While the pet trade and conservation biologists
agree that parrots are threatened by habitat
loss, they disagree about the effects of poaching.
Avicultural interests downplay it but biologists
say poaching chicks for the lucrative pet
trade is one of the biggest reasons for the
parrots' decline. New research shows that
the biologists are right.
"Our results are the first to demonstrate
that poaching of nestling parrots is indeed
widespread and in many species is occurring
at levels that probably are not sustainable,"
says Timothy Wright of the University of Maryland
in College Park, who reports this work with
24 co-authors in the June issue of Conservation
Biology.
Nearly a third of the 145 parrot species
in the Neotropics (Mexico, Central and South
America) are threatened, making them among
the most endangered groups of birds worldwide.
Parrots fetch an average of $800 in the U.S.
and the number of parrot chicks taken from
the wild is estimated at up to 800,000 per
year. Parrots are particularly sensitive to
poaching because they have low reproductive
rates.
Based on existing studies of 21 parrot species
in 14 Neotropical countries, Wright and his
colleagues determined the birds' death rates
due to nest poaching. The overall poaching
rate was 30% and for four species it exceeded
70%, which is too high given parrots' low
reproductive rates. Without intervention,
these four species are likely to decline sharply,
say the researchers.
Wright and his colleagues also compared poaching
in 10 species before and after the 1992 U.S.
Wild Bird Conservation Act, which bans imports
of threatened parrots. They found that this
legal protection cut poaching rates from nearly
50% to 20%, refuting the pet trade's arguments
that limiting legal trade will only intensify
illegal trade and thus poaching.
This finding suggests that parrots would
benefit from similar legislation in Europe
and Japan, which currently provide most of
the market for parrot imports. "Import
restrictions would be perhaps the single most
effective measure for improving the plight
of endangered parrots," says Wright.
The researchers also call for improving parrot
conservation in the Neotropics, via a combination
of protecting nest sites and enforcing existing
domestic bans on parrot trade.
Wright's co-authors include: Catherine Toft
of the University of California at Davis,
James Gilardi of the World Parrot Trust, and
Ernesto Enkerlin-Hoeflich of Monterrey Technical
University in Mexico.
This story has been adapted from a news release
issued by Society For Conservation Biology.
