The Parrot Man

By Victoria Bland
University of Nottingham, UK.

Having a parrot as a pet is considered by some to be pretty cool, but surely seeing one in the wild is much more impressive.

The pet trade has had a devastating effect on the populations of many species of bird throughout the world and the blue-fronted Amazon, a native of South America, is one such species.

Vital work is being carried out at the University of La Plata in Argentina to try and instigate a sustainable harvest of chicks in an attempt to stabilise the population decline, whilst maintaining the economically important pet trade.

The work is lead by Igor Berkunsky who, together with his team of volunteers, carries out fieldwork to find parrot nest sites, weigh chicks and assess their population status.

This isn’t as easy as it may sound, blue-fronted Amazons live in an area known as the impenetrable forest, which makes finding them extremely arduous. Once you’ve located then you then still have to reach their lofty tree-cavity nests.

However, Igor’s unparalleled knowledge of the area and his parrots makes it all possible.

The theory behind the project is that one chick is left in the nest and the remaining chicks are collected and exported legally for the pet trade.

Igor and his team are testing whether this technique of chick removal could reverse the current population decline in the species by reducing the trade in black-market parrots.

Early results suggest that there are still too many birds being taken illegally but it is hoped that in time, the controlled removal system will start to buck this trend and the parrot’s future status within the forest will be secured.