He even says, "I love you."

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