It is our great pleasure to introduce you to Rosemary Low, a passionate writer and parrot conservationist who has dedicated her life to raising awareness about the plight of these incredible birds. Through her writing, she has not only captivated audiences worldwide but also inspired countless individuals to take action to protect these threatened species.
Rosemary, you have worked as a curator at bird parks. Is there any specific parrot species that left a lasting impression on you?
Undoubtedly! I never hesitate before answering “Pesquet’s Parrot” (Psittrichas fulgidus) from New Guinea. What an extraordinary and wonderful bird! It is also beautiful! It makes me annoyed to hear this species compared with a vulture. Actually, vultures are also beautiful with great personalities. The recent popular common name of Dracula Parrot is even more horrible.
Above all the beautiful, enchanting and fascinating parrots on our planet, Pesquet’s Parrot is the one that has most surely captured my heart. The species is rare in captivity but I had the pleasure of hand-rearing several, from the pairs in my care at Loro Parque, Tenerife, and Palmitos Park, Gran Canaria. In my experience few hand-reared young parrots are as gentle, affectionate and as responsive to their carer. They were so adorable! Not many collections have kept this species and consistent breeding success is rare. An important exception is Loro Parque in Tenerife which has several breeding more than one pair.
Pesquet’s Parrot has glorious crimson feathers, set off by glossy black plumage, yet some people do not consider it beautiful. Its apparently partly bare head (actually it has very narrow, hair-like feathers and just hairs on the forehead), elongated bill and large size (length about 50cm and weight 700g), distinguish it from all other parrots. It exists almost entirely on figs. Figs are sticky – and the plumage could soon become matted. Few parrots have such specialised diets. This is only possible because not all fig trees fruit at the same time. In Pesquet’s Parrot the lower mandible is elongated so that it can be used to scoop out the pulp from figs.
Pesquet’s Parrot leaves a lasting impression in flight or when opening the wings when rain-bathing. The classic contrast of red and shiny black, in blocks of colour, the red separating the black, is unforgettable. The striking colour combination makes it irresistible to many ethnic groups, who kill it for its feathers – or even the whole skin. They are a common item of trade after pigs and money. The wing feathers that are black down one length of the shaft and red down the other, are especially favoured for the headdresses. Feathers of birds of paradise and lorikeets are also highly sought. Traditional dress is worn at big events, such as weddings, and to perform dances to tourists, as I have seen in the highlands of New Guinea. Logging is also a threat to this wonderful bird. IUCN status of Pesquet's Parrot is Vulnerable.
Could you tell us about one of your most adventurous journeys in the name of parrot conservation?
Ooooh! Difficult to choose one! But the high Andes of Colombia provide the perfect backdrop. The Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis) is unique, the only member of its genus. By 1996, its population had been devastated by hunting and by destruction of the stately Quindío wax palms (Ceroxylum quindiuense) upon which the parrot is heavily dependent for food, and for nest sites in dead palms. Little was known about it until the mid-1990s. The areas it inhabited were so remote that the species gradually disappeared, with only local people noticing.
Once abundant throughout the Andes, the Yellow-eared Parrot inhabited humid montane forest, elfin forest and partially cleared terrain at 1,200–3,400m (3,720–10,200ft). This beautiful green and yellow parrot formerly occurred in all three Andean ranges of Colombia, but gradually disappeared as the palms were cut down and cattle grazing prevented regeneration.
In 1998 the NGO ProAves was established in Colombia, its first national bird conservation organisation. A poster campaign was initiated, focusing on the historical range in the Central Andes. After eleven long months and more than 3,500 hours of fieldwork, the search for the species proved fruitless. It was about to end when what seemed like a miracle happened. On April 18 1999 a worker witnessed two flocks of Yellow-eared Parrots descending from the clouds. Sixty-one parrots had been discovered in Roncesvalles in the Department of Tolima. Within one week, an additional flock was located in an adjacent secluded valley, also in the Central Cordillera. An estimated 82 birds survived. They had existed in an area that for many years was inaccessible owing to political activities (guerillas).
Niels Krabbe and Paul Salaman, an English ornithologist based in Colombia, formed Proyecto Ognorhynchus as an emergency response. The ProAves founders met landowners, started a public awareness campaign and a schools’ programme. There was jubilation in January 2001 when a second population of 22 Yellow-eared Parrots was discovered by a forester in Jardin in the Western Cordillera. This flock was found 160km (100 miles) north of Roncesvalles in the Department of Antioquia.
