PROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN PARROT CONSERVATION AVICULTURE AND WELFARE World Parrot Trust in action Vol. 11 No.3 August 1999 World Parrot Day Echo Parakeet Cape Parrot Cockatoos & Peanuts psittacine (sit’˚a sîn) belonging or allied to the parrots; parrot-like 5th August, 1999 World Parrot Day Editor Rosemary Low, P.O. Box 100, Mansfield, Notts., United Kingdom At the Rainforest Café NG20 9NZ After many months of preparation we finally ar rived at August 5th, Finally, we wer e offered the help CONTENTS the day we had decided on as ‘World Parr ot Day’, and the beginning of the press and public relations World Parr ot Day at the of what we had rather ambitiously called ‘World Par rot Month’. department of the Worldwide Rainforest Café..............2-8 The idea was clearly laid out in pages 2 and 3 of our Febr uary 1999 Fund for Nature (WWF), to impr ove our prospects of Monty Python in Zambia?..9 PsittaScene - the following extract stated the aims of the event: achieving media coverage of the Listening to Echos ....10-11 event. Final Blows for the Cape Parr ot? ............................12 WORLD PARROT MONTH All of these developments Project Pr oposal ............13 increased our chances of Highlighting the charismatic parr ot family, in the wild and in our attracting the interest of editors Cockatoos and homes. and envir onment Peanuts...................... 14-15 correspondents, and when the Psitta News................ 16-18 In the month of August 1999 we will ... day arrived we wer e delighted to RECOGNISE the urgent need to pr otect and preserve parr ots in have journalists fr om virtually WPT Info Page ................19 the wild, especially the 90 species in danger of extinction. all the national papers and Parrots in the Wild ........20 CELEBRATE the companionship that millions of pet par rots give broadcast media including BBC. to people in every country in the world. MOTIVATE everyone who car es about the conservation of wildlife 89 Parrot Species to see the parrots as logical ‘spokespersons for nature.’ The Face Extinction character and beauty of these birds can help save rainfor ests and other habitats for the whole of natur e, including ourselves. On the advice of the communications experts from RAISE FUNDS for parr ot conservation and welfare. WWF we concentrated on getting across the fact that 89 species of parr ot were listed in the Par rot Action Plan as thr eatened Three Major WPT Good Fortune with extinction. This is 27% of COVER PICTURE Initiatives In several ways, for tune smiled all the parrots, compared with a This is ‘Pablo’, one of the figure of 10% for all bird first Echo Parakeets to be SEE NEXT 2 PAGES FOR DETAILS upon us as we put together our programme for August 5th. We species. So the parr ots are, released into the wild by As we approached our planned regr ettably, the most thr eatened Carl Jones and his team on asked the Rainfor est Café in bird family on the planet. Mauritius. Pablo is now date with the media we realised Shaftesbury Avenue, London, if three years old and has that this was the right we could hold our press The media understood the developed his full plumage opportunity to bring together conference there, wher e live importance of this, and as an adult male. Still very and launch no less than three macaws and cockatoos are part extensive coverage took place tame, he frequently visits WPT initiatives. First, the John of the attraction. They agreed, on August 6th, with inter views the Camp location in the Cleese ‘Live Parr ot’ video, likely and were extremely helpful on national radio and television centre of the Echo territory, to enhance public interest in, throughout (they have programmes, which wer e picked and poses for pictures, like and concern for, the parr ots in up by local programmes later. this one by Lance Woolaver. previously given WPT general; second, to present our substantial funds from their Major articles appeared in ‘The The World Parrot Tr ust does not ‘Carolina Medal’ for outstanding ‘conservation cr ocodile pool’). Times’, ‘The Guardian’, ‘The necessarily endorse any views or parrot conservation to Dr. Carl Independent’, ‘The Express’ and statements made by contributors Jones for his work with the Echo Next, Julian Pettifer, well-known ‘The Daily Telegraph’, and these to PsittaScene. Parakeet in Mauritius; third, to broadcaster and President of the It will of course consider articles repor ts were also used in papers or letters from any contributors on launch the IUCN ‘Parrot Action Royal Society for the Protection in Canada, Australia and Brazil. their merits. Plan’, revived in 1995 by WPT, of Birds (RSPB) agreed to make You will find half-size versions All contents © World Parr ot Trust and coordinated and almost the presentation of our Car olina of some of these on pages 6 entirely funded by us. Medal to Carl Jones. and 7. 