Scientists work to save wild Puerto Rican parrot after Maria

November 20, 2018 by Danica Coto

In this Nov. 6, 2018 photo, Puerto Rican parrots huddle in one of the flight cages located in the facilities of the Iguaca Aviary at El Yunque, were the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service runs a parrot recovery program in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. Biologists are trying to save the last of the endangered Puerto Rican parrots after more than half the population of birds disappeared when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and destroyed their habitat and food sources. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

Biologists are trying to save the last of the endangered Puerto Rican parrots after more than half the population of the bright green birds with turquoise-tipped wings disappeared when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and destroyed their habitat and food sources.

In the tropical forest of El Yunque, only two of the 56 wild birds that once lived there survived the Category 4 storm that pummeled the U.S. territory in September 2017. Meanwhile, only 4 of 31 wild birds in a forest in the western town of Maricao survived, along with 75 out of 134 wild parrots living in the Rio Abajo forest in the central mountains of Puerto Rico, scientists said.

And while several dozen new parrots have been born in captivity and in the wild since Maria, the species is still in danger, according to scientists.

"We have a lot of work to do," said Gustavo Olivieri, parrot recovery program coordinator for Puerto Rico's Department of Natural Resources.

Federal and local scientists will meet next month to debate how best to revive a species that numbered more than 1 million in the 1800s but dwindled to 13 birds during the 1970s after decades of forest clearing.

The U.S. and Puerto Rican governments launched a program in 1972 that eventually led to the creation of three breeding centers. Just weeks before Maria hit, scientists reported 56 wild birds at El Yunque, the highest since the program was launched.

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Report: Puerto Rican parrot makes major comeback

One of the world's most endangered bird species has made a major comeback in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

The counted population of the Puerto Rican parrot fell to just 13 during its darkest days, but researchers said Thursday that nearly 400 parrots are now in captivity and more than 100 being tracked in the wild across the island.

Scientists working in the Rio Abajo Nature Preserve in western Puerto Rico also found a wild nest with eggs, the first discovery of its kind in 42 years.

"This is a huge step," said Gustavo Olivieri, coordinator of the Rio Abajo parrot reintroduction program. "It shows the population can sustain itself."

The eggs did not hatch, but scientists said that is not unusual and they are encouraged that formerly captive parrots were procreating in the wild and building nests.

The birds are the island's only remaining native parrot and one of roughly 30 species of Amazon parrots found in the Americas. They have red foreheads, turquoise feathers under their wings and grow to nearly a foot in length. They are known for their secrecy and usually mate for life, reproducing once a year.

This year, a record 51 baby parrots were born in captivity in the Rio Abajo forest, up from a previous record of 34 born in 2011, said Ricardo Valentin, a biologist with the island's Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The number of parrots born in the wild also increased slightly to a record 15, up from 12 last year, he said.

While the researchers' goal is to release parrots into the wild with temporary radio collars, some are too aggressive or weak and are instead kept captive, Olivieri said.

Scientists estimate that as many as 1 million Puerto Rican parrots lived in pre-colonial times, but their habitat was destroyed by the clearing of forests in the late 1800s to plant citrus, coffee and sugar cane.

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Local Funding Supports Open Access Sequencing of the Puerto Rican Parrot Genome

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) — The critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. A genomic sequencing project, funded by community donations, has published September 28, in BioMed Central and BGI's open access journal GigaScience, the first sequence of A. vittata, the first of the large Neotropical Amazona birds to be studied at the genomic level.

Photo: Wikipedia

The Puerto Rican Parrot was once abundant throughout Puerto Rico but destruction of old forest habitats to make way for farming in the 19th Century resulted in a drastic decline in their population. By the mid 1970's only a handful of individuals were thought to remain. Captive breeding programs in Rio Abajo and El Yunque and the release of these birds have had some success, but the number of these birds in the wild is still very low.

In a unique initiative (developing of the Local Community Involvement), funded entirely by contributions from the communities of Puerto Rico alongside staff and students from the Biology Department of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, researchers collaborated internationally to sequence this beautiful parrot.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120928085352.htm

more information on the Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata):

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=1666