The frequent movements during the year between different valleys made the Yellow-eared Parrot difficult to study but the excellent work of the ProAves field team revealed amazing results. By August 2003 the population of 81 birds in Roncesvalles, Tolima, had increased to an estimated 312 birds, and that in Jardín to 303 individuals. That year 49 active nests were found with an average of two chicks per nest. Fifty-two active nests were found in Roncesvalles in 2007 and by June 132 chicks had hatched. How incredible was that! A seemingly impossible dream was coming to life.
Loro Parque Fundación has to date donated more than 2 million US dollars to the conservation of this species. In 2004 they had asked me to write about this. An innocent email led to one of the most exciting trips of my life. I had contacted Paul Salaman who replied. ‘Why don’t you come out to Colombia and I will take you to some of the project sites?’
That was how it happened that in January 2005, Paul (apparently set on suicide) was driving me at break-neck speed on narrow twisting mountainous roads. After several hours and 373km (233 miles) on the road from Bogotá we reached a rented wooden house. Early next morning we crossed a river by means of a couple of slender saplings, and then proceeded on horseback, through slippery rocky tracks, to a height of 2,800m (9,000ft).
The steep meadow-like mountainside was dotted with wax palms with slender grey trunks, banded with silvery grey. Suddenly a pair of parrots flew from their palm tree nest to a nearby isolated tree. They perched in the sun, their plumage gleaming gold and green. It was a breath-taking moment. I was watching a Critically Endangered species, the Yellow-eared Parrot, a privilege that had been afforded to very few outsiders at that time.
It got even better. An extending ladder was placed against the trunk and one of my companions climbed up 11m (33ft) to inspect the nest, reporting the presence of three young. How could I let the moment pass without asking if I could have a look? Heights and ladders don’t scare me. So I looked into the nest. When my eyes adjusted to the dark interior I saw three large chicks, with feathers on the head but still with quite thick soft white down, their insulation against the cold nights. I was enthralled. There were several pairs in the vicinity, incubating, or sitting quietly, or flying overhead.
On the following afternoon I watched a pair of Yellow-eared Parrots at their roost a few feet away. They perched on the top of a dead palm trunk, the female occasionally appearing and the male boldly surveying the scene, keeping an eye on me but unperturbed by my presence. They are such appealing birds, so devoted and affectionate to their mates. As the pair preened each other (the breast as well as the head) the evening sun caught a distant flock of about 80 Yellow-eared Parrots coming in to roost on the other side of the ridge. Nearby pairs made a few circuitous flights before finally landing for the night and entering a palm trunk or roosting in the fronds. As the clouds rolled down, a chill came over the hillside. It was an hour I would never forget.
Our next location was Jardin, in the department of Antioquia. Fifty-two active nests were found in Roncesvalles in 2007 and by June 132 chicks had hatched. How incredible was that! A seemingly impossible dream was coming to life. This has become the most successful parrot conservation project in the world, in terms of numbers. Scarcity of nest sites – partly due to loss of woodpeckers when the cloud forest was destroyed – had been alleviated with the provision of well over 200 nest-boxes. There are now probably more than 3,000 individuals and the parrot’s habitat is expanding and being restored. One area is protected in a reserve. Unlike most parrots, it has never been threatened by illegal capture. Strong education programmes are still in place. Its future looks golden.
How has your writing evolved over the years, as you've authored over thirty books on parrots and bird conservation?
When I started to write in the 1960s, when I was in my twenties, very little (almost nothing, in fact) was known about parrot conservation and populations. Parrots were not yet threatened by trapping, except in Australia. I wrote about experiences with my own birds and those in collections in visited. In the 1970s the volume of wild-caught parrot trade and the high mortality connected with it, was exposed to a small degree. In the 1980s numbers of exported wild parrot increased to totally unacceptable and unsustainable numbers. I was horrified by what little was known on the impact of wild populations and the inhumane treatment that individual parrots suffered. I wrote strongly about this. I was already disillusioned with aviculture because many breeders argued we needed these wild birds. We did not. If various species had not been established in aviculture by then, they never would be. There were few controls on exporting countries but increasingly the importation of certain species into Europe was banned. This just resulted in the unfortunate trapped birds going to India and China, where knowledge and husbandly of parrots was then very poor.
I still write about parrot care, especially food and environmental enrichment. I continue to write about parrot conservation and the illegal trade in parrots which has now even increased, due to the internet. Sadly, too often my words fall on the deaf ears of parrot keepers.
