Jerry presentation on Parrot in Puerto Rica 波多黎各鹦鹉

​Just months after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, the world’s few remaining Puerto Rican parrots delivered some good news to the scientists and conservationists determined to save the endangered species from extinction.
During the early months of 2018, the small population of captive parrots produced 70 chicks, all hatched in specially designed artificial nesting cavities at two aviaries in El Yunque National Forest and the Rio Abajo State Forest.​​​
​“We’ve had an excellent year in productivity, as good a year as we’ve ever had,” said Dr. Tom White, a parrot biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We are extremely, extremely lucky that the captive productivity did not diminish after the storm.”
Hurricane Maria took a heavy toll on these populations -- there were nearly 600 captive and released birds before the storm struck. Afterward, only about 470 remained.
“But, thanks in part to this very good nesting season, we have the critical biological resources with which to re-establish the captive release program,” White said. “We just need to give the forest time to recover from the storm.”
Puerto Rico’s parrot
Standing in one of the flight pens at the Iguaca Aviary in El Yunque National Forest offers a tantalizing peek into Puerto Rico’s ecological past - and possible future. The bright green, boisterous birds generate an amazing amount of sound; it’s not hard to imagine the mountain forests of the past echoing with squawks and calls from massive flocks of parrots. Scientists estimate Puerto Rico once held at least 100,000 of the birds, possibly many more.
Those forests of the past must have dazzled observers with enormous flocks of parrots shifting in the canopy, each bird flashing brilliant blue flight feathers as it moved through the treetops.
Such a sight has not been seen on the island in many generations. Throughout the past two centuries, as Puerto Rico’s natural landscapes gave way to agricultural use, development and industry, the parrots gradually vanished. Survivors clustered in small pockets of diminishing habitat. By the 1970s, the population had dwindled to an all-time low of 13 birds.
The bird was listed as endangered in 1967, under the precursor of the Endangered Species Act, and efforts were launched to bring the species back. A captive breeding program and careful release of some parrots into the wild rebuilt the total wild population to nearly 200 birds by the middle of 2017.