Parrot Conservation - Part One

Parrots face significant threats as a result of their popularity as domestic pets. This popularity leads to hunting that reduces their numbers in the wild, and this is complemented by changes in their habitat as a result of man encroaching on their territories. Domestic owners of parrots should take a keen interesting in the conservation of their pets' counterparts in the wild if they are truly to be called parrot lovers.

As the parrot habitat is being fragmented and destructed there has been a rise in domestic trade in parrots. As the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has reduced the international trade problems, so the domestic trade in captured parrots has boomed. It is the combination of trade and habitat factors that are the biggest threat to parrots. However, in addition to this introduced species and diseases have further pressured parrots.

One of the challenges of parrot conservation is being able to count the current population numbers. You not only want to count the numbers, but also to consider populations trends and measure the habitat area. To meet these requirements you need to measure the population at significant intervals, and also measure other biological factors to identify whether population changes result from diseases.

There are a number of different methods for measuring parrot populations: roost counts, nest enumerations, river transects, mark-resighting studies, fixed lookout counts. We will discuss these methods and other conservationism issues in this series that looks at how we can preserve parrots in the wild.

Danny Oakes writes about caring for parrots and covers conservation of wild parrots and pet parrots.

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