National Trust for Fiji Finding Wild Parrots
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discovered in 1979. They have help from many overseas organisations such as Taronga Zoo and the Brehm Foundation who advise on species recovery programmes. In addition to WPT visits Fiji species work, the NTF manage by KIRSTY SWINNERTON Wildlife Preser vation Tr ust Canada (WPTC) the Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park and the Yaduataba At the beginning of the year, the National Tr ust for Fiji (NTF) contacted the World Parr ot Iguana Sanctuary. At the Trust on the advice of Mr Michael Dibben, the British High Commissioner in Fiji. Mr headquar ters in Suva I met a Dibben was instr umental in the World Parrot Trust's education work in Paraguay and had group of very dedicated and suggested that WPT might support NTF's parrot conser vation programme. Thus I found enthusiastic staf f including local myself on a 26-hour flight via Los Angeles and Hawaii, on behalf of the WPT to spend 12 and overseas volunteers working days in Fiji as a guest of the NTF. My trip in May was to coincide with the launch of a on many aspects of parrot conservation poster pr oduced by the NTF but I was also to investigate the conservation. During the week I problems facing Fijian parr ots and look at ways in which the WPT could become also met NTF Park staff, Deputy involved. Director Elisabeth Erasito and I was fairly used to tr opical Vice Chair man Robin Yarrow . islands, having lived in Through them I was able to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean make some assessment of the for 12 years, but Fiji was nearly priority problems facing Fiji's ten times the size with half the parrots and glean some ideas of population, mor e forest and a how WPT could contribute. lot mor e wildlife. Fiji comprises over 300 volcanic and coral islands covering a total land Finding wild parrots mass of 18,300km2. Ther e are 4 But so far I had not seen a main islands of which Viti Levu parrot. Asesela W aqairoba, a is the largest at 10,390 km2 and venerable volunteer for the NTF, Kadavu is the smallest at 411 suggested that we visit Colo-i- km2. Fiji ranks thir d for Suva, a small reserve only 20 numbers of r estricted-range bird minutes from Suva, where we species in the Pacific and 26 might find some. Within 10 species are endemic. Fiji has 6 minutes of arriving and despite parr ot species, the most the rain a flock of 4 to 5 Yellow- charismatic of which are the breasted Musk parrots P. Shining par rots, Prosopeia sp. In personata (known locally as the Fiji Shining parr ots are known as Viti Levu par rot) flew into the Musk parrots on account of their tree above us and squawked. musky smell and are also A pair of Collar ed Lories (Phygis solitarius) Photo: K. Swinnerton Unlike the other 2 species, these refer red to by the island on birds are bright gr een with a which each species or sub- awareness pr ogramme to National Trust, UK and has the large splash of yellow and species lives. The Collar ed Lory educate the Kadavu people same responsibilities for orange on their breast. They Phygis solitarius is the most about their unique wildlife. On cultural and natural heritage. were ver y noisy, constantly common parr ot and the Red- our way back fr om the airport The NTF had already under taken calling to each other and after throated Lorikeet Charmosyna we stopped at a print shop several endangered species 10 minutes flew off with a amabilis is the rarest with less wher e the final changes were awareness campaigns, peculiar gliding flight. Inspired, than 2,500 restricted to being made to the parr ot poster specifically for the Fiji Flying the next day I visited the mountainous areas. The Blue- due to be launched that week. A Fox, the Fiji Peregrine Falcon neighbouring Wailoku Forest crowned Lor y Vini australis is cer emony was to be held in and the endangered endemic Reserve. Although the tall tr ees found only in the souther n Kadavu to coincide with the Crested Iguana which was only obscured good views over the islands of Fiji but also on Provincial Administration Samoa, Tonga and several other meeting and several thousand islands in central Polynesia. The people wer e due to attend. Red-thr oated Lorikeet and the However all that week heavy Vini lorikeets wer e identified in rain flooded the r unway which the r ecent Parr ot Action Plan as pr evented us from landing and priority species for the ceremony was cancelled. My conservation. first week was ther efore spent I flew in to Viti Levu and was meeting Gover nment officers greeted by the Director of the and local or ganisations involved NTF, Birandra Singh, who drove in conser vation and getting to me to the capital city Suva know the NTF. where I would be based. Birandra told me about r ecent National Trust for news of illegal trafficking in the Kadavu Musk parrot P. splendens Fiji and how NTF had begun an The NTF is affiliated to the Habitat degration in Nausori Highlands, Western Viti Levu. Photo: K. Swinnerton PsittaScene Volume 12, No 4, November 2000 ■ 13 C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y K C M Y Musk par rots fr om several islands, with a large pr oportion of the Kadavu species. Some of the parr ots were in a huge planted fr ee-flight which must have been like home for them. Many of the bir ds had been rescued and birds had not yet bred but a captive-br eeding pr ogramme was their next goal. Judy and Ramesh showed me their plans for an Endangered Species Br eeding and Resear ch Centre which included ar tificial incubation and hand-r earing r ooms and off-show breeding enclosures for Musk par rots. I was ver y impressed with the dedication and enthusiasm of the staff at Kula and with the facilities they had built. I knew fr om experience that running such a centr e in the tropics, wher e supplies are hard to get, Red-shining Parrot (Prosopeia tabuensis) Photo: K. Swinnerton electricity is er ratic, food rots within a day and ants live in the valley, once I recognised the Musk find. As we were nearing strong emphasis on fridge is ver y hard work. Par rot’s calls I seemed to hear Tomanivi or Mt Victoria, the environmental education. I was them constantly and watched highest point of the island, a interested to visit the centre as I Kadavu several small groups perched by bright green bird shot across the had spent the last five years as The highlight of my trip was a the path. One particularly windscr een, possibly a Red- Manager of the Gerald Dur rell visit to Kadavu, the four th inquisitive individual sat just 20 throated Lorikeet as we wer e in Endemic Wildlife Sanctuary in largest island which sits 100km feet from me. the right place, but it Mauritius and was keen to see south of Viti Levu. Kadavu is disappear ed. When we reached similar pr ojects. Judy and the about 75% cover ed in forest with I needed to see first-hand some the peak it was cold and wet as Park Manager, Ramesh, gave me of the problems facing the only 8,000 inhabitants. In we were in cloud; the tr ees had a guided tour and explained addition to 20 native species of parr ots in the wild and I also gone and wer e replaced with wanted to see the terrain in what they were trying to birds, 4 of which are endemic, stunted bushes and tr ee ferns. achieve. Kula is curr ently Kadavu boasts one of the which the Red-thr oated Lorikeet We descended to Tavua on the lived so that I could assess the involved in captive-br eeding world's largest coral reefs, the northern coast wher e we spent programmes for the Cr ested 50km long Gr eat Astrolabe Reef. potential for fieldwork. I the night before heading the recr uited 2 Australian Iguana and the Fiji Per egrine As Asesela and I appr oached the next day for the Nausori Falcon, working with the NTF, r unway in our colour ful 20- volunteers and we set off for a Highlands in the west. The west two-day trip acr oss Viti Levu via Taronga Zoo and the Brehm seater plane, I could see why we of the island was in total Foundation. Ramesh showed me had not been able to land the central highlands. I was told contrast to the east, which gets there was only one road across ar ound their state-of-the-art before. The r unway was as wide much more rainfall. We drove all falcon br eeding facility which as the island, str etched across the island, it was not tarred and day through a sea of sugar cane I had no idea what conditions to housed several pairs of an isthmus separating the and grassland where the only Peregrines as well as the eastern fr om the western half expect, but getting lost did not forest was in tiny sheltered seem likely. However, we found endemic Fiji Goshawk.