Parrot Conservation on Mauritius

Listening to Echos and Se a r ching for Ghosts

Parrot Conservation on Mauritius by CARL JONES It is a wonder ful privilege to accept the Car olina Medal for myself, have removed the eggs and and on behalf of the conservation team on Mauritius, in r ecognition young for captive r earing, of our work on the Echo Parakeet. But we should not for get that thereby saving many birds that without the help of the World Par rot Tr ust we would not have would have otherwise perished. achieved as much. These birds have been used to establish our captive population The conser vation work on the Echo Parakeet started in 1974 but due or have been returned to the to a shor tage of funds did not really take off until 1990 when we wild. were lucky enough to join for ces with the World Parr ot Trust. Like many important unions our meeting was for tuitous. I was talking at a We found that few pairs, if they captive br eeding conference. In my presentation I mentioned that the succeed, rear more that a single Echo Parakeet had a perilously low population and would likely baby even thought they may lay become extinct, not because we did not know how to save it, but and hatch three eggs. If birds because there was not enough money to make the pr oject work. After are left with a whole br ood, all my talk Mike Reynolds appr oached offering the help of the World the young may be compromised Parrot Trust. This offer of help was what we had been looking for, and die, but if we r emove young Carl Jones since for several years we had battled to save the Echo Parakeet with and leave the adults with a few resour ces and little moral support. Mike and his colleagues at single chick there is a good the World Par rot Trust helped mobilise funds including an impor tant grant from the Par rot Society and chance they will succeed in with this money bought a four -wheel drive vehicle. Since then we have not looked back and the W orld rearing it. The young that ar e Parrot Trust have provided us with annual funds and with the wise council of Andr ew Greenwood who harvested in this way are then advises us on avicultural and veterinar y problems. In recent years we have also had the able and used to foster to other pairs that enthusiastic help of several of Mike’s staf f from Paradise Park who have worked in the field managing the have failed to hatch any eggs or wild Echo Parakeets and with the hand r earing of baby parakeets. they are hand-r eared for r elease when older. Hence in the 1997- Listening to Echos that the skills and intuition I predators and restored small 1998 breeding season, of eleven developed as a schoolboy patches of native forest. pairs of wild Echo Parakeets, ten We have learned a lot from the keeping birds in the back- Remarkably all of these pairs fledged young. This Echo Parakeet, not only how to garden, I am now using to save techniques have worked and management and the release of save this beautiful par rot but endangered species. Aviculture some, such as nest hole 22 birds, a mixtur e of captive also techniques that can be has a huge part to play in bird impr ovement and the bred and harvested young has applied to many other species of conservation on the global restoration of small patches of gr eatly boosted the population. rar e and declining birds. For stage, not only by br eeding habitat have worked very well The total fr ee living population example some of the techniques birds in captivity but by the and we have parr ots living and is now about 100 bir ds. used on the Kakapo pr oject in development and application of breeding in and around our New Zealand have been adapted techniques for use on wild restored areas. While we feel confident that the Echo Parakeet is well on the way fr om our work on the Echo birds. In the 1970’s and 1980’s few Parakeet and we in tur n have to recovery and hope that they Aviculturalists manipulate the birds br ed and of those that did will always fly over the for ested taken some of their ideas and lay eggs few succeeded in used them on our pr oject. productivity of their birds and mountains and gor ges of control mortality by good raising young. In 1987 we only Mauritius, we must not forget Similarly our experiences on knew of eight wild birds of Mauritius ar e being adapted and management. The key is to lear n that it is the last native par rot how to apply these techniques which there were only two left in the Mascarene Islands. applied to bird conser vation females. Many felt the species pr ojects in the Seychelles and to wild populations. Unfortunately we are too late for was doomed. In the 1990’s the many species. Hawaii. When we started our work on birds have been breeding mor e Many of the successes with the the wild Echo Parakeets we frequently, due in par t to our Echo Parakeet have been due to worked on a broad fr ont and efforts, and breeding success is Searching for the application of avicultural tried to minimise the pr oblems much improved. We have techniques to wild bir ds, taking that they may have been having. guarded nests, keeping a close Ghosts captive br eeding into the field. We provided them with eye on what happens. As soon The forests of Mauritius As a life long aviculturist it additional food, improved their as ther e have been any signs resonate with the pr esence of gives me much pleasure to think nest-holes, controlled nest that a nest was going to fail we ghosts, the ghosts of the

