Forestry Grad Student Helps Save Rare Parrots in Argentina

UBC Reports Extras | Mar. 19, 2008

By Brian Lin

Forestry PhD student Kristina Cockle is taking a unique approach to wildlife conservation in one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the world. By closely involving farmers and their children in monitoring the nesting behaviours of Vinaceous
Parrot, an endangered species in the Atlantic forests of Argentina, Cockle and her small team of researchers and rangers have reversed one of the biggest threats to the rare birds in the region — humans taking young chicks as pets.

The Atlantic forest is one of the top five biodiversity hotspots in the world but 90 per cent of the Atlantic forest has already been cleared. One of several species of animals threatened by the loss of forest, the Vinaceous Parrot took the brunt for its ability to mimic human speech. Kristina‘s team combined conservation research with public education and appealed to the pride of local residents in helping save a beloved species from going extinct.

Kristina uses home-made surveilance-camera-on-a-pole to observe tree cavities where the parrots and other birds nest. Farmers and their children are invited to assist and are shown live the "home life" of the birds. Since the project began in 2003, local residents have helped collect valuable data on the ecology and abundance of the Vinaceous Parrot, and all but stopped
taking chicks as pets.

The impact of the education outreach was so successful that local children successfully petitioned the local government to proclaim the declaration of the village of Tobuna as "capital of the Vinaceous Parrot."

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