2 ■ PsittaScene Volume 11, No 3, August 1999 How John Cleese And A Dead Parrot Helped All The Live Parrot s Parrots are funny. That is the accelerating decline in the point of view of most Britons health of our planet and its and many Americans, almost ability to suppor t our increasing entirely because they r emember population. the hilarious ‘Dead Parrot Sketch’ made by the Monty We also seek to educate people Python gang in the late 1960s on the need to take better car e and shown many times on TV of the parr ots in our homes. around the world. While many bir ds live wonderful, fulfilled lives in the This wonderful piece of comedy car e of intelligent, thoughtful is so well known that any owners, we all know that many national media references to thousands of parrots ar e not so parrots ar e likely to mention it, fortunate. and so diminish the effect of any serious point that may be As John says in our video "All under discussion. Since 1989 parrots desperately need our when we launched the World help. Help fr om me, help Parrot Tr ust, we have nursed a Steve Martin, John Cleese, Mike Reynolds and the ‘Swedish Red’ parr ot, during filming fr om you. What exactly can wildly improbable ambition to at Santa Barbara Zoo, California. you do? Simple: suppor t the film a repentant John Cleese going on to deliver a message high profile birds like the international conservation admitting that the famous about the impor tance of helping parr ots, are the best indicators work of the World Parrot sketch - though wonderfully the parrots ‘survive in the wild, of the loss of biodiversity , the Trust.” funny - was not helpful to and thrive in our homes’. He parrots, and he would like to tell also explains that by saving the the world how important it is to rainforests for the parrots, we preserve par rots in the wild and also help ourselves to sur vive. look after them well in captivity. YOU CAN BUY THIS VIDEO In March we all met up at Santa Just a dream. But it came true! Barbara Zoo to make our unique Order it now from our John Cleese’s stepson was a video. Steve Martin came from UK or USA offices listed member of the team working for Florida, bringing Gr oucho and on page 19. the recover y of the Echo his special friend and trainer Parakeet in Mauritius, and this Missee. The zoo staff wer e most For USA: lead to our being able to invite generous with their help. Send $25 plus $4 Mr. Cleese to help the parrots. Everybody donated their time Shipping and Handling. John is, in fact, a committed and travelling expenses to the conservationist who has project. The World Par rot Trust For UK: supported many wildlife thanks them all. conservation issues; r ecently, Send £15 plus £2.50 for example, the restoration of We decided to use this 5 minute Postage and Packing. lemurs in Madagascar. video to launch WORLD P ARROT MONTH in August 1999. This is OR: So we wrote a script which our attempt to make the general Get it from our website involved John Cleese meeting public mor e aware of the www.worldparrottrust.org. Steve Martin’s amazing singing destructive pressures faced by Amazon parrot Groucho, parrots in the wild, all over the preferring such a mar vellously world. We want ever yone to ‘alive’ parrot to a dead one, and understand that birds, especially PsittaScene Volume 11, No 3, August 1999 ■ 3 The Carol i n a Me d a l It is over two years since we launched our Car olina Medal, to be awarded ‘for outstanding achievement in parrot conservation’. Readers wanting to know exactly what the plot was can look up our issue of PsittaScene for Februar y 1997. In essence, we chose the name Carolina because the Carolina Parakeet Conur opsis carolinensis was the last species of par rot to go extinct. The final captive specimen died at Cincinnati Zoo on 21st Febr uary 1918 and the last r eliable sighting in the wild was in 1920. We wrote: ‘The Carolina Medal is intended to be a constant r eminder of the fragile status of one third of all par rot species in the wild, and the welfare needs of millions of captive birds worldwide.’ The population has now reached 100, and we have described the So it was very appropriate for this medal to be awar ded as part of development of the pr oject in PsittaScene since 1990.