10 ■ PsittaScene Volume 11, No 3, August 1999 animals and plants that have Par rot, a russet br own bird with if we could restor e the extinct and restore their fragmented become extinct in the four a lilac head, black forehead and species we could once again get and damaged habitats. The day hundred years since man first a bright red bill. parts of the for ests functioning is not far of f when we will be colonised the island. When a as they should. able to r ebuild whole species dies out it may leave an Researchers and historians are ecosystems, provided we still ecological gap, that if not filled working thr ough the early If we know enough about the accounts and examining sub- missing species, ther e is no have the building blocks. These may have deleterious ef fects building blocks ar e the species upon other species. The for est fossil bones to try and piece reason why other species that together the identity of several and the parrots are keystones in trees may be dependent upon can fill the role of the missing these systems. fruit bats and parrots to other species known fr om vague species can not be intr oduced to disperse their fruits and in turn early accounts and a few become ecologically equivalent the parrots, fruit bats and many assorted bits. What is all this species or ecological analogues. Reasons for other species need the forest work going to tell us? We may Per haps the Echo Parakeet can Optimism trees to provide them with food. well lament the passing of be introduced to the forests on Today on Mauritius the forests spectacular species but does the neighbouring island of I believe that the work on are lar gely silent and many of this have any relevance to the Reunion to r eplace the parakeet Mauritius gives us great reasons the large forest tr ees are dying. conservation of the living? While that used to occur there two for optimism. With modest But there is much that can be the resurrecting of the extinct in centuries ago. The Echo Parakeet financial resour ces but with a done to revitalise the forest and a Jurassic Park type fashion is may also be an appr opriate clear vision and the unlimited fill the missing gaps.... still a long way off and may analogue for the extinct drive and dedication of the belong to the realm of science parakeets of Rodrigues and conservation team we have been Once Mauritius and the other fiction there are other Seychelles. And one day we may able to achieve the following:- Mascarene Islands wer e home to possibilities for filling the gaps intr oduce one of the Black a dozen or more species of ¥ Establish the Echo Parakeet’ s left by extinct species. Cockatoos to replace the Br oad entire remaining habitat as parrots. If we could travel back Billed Parr ot. in time we would find an island Mauritius’ first national park alive with birds and reptiles, Can the Echo While these wild speculations ¥ Restore areas of for est in herds of giant tortoises, large Replace the Missing may seem like dreaming we will which the Echo Parakeet feeds lizards, the dodo, flightless soon be seriously considering and br eeds rails, as well as a large flightless Species? replacing the extinct Mauritian ‘black cockatoo’ larger than any Giant Tortoises with closely ¥ Learn how to manage the wild parrot alive today, possibly Many of the for est trees in parakeets to improve their related and ecologically similar pr oductivity similar to the Black Cockatoos of Mauritius produce lar ge fleshy analogues. We hope to introduce Australia. This was the Broad- fruits with incredibly hard these onto offshore islands ¥ Establish Echo Parakeets in billed Parrot that may have lived seeds. These fr uits come in around Mauritius wher e they can captivity wher e they are now in the palm rich forests in the differ ent sizes; we know that become impor tant grazers, breeding. lowlands and fed on palm fruits. fruit bats and Echo Parakeets browsers and seed dispersers. I There was also another smaller love some of these fruits, often ¥ Develop r elease techniques for hope I will one day see analogue captive rear ed birds. Twenty- grey crested par rot, which was carr ying them away to feed on species of parrots being good to eat. On the other the edible pulp and rejecting the two bir ds have been released introduced into restored for ests during the last three seasons. Mascarene islands there wer e hard seeds. Undoubtedly of Mauritius. It was not so long several parakeets; on Rodrigues dispersing the seeds in the ago that we were speculating ¥ Establish released bir ds in the was a blue-grey one; others wer e process. However, in today’s about restoring species and wild. One of our released birds described as having red epaulets Mauritian for ests many fruits rehabilitating for ests and now ‘Gabriella’ has started br eeding and another apparently had a fall on the ground and fail to we are doing both. and last season rear ed a red head and tail. Rodrigues also germinate. The result is that the fostered chick. Several other had a larger all green par rot and forests ar e dying due to poor We already know enough so that birds are showing signs of Reunion (and also possibly regeneration. While this is a we can save most of the pairing and breeding. Mauritius) had the Mascarene endangered par rots of the world complex problem, I believe that Much r emains to be done but I feel proud of what we have been able to achieve and we must also pay tribute to those that have made this work possible. No one works in isolation and we would not have pr ogressed this far without the help of our suppor ting organisations. The World Parrot Trust and others. I must also pay tribute to the staff who made all of this happen. I especially thank Kirsty Swinner ton who has worked on the pr oject for twelve seasons doing some of the early field work, looking after the captive Mascarene Grey Parrot Lophopsittacus Mascar ene Parrot Mascarinus mascarinus which The Broad-billed Parrot Lophopsittacus birds, hand-rearing chicks and bensoni. Extinct c.1760’s. This is the first was found on the island of Reunion and maybe mauritianus a large cockatoo like bird supervising field teams. And also Mauritius died out in the early part of the time a reconstruction of this extinct which may have had similarities with the finally I thank the parakeets that parrot has been published. 19th Century. This is one of only two museum Black Cockatoos of Australia. species, fr om Paris Museum have taught us much.

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