Ownership of parrots in Madagascar: extent and conservation implications K IM E. REUTER,LUCIA R ODRIGUEZ S AHONDRA H ANITRINIAINA and M ELISSA S. SCHAEFER Abstract The trade of live parrots is a threat to wild popula- they are extracted from source countries for international tions but is understudied. Madagascar is home to three par- pet markets (Poole & Shepherd, ). In Ghana, –% rot species listed on CITES Appendix II: Coracopsis nigra, of grey parrots Psittacus erithacus have been lost since Coracopsis vasa and Agapornis canus. Prior to this study as a result of the trade in these species and habitat deg- there were no data on the ownership of parrots in radation (Annorbah et al., ). Likewise, in the Madagascar. We therefore aimed to investigate the extent Democratic Republic of Congo the live capture of parrots of the domestic pet trade in this group. Our objectives for the pet trade is a driver of the decline in P. erithacus were to quantify the prevalence, spatial extent, and timing (Hart et al., ). Although numerous studies have exam- of ownership. We collected data in July and August in ined the keeping of parrots as pets in Latin America, there nine urban towns across Madagascar, using semi-structured have been relatively few studies of this in Africa. household surveys (n = ). We found that the ownership Madagascar is home to three species of parrot: the lesser of pet parrots is widespread in time and space; %(%CI vasa parrot Coracopsis nigra, the greater vasa parrot –%) of interviewees had seen, and %(%CI–%) Coracopsis vasa andthegrey-headedlovebirdAgapornis had owned, a Coracopsis sp. Fewer interviewees (.%ofall canus. There are no published population estimates for the interviewees) had seen A. canus in captivity, and only one in- three species, but all are thought to have at least , mature dividual reported having previously owned an A. canus.We individuals in the wild (BirdLife International, a,b,c). The estimate that , Coracopsis spp. individuals were held in live capture of parrots as pets in Madagascar has received captivity in the towns surveyed, in the . years prior to our scant attention (Martin et al., ), although other species interviews. It is likely that much of this ownership is illegal, are known to be threatened by live capture (Andreone et al., although we did not examine this explicitly. Additional re- ; Schwitzer et al., ;Reuteretal.,). search is needed to determine whether current extraction Most documented captures of live parrots in Madagascar rates are sustainable. This study adds to a growing body of evi- are anecdotal (McBride, ), outdated, or related to the dence that the domestic regulation of the trade of wild species legal export of live birds (UNEP-WCMC, ). In the is not being addressed adequately in Madagascar. past there were reports from north-east Madagascar of wild- caught Coracopsis spp. being held prior to export for the Keywords Africa, Agapornis canus, birds, Coracopsis nigra, international pet trade (McBride, ), as well as in Coracopsis vasa, Madagascar, parrots, trade Antananarivo and around Tôlanaro for the domestic pet trade (C. vasa, Ekstrom, ; Coracopsis spp., Bollen & Donati, ). Evidence suggests that pet parrots within Madagascar are usually taken from the wild (as opposed Introduction to being bred in captivity; K. Reuter et al., unpubl. data; verexploitation is a threat to biodiversity (Baillie et al., UNEP-WCMC, ). ), with up to million birds extracted alive Similar to other developing countries (Jepson & Ladle, O from the wild annually (Karesh et al., ). Parrots ), there is little information regarding the trade and ’ (Psittaciformes) are no exception; the trade in live parrots keeping of parrots as pets within Madagascar s national is a threat to wild populations in many countries where boundaries. There are no data on the frequency of pet parrot they are endemic (Pires, ). Parrot populations across ownership within Madagascar, and estimates of extraction Africa are declining (Martin et al., ); in many cases are typically based on export data in the CITES database (Table ). However, in the absence of significant internation- al export (see Methods), there is a need for estimates of do- KIM E. REUTER (Corresponding author) Conservation International, Africa Field mestic extraction. Understanding the domestic pet trade is Division, Nairobi, Kenya. E-mail [email protected] important for conservation programming. We aimed to in- LUCIA RODRIGUEZ and SAHONDRA HANITRINIAINA Pet Lemur Survey Initiative, housed by the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA vestigate the ownership of pet parrots (C. nigra, C. vasa, A. canus) in Madagascar. Our objectives were to quantify MELISSA S. SCHAEFER