Renewed efforts to save Hispaniolan parrots

 01/06/2019

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set foot on what is now the Dominican Republic, two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. At that time the island's forests, other natural areas and biological richness were largely intact, but the progressive expansion of colonial settlement pushed nature into retreat. Today, the native fauna and flora of the Dominican Republic is best found in its protected areas or inland mountains, well away from the white-sand beach resorts and other bustling holiday hot-spots. Like many endemic species, Hispaniolan Amazon and Hispaniolan Parakeet have declined to the extent that they are both listed in the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable to extinction.

To help in the protection of these two species, Loro Parque Fundación supported action by the Hispaniolan Ornithological Society (SOH) carried out in the Sierra de Bahoruco Mountain Range in the south-west of the country in the mid-2000s. These mountains include a national park, which SOH included in its research on the ecological needs of the psittacines, particularly to determine nesting success and survival rates, the distribution and abundance of the populations, and the documenting of current threats. Arising from the information it collected, especially regarding the removal of chicks from nests to sell to the domestic pet market, SOH made recommendations for the conservation of both species in the Sierra de Bahorucos. However, despite the great biological importance of Bahorucos as a centre of insular endemism, the countrywide situation of both psittacines demands a broader response. The estimated total population of Hispaniolan Amazon is between 6,000 and 15,000 mature individuals, with Hispaniolan Parakeet even rarer at between 1,500 and 7,000 mature individuals. Both populations are still declining.

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How a team of biologists is taking on an infestation and saving a species from extinction

October 31, 2018, Morris Animal Foundation

Eggs hatching. Larvae burrowing under the skin and feeding on surrounding tissue. It's like a scene from a horror movie. Only this isn't a movie—it's happening in real life to an extremely endangered bird species, the Ridgway's hawk. The culprit is a botfly in the genus Philornis that is so aggressive it's eating hawk nestlings from the inside out.

Native to the Dominican Republic, around 300 Ridgway's hawks remain in the wild and researchers have been working diligently to save them. Botfly infestations are jeopardizing conservation efforts of not only Ridgway's hawks, but potentially other island raptors as well.

The story, though, is taking a turn for the better, thanks to Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at The Peregrine Fund. Dr. David Anderson and his team found a way to take on the Philornis botfly—and they're winning. The biologists are taking the fight to the botfly, scaling trees to reach Ridgway's hawk nests high in the canopy to apply an insecticide product. The findings and successes of their work recently were published in Animal Conservation.

"Peregrine Fund biologists found that botflies in the genus Philornis were practically wiping out all the hawk's nestlings," said Dr. David Anderson, Program Director at The Peregrine Fund. "We devised a solution—spraying nestlings with the chemical fipronil, the same chemical we use on our pets to get rid of fleas and ticks—and it seemed to work."

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Bird banded in Dominican Republic found in Vermont

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Though its natural habitat is shrinking in the Caribbean, a brownish-gray songbird twice discovered on top of Vermont's highest mountain is giving scientists hope.

Just weeks ago, researchers identified a Bicknell's Thrush on Mount Mansfield that had been banded in the Dominican Republic while wintering there in 2010. It was the second time since 2010 that the bird had been captured on the mountaintop as part of research.

"The chances of that are amazingly small and to have that happen is not only just remarkable and very cool ... it's really compelling because it shows you that we have to pay attention to both ends of this bird's range if we're going to conserve it," said Chris Rimmer, executive director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.

The vulnerable species has an estimated population of 100,000 worldwide. The migratory birds nest and breed in coniferous forests in northern New England, the Adirondacks and eastern Canada, then fly south to winter in the Caribbean.

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Fund supports work on rare bird

ALBANY — An alliance of North American scientists is supporting work in the Dominican Republic to preserve winter habitat of the rare Bicknell's thrush, which breeds on mountaintops in New York, New England and Canada.

"This project is a new effort to get conservation done in the wintering ground, which we are convinced is the main limiting factor for Bicknell's thrush," said Chris Rimmer, executive director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.

The sparrow-size brown bird nests 1,200 miles north of its wintering grounds, at elevations over 3,000 feet in New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and southeastern Canada. Its population is estimated at 100,000. Scientists have documented annual population declines of 7 to 19 percent in parts of its range over the past 20 years.

The bird winters on four islands in the Caribbean, mostly on Hispaniola, he said, and it's under siege from charcoal production, subsistence farming, logging, livestock grazing and other threats.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Fund-supports-work-on-rare-bird-4008000.php#ixzz2BMIKtlWX