Fuertes's Parrot Rediscovered
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Magazine of the World Parrot Trust August 2002 No.52 PsittaScene Stop Press! Fuertes’s Parrot Rediscovered - page 18! Supporting parrot conservation in the wild and promoting parrot welfare in captivity. ‘psittacine’ (pronounced ‘sit a sin’) meaning ‘belonging or allied to the parrots’ or ‘parrot-like’ PsittaPsitta Our Scientific SceneScene Committee Editor Meet the team Rosemary Low, One of the questions sometimes asked by members is: How do we decide which conservation Glanmor House, Hayle, Cornwall, projects to support? The answer is that proposals for funding are examined individually by members of our Scientific Committee. These members are introduced below. TR27 4HB, UK Dr. Roger Wilkinson Andrew Greenwood CONTENTS Head of MA, Vet MB, FIBiol, DipECAMS, frcvs Conservation WPT Scientific Committee ....................2-3 Andrew Science and at Greenwood is a Yellow-faced Amazon ............................4-5 Chester Zoo, founder trustee Imperial Amazon (Sisserou) ..................6-7 Roger Wilkinson of the World Captive Birds Conservation ......................8 was Curator of Parrot Trust. He Birds there is a partner in WPT Highlights 1989-2002 ..................9-12 between 1983 the International PsittaNews ..............................................13 and 1999 and Zoo Veterinary Behaviour: Abuse ..............................14-15 until recently Group and has Hyacinth Macaw Retires from the WPT 12 ..15 General Curator practised full- Higher time wildlife Zuni Tribe Feathers............................16-17 Vertebrates and medicine for 30 Rediscovery of Fuertes’s Parrot ..............18 Research. He years, with a Trade Ban Petition Latest........................18 now oversees Chester Zoo's increasing particular commitment to Conservation and Research interest in birds. Besides holding the normal WPT Admin Page ....................................19 programmes. He has a special interest in veterinary qualifications, he is a Diplomate of Parrots in the Wild..................................20 developing overseas conservation links and in the European College of Avian Medicine and managing budget-supporting conservation and Surgery, a Fellow of the Institute of Biology research programmes linked to the zoo. and has recently been created a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for Chairman of the EAZA Parrot TAG (taxon contributions to zoological medicine. advisory group) since its inception in 1992, he is also the EEP Species Co-ordinator for the Andrew's interest in birds goes back a long Palm Cockatoo and ESB studbook keeper for way. He kept small aviary birds and owls at the Blue-eyed Cockatoo. He participates in a home and, at school, became involved in wide range of zoo breeding programmes for ornithology and bird ringing. He was a keen birds and publishes widely on avicultural falconer during his school and university years matters. A council member of the Avicultural and so it was natural for him to take an interest in avian medicine. At that time, the Society, he is a regular contributor to the main driving force of avian medicine was Avicultural Magazine. His positions include Cover Picture falconry, and only in the late 1970s did the Secretary of the West African Ornithological focus change to parrots, with the rapid rise of By Jamie Gilardi and Nick Reynolds. Society, member of the IUCN Pheasant parrot aviculture. With the support and Specialist Group, and co-chair of the EAZA encouragement of Rosemary Low, John A Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus Hornbill TAG. He came into birds through hyacinthinus) enjoying a macadamia nut at Stoodley and Mike Reynolds, Andrew Paradise Park - as the largest flighted parrot, aviculture; he kept and bred Australian introduced surgical sexing and other avian these birds are capable of cracking the hardest parakeets and joined the Parrot Society in its techniques into the UK from the United States, of nuts, giving them access to the rich and inaugural year. where the discipline was developing rapidly. tasty meat inside. Previously Roger was Senior Lecturer in In conservation, Andrew has carried out ‘The Hyacinth Macaw Retires from the WPT 12’. Department of Biology Sciences at Bayero overseas missions on behalf of the Trust to St. See page 15. University, Kano, Nigeria and is an Honorary Vincent, Paraguay and Mauritius. He also Research Fellow of Keele University. He has a visited New Zealand for the Department of The World Parrot Trust does not necessarily endorse BSc in Zoology and a PhD from Southampton Conservation to review the Kakapo any views or statements made by contributors to University. With considerable field experience, programme. Involvement in Mauritius began PsittaScene. he has written papers for scientific