Your passion for parrots is evident in your work. What do you consider the most heartwarming or inspiring success story from your conservation efforts?
The Great Green or Buffon’s Macaw (Ara ambiguus) might have become extinct in Costa Rica but for the foresight of American George Powell. He was the key force behind the creation of the renowned Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, one of the most important reserves in the Neotropics. In 1972 he raised the money to buy 120ha (300 acres). Today the reserve covers 14,200ha acres (35,100 acres) and contains 400 species of birds.
In 1994 Powell started a project to safeguard the Great Green Macaw. He believed passionately in the importance of the venture, as did Olivier Chassot and Guisselle Monge Arias who carried on his work. Newly-wed in 1999, they spent the next three years in the field searching for breeding sites. They discovered that many chicks were stolen from nests and sold to hotels for up to $150 each — a huge amount for local inhabitants.
Guisselle and Olivier held meetings in remote villages to inform the local people of the importance of protecting the macaw and the almendro (Dipteryx panamensis) tree. The fruit of this tree — the almond — is the macaw’s most important food source, from September to April. The macaws can eat the unripe kernel, unlike other creatures. So although the macaws eat the almendro’s nuts, they aid the tree’s regeneration because the macaws drop many nuts.
Large macaws need huge tracts of habitat but throughout the Great Green Macaw’s range much forest had been destroyed. Its distribution was limited to the Atlantic wet lowlands of Central America from Honduras south to northern Colombia, with a small isolated population in Ecuador, in Esmeraldas and Guayaquil. In Costa Rica it was limited to approximately 600km² (232 square miles) of tropical wet forest in the north, on and near the border with Nicaragua.
George Powell’s research in 1994 indicated that the nesting range in Costa Rica had been reduced by 90 per cent since the early 20th century, especially during the 1980s and 1990s. Satellite images showed that less than 30 per cent of the original forest remained. The Costa Rican macaw population depended on the more extensive habitat in Nicaragua, to the north, where it migrates after the breeding season.
Funding for Powell’s project from the international conservation organisations was not forthcoming, even though the project had built up the best existing database on individual wild macaws. It had the information to save the species — but not the finance. This is what Guisselle and Olivier told me when I met them at Sarapiqui in Great Green Macaw habitat in November 2000. They were such genuine, dedicated people and their whole lives revolved around the macaw. On 16 January 2001 George Powell told me: ‘We felt certain that one of our dozen or so proposals sent out would bring in the desperately needed funds. But so far this has not happened and we have been forced to set January 31 as the date we will have to shut down the project if no funding is forthcoming.’
This magnificent, imposing and heart-breakingly handsome macaw, the second largest of all Neotropical parrots, was edging towards extinction. Basically, no one cared because the bird was green! If it had been blue (like the iconic Hyacinth Macaw), the whole conservation community would have been lining up with aid! Its range in Costa Rica had contracted with alarming speed; by 2002 the northern part was the only area that held breeding pairs, with an estimated 30-35 pairs.
I was determined to raise enough money to keep the project — and the Great Green Macaw — alive. I could rely on the power of my pen to raise funds. My articles appealing for funds were published in avicultural magazines throughout the UK, Europe and the USA. The response from parrot keepers and from zoos was overwhelming. A number of organisations found ways to raise funds. The project was saved and the macaw’s plight had gained world-wide attention.
The San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor, of nearly 2,500km² (965 square miles), was created. It preserves the connections between forest remnants in the Central Volcanic Mountain range and the north of Costa Rica and the important Indio-Maíz reserve in Nicaragua, consolidating six protected areas into a single unit. The corridor is crucial for the macaw’s survival, and with a mixture of habitats on both banks of the river, some former pasture has been reforested.
The Ara Project in Costa Rica and one of its partners, the World Parrot Trust, started to release captive-bred Great Green Macaws in 2011, at Manzanillo. Some of these were hand-reared in the facility there. In 2016 the first young from a released pair were hatched. It is interesting that these macaws have been observed feeding on the tropical almond (Terminalia catappa). So perhaps they have adapted to a new food source.
The Ara Manzanillo project is dedicated to restoring the population in the region through on-going releases (50 plus so far) and installing nests in the forest around the release station from which another 50 or so young have fledged into the wild. The Community Outreach Program works with more than 25 schools and other organizations in the area to promote the conservation of macaws and their habitat.
