Project Protects Military Macaw Nests from Poachers

Posted on June 22, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR.– The green body of these Macaws remind of Poirot, the mischievous little parrot in my children’s stories. In one story, Poirot comes close to becoming a victim of the pet trade.

Juan Carlos Cantu.– “For the third year in a row, this nest monitoring project prevented poaching of endangered military macaws.

“At one time, you could see the striking plumage of the military macaw up and down the length of Mexico. But over decades, as we lost swaths of forest habitat and saw poaching for the illegal pet trade become more aggressive, these birds began to disappear from the wild. Today, only a few thousand remain in Mexico, in small, fragmented areas isolated from one another. And the threats that put this species in danger still continue.

“Military macaws are one of the most sought-after parrot species in all of Mexico for the illegal pet trade. While poachers will take macaws of any age, nestlings are the most vulnerable. And the methods they use to reach these young parrots are devastating in more ways than one.

“Military macaws nest in cavities high up in trees. To reach a nest, poachers will often cut down the entire tree – a practice that puts the nestlings in danger, and destroys healthy nesting habitat for the species. So three years ago, we joined forces with a team of scientists in Puerto Vallarta to start a nest monitoring program. With a watchful eye on a specific group of nests, the scientists could collect important data about these birds in the wild. And if poachers knew the nests were monitored, they would be less likely to strike.

“This year, I’m happy to say that we closed out the third successful season of the project in a row! MS Carlos Bonilla and his team of researchers were able to monitor 22 nests this season, 14 of which had successful parents rearing chicks until they fledged the nest. Not one of these nests was poached by traffickers. The end result: 15 fledgling macaws safely left their nests with their parents.” Continue reading: Project Protects Military Macaw Nests from Poachers

Save

4 Facts about Wildlife Trafficking in the United States

Posted on November 19, 2015 by GarryRogers

“Wildlife trafficking is a global concern. Wild animals from all over the world are captured or killed, then brought into this barbaric trade, the shipments sometimes traveling thousands of miles to reach a market where the demand for these animals, or what can be made from them, drives the whole process. The U.S. is a major hub for this trade. What enters this country, and from where, gives us a greater perspective on wildlife trafficking.

“We recently analyzed a decade of data, from 2005 to 2014, provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS). We looked at all wildlife imports from around the globe that were denied entry to the United States – whether they were seized by law enforcement, re-exported to where they came from, or abandoned by the sender. All this information is recorded for each shipment, but not often analyzed as a whole. So that’s exactly what we did, to get the biggest possible picture of what wildlife trafficking into the U.S. looks like.” From: www.defendersblog.org

GR: From the article: “In total, our analysis discovered 5.5 million individual wildlife parts and products, more than 660,000 animals and more than 4.8 million pounds of meat, fins and caviar. Sadly these numbers only represent a fraction of the wildlife on the black market.”–Rosa Indenbaum, International Policy Analyst

Mexico’s Parrot Trade Exposed

Posted on November 8, 2015 by GarryRogers

“No photos!” she yells in Spanish. “Don’t take photos! Get out of here!” Arms flailing and menace in her eyes, the woman charges me from behind a pile of cages. I heard her husband say something about giving her a cuchillo—a knife.

I back away slowly.

We are in Xochimilco, a lively, outdoor market in Mexico City, where this woman is running a puesto, or stand for selling animals. She has stacks of animals in cages all around her, like walls of living creatures. In her cages are yellow-cheeked Amazons and orange-fronted parakeets—native Mexican parrots, caught in the wild. She doesn’t want me to photograph them because they are illegal. From: www.defenders.org

GR: More on the illegal parrot trade.