University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, and Salt Lake City Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA the prevalence, spatial extent and timing of ownership. Received February . Revision requested March . Based on identified gaps in the literature, we aimed to quan- Accepted May . First published online October . tify () the proportion of households that owned a parrot or Oryx, 2019, 53(3), 582–588 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S003060531700093X Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.139, on 02 Oct 2021 at 01:32:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060531700093X Ownership of parrots in Madagascar 583 TABLE 1 Number of individuals of Coracopsis nigra, C. vasa and both Madagascar and the Comoros; BirdLife International, Agapornis canus exported from Madagascar since , including c). the number of parrots that were recorded as being wild caught Coracopsis nigra (Least Concern; stable population size; (UNEP-WCMC, ). BirdLife International, b) is a frugivore/granivore that No. of exported Total no. of feeds in primary and secondary forests on ripe and unripe individuals recorded individuals exported fruit (Bollen & Elsacker, ; Reuter, ). In one study Species as wild caught from Madagascar the species was not found in edge or matrix habitats Coracopsis nigra 2,606 5,875 (Watson et al., ); other reports have found it in agricul- Coracopsis vasa 570 4,242 tural settings, forests, grasslands and savannahs (BirdLife Agapornis canus 54,469 117,549 International, b). The range of C. nigra is recorded as the entire island of Madagascar (, km ; BirdLife International, b). had knowledge of parrot ownership, and () the occurrence Agapornis canus (Least Concern; stable population size; of ownership in living memory. We estimated the number BirdLife International, a) is a frugivore/granivore of Coracopsis spp. individuals extracted for pet ownership (Collar, ) found in coastal regions, with a large range in urban areas of Madagascar. that includes much of Madagascar ( , km ; BirdLife International, a). In one study the species was not found in edge or matrix habitats (Watson et al., ), al- Study area though other sources indicate it is found in agricultural landscapes, savannahs and shrublands but not typically in The nine towns selected for surveying included five of the forests (BirdLife International, a). seven largest towns in Madagascar and the three in which All three study species are listed in Appendix II of CITES published anecdotes indicated that Coracopsis spp. were (). kept as pets in the past (McBride, ; Ekstrom, ; Bollen & Donati, ). The towns are located in four of the country’s six provinces, and across all towns at least six ethnicities are represented. The combined human popu- Legality of capture, keeping and trade of wild parrots lation of the nine towns surveyed was c. million, out of Within Madagascar a law determined that species ’ Madagascar s total urban population of . million listed in Appendix II of CITES () can be extracted (cap- ’ (UNDP, ). Madagascar s total population is c. tured or hunted) legally only with a permit and within na- million people (World Bank, ). We acknowledge that tional quotas determined by the government (Durbin, the survey effort could have both excluded and over- ). Some have interpreted the law to mean that extrac- represented hotspots for parrot ownership. By selecting tion is further restricted to national hunting seasons areas where parrot ownership had been reported previously (Randrianandrianina et al., ). Similar to bushmeat in the literature, the sample could have been biased towards hunting (Golden et al., ; Reuter, ), it is likely that areas with higher ownership rates. However, there are areas most extraction occurs without permits and is therefore il- now known to the authors (e.g. Antsiranana) where parrots legal. Prior to , C. nigra was listed as a pest species and have been seen as pets but not reported in the literature, and could be hunted legally in the event of human–wildlife con- therefore this study could also have excluded areas where flict (Ekstrom, ). parrot ownership is popular but not previously known. Export of these species from Madagascar is regulated Limited time and resources precluded surveying of more (CITES, ). A moratorium on trade of C. vasa was issued areas. in (Dowsett, ) after the government was unable to establish export quotas (although the primary threat to the Methods species appeared to be habitat degradation; CITES, ). It was later recommended that this trade moratorium be lifted, Study species given the low demand for the species from the pet trade (CITES, ). There have been no reported exports of Coracopsis vasa