Severe habitat loss throughout its range, except in the Darién (Colombia), means that this macaw faces a very uncertain future. Its small, fragmented populations can survive only if enough large suitable nest sites are and large tracts of habitat are available. This will become a conservation dependent species, relying on habitat restoration utilising native dry tropical forest species that are known or potential food sources. The IUCN status of the Great Green Macaw from 2021 was Critically Endangered. The global population is believed to be no more than 1,000 individuals but population estimates vary considerably.
What's the most surprising or little-known fact about parrots that you think more people should be aware of?
In 2016 it was reported by scientists that 111 out of 398 parrot species are potentially in danger of extinction. Parrots are known to be the most common bird group reported in the wildlife trade. Dr Stuart Butchart, Head of Science at BirdLife International, said: “This study confirms that, as a whole, parrots face a higher rate of extinction than any other comparable bird group. Indeed, 56 per cent of all parrot species are in decline.”
Parrots often symbolize freedom and wilderness. In your opinion, how can we strike a balance between respecting their natural habitat and their existence as beloved pets?
The two issues are not usually connected. Most people who keep or breed parrots do not live in countries where parrots occur. The exceptions are India and China (both with very few parrot species), where parrot breeding, mainly for commercial reasons, has increased greatly and usually not in a sympathetic manner. In Brazil (which has more parrot species than any other country), there are breeders and many pet keepers but as elsewhere in South America and in Africa, the illegal trade in parrots, smuggling and domestic trade, are out of control. Most of these countries are in the top ten worst countries in the world for deforestation and habitat loss. These factors are the main ones in causing catastrophic declines in parrot populations.
Unfortunately, most parrot keepers have no interest in conservation. This is a fact. As an author of books on parrot conservation and on breeding and keeping parrots, I know that the former are usually shunned by parrot keepers. They read to learn how to breed more parrots! So there can seldom be any connection between respecting parrot habitats and parrot keeping. Parrot keepers, and especially commercial breeders, should be contributing financially towards parrot conservation projects. But few do.
Could you tell us about any upcoming projects or initiatives you're working on to further parrot conservation and education?
There is one in Brazil — very recent. The project has not yet been officially revealed as it involves illegal smuggling.
What is your favourite parrot book (other than your own)?
The avifauna and biodiversity in Brazil are amazing, especially relating to parrot species. My visits to this wonderful country are brought vividly to my mind in Terra Papagalli (Land of Parrots). A taxonomic assessment, that of Luís Fabio Silviera, is that there are ninety-one species — more than in any other country. Luís Fábio is curator of the world renowned bird collection of the Museum of Zoology of the University of Sao Paulo, the largest collection of skins of Brazilian birds in the world. Having published one hundred plus scientific papers and fourteen books, he is one of Brazil’s most important ornithologists.
Who better than he to write the text for a book of stunning beauty that depicts all the Brazilian parrots? Terra Papagalli resulted from his collaboration with artist Eduardo Parentoni Bretta. It was a dream come true for Silveira, with a deep love for parrots and of the exquisite details of their plumage, to produce this book with an artist whose talents are extraordinary. Open any page and you will be enchanted at his skill in capturing the likeness of such a wide range of parrot species. Other artists may be able to faithfully depict the plumage, but the personality is missing. Not so here! The bird could step off the page on to your hand!
How realistic is it to count on people’s goodwill to avoid another parrot species extinction?
Goodwill cannot save parrots or any species from extinction. It takes a tremendous amount of work and initiative, and usually large sums, to save species. It requires the cooperation between knowledgeable individuals, various conservation organisations and, often, also zoos. However, in many cases goodwill is important from politicians who can block conservation projects because economic development takes a higher priority in their opinions. This is a major problem, in the UK and in many other countries.
Finally, what are your thoughts on scientific research to bring back extinct species through genetic manipulation?
It sounds exciting — but unless the habitat for the species still exists and the reasons for the extinction of the species have been addressed, genetic manipulation probably could be put to better use in other spheres. It is time-consuming and expensive. There seems to be a mismatch between the academic advancement of conservation science and practical conservation and observations in the field. We need more people in the field and fewer in laboratories or at their computers. The Yellow-eared Parrot, the Blue-throated Macaw and the Kakapo were not saved from extinction by scientists in laboratories but by ornithologists, students and volunteers actually on the ground. They work to PREVENT extinction, not to reverse it.
Thank you so much for your interesting answers and all your hard work, Rosemary!
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