in 1994, when WPT supported him to visit the It will of course consider articles or letters from any publications in ornithology, bird behaviour and Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, which was contributors on their merits. ecology. Roger enjoys seeing birds in the wild, struggling to rescue the Echo Parakeet. After Anyone wishing to reprint any articles in full or in in the UK and abroad and has seen more than eight years working with the programme, part seen in this magazine needs permission from the author and must state that it was copied from 100 parrot species in the wild. In 2001 he numbers have increased dramatically, and a PsittaScene. achieved his ambition of seeing wild Palm disease monitoring programme continues. All contents © World Parrot Trust Cockatoos and Blue-eyed Cockatoos while on a Involvement with the Echo Parakeet led to birding trip to Papua New Guinea. stronger links with Mauritius and work with 2 ■ PsittaScene August 2002, No 52 other species including the Pink Pigeon and Round Island reptiles, culminating in Andrew's Dr. Stephen Garnett Charles Munn III PhD appointment to the Council of the Mauritian Stephen Garnett Charles Munn Wildlife Foundation in 2001. He is also a lives in tropical was a Council member of the Durrell Wildlife northern Conservation Conservation Trust and a Board member of the Australia where Zoologist with Wildlife Information Network. he works as a the Wildlife conservation Conservation Society, New Tony Juniper biologist for the York, from 1986 Tony Juniper has Queensland until 2000. a passion for Parks and During this time parrots. Wildlife Service. he became Formerly the His area of renowned Parrot expertise is worldwide for Conservation threatened his work with Officer at birds, macaws in the BirdLife particularly parrots. Having reviewed the Peruvian Amazon. He has helped to create Internatioinal, status of all Australian birds in 1992, he and parks that have protected 12 million acres of Tony has since his wife, botanist Gabriel Crowley, began work rainforest, cloud forest, Andean grasslands and worked on a on the Endangered Golden-shouldered Parrot lowland savannahs in south-eastern Peru and wide range of (Psephotus chrysopterygius) (see PsittaScene vol adjacent Bolivia. The conservation groups he environmental 9, no 2). Their study, which began as an started in Peru and Brazil have purchased more questions, investigation into this curious parrot's natural than 20,000 acres of important rainforest areas including deforestation in the tropics - perhaps history, has now evolved into a major initiative for wildlife conservation. In 1994 he was the most serious threat facing the parrots in land management across an area the size of named by Time Magazine as one of 100 young today. Tony is also the co-author of the award- Great Britain. leaders for the new millennium. In 1995 he won winning Parrots - a guide to the parrots of the the Top in Ecology prize from the Brazilian world, published by Pica Press and Yale They then moved on to the critically Association of Sales and Marketing, and has University Press in 1998. In September 2002, endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo been responsible for developing various eco- Fourth Estate will publish his new book: Spix's (Calyptorhynchus lathami) on Kangaroo Island. tourism lodges and opportunities in Peru. Macaw - the race to save the world's rarest bird. They and their team discovered that the main He is currently Chairman of the Board of threat to the subspecies was the loss of eggs Tropical Nature Inc. As well as maintaining an active interest in and young to predators. The cockatoo In 1990 he recorded indigenous knowledge of parrots, Tony Juniper is the Director Designate population almost immediately began to at Friends of the Earth England, Wales and the locations of 30 major clay licks used by increase after the island was searched for Northern Ireland. He is due to take over as the parrots and macaws in the Peruvian Amazon. nests and as many nest trees as possible Executive Director in early 2003. In the Prior to this work, only the clay lick in Manu meantime he leads the Policy and Campaigns protected with corrugated iron collars. Now was known to science. In 1999 he co-authored a team of about 40 campaigners and researchers there are nearly twice as many Glossy Black- scientific paper with Dr James Gilardi on the on the organisation's energy, biodiversity, Cockatoos on Kangaroo Island. function of clay-eating in parrots. The results transport, industrial pollution, food / In the meantime, Stephen was instrumental in suggested that parrots are able to detoxify the biotechnology campaigns and sustainable founding the Birds Australia Parrot Trust, to food they eat by consuming clay, thus enabling them to exploit a wider variety of food sources.