Endangered Parrots Threatened By Deforestation And Climate Change

Thick-billed parrot populations have declined to fewer than 2000 individuals due to habitat loss, logging and climate change

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Thick-billed parrots, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha, are an enigma. Despite their ecological and cultural importance, especially to indigenous peoples, combined with the fact they historically lived in the southwestern United States, we know surprisingly little about them. Currently, their small population is declining due to habitat loss and degradation, and also as the worsening climate crisis continues to squeeze suitable habitat into ever-smaller areas. For these reasons, the species is listed as Endangered.

To learn a little more about these mysterious parrots, a cross-border collaboration of scientists based in the Unites States at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and in Mexico at the Organización Vida Silvestre A.C., tagged dozens of thick-billed parrots with tiny solar-powered satellite transmitters to track their movements. Thanks to these efforts, new critical habitat for the parrots has been revealed, 80% of which has no formal protections.

“Until now, it was a mystery where thick-billed parrots overwinter and the sites where they nest along the way, creating a difficult challenge for efforts to conserve this species,” lead author, spatial ecologist and conservation biologist, James Sheppard, a Recovery Ecology Senior Scientist with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said in a statement. Dr Sheppard works on a wide variety of conservation projects that benefit from spatial ecology approaches and analyses, he also serves as the Chair of the Spatial Ecology & Telemetry Working Group of The Wildlife Society and as an Associate Editor of The Journal of Wildlife Management.

“We have now identified new, critical habitat and migratory routes for thick-billed parrots as well as steps that need to be taken to protect them,” Dr Sheppard stated.

The thick-billed parrot is the only living parrot that is native to the United States. These parrots historically occurred in parts of Arizona and New Mexico, in the far west of Texas and even as far north as Utah before newly arrived European colonialists extirpated them. Thick-billed parrots also historically ranged as far south as Venezuela.

Currently, thick-billed parrots are largely restricted to temperate conifer, pine, mature pine-oak and fir forests at elevations of 1200–3600 meters in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico.

The parrots are nomadic, following variations of cone abundances, although they do feed on acorns and pine buds to a lesser extent.

They nest in holes, many created by the now-extinct imperial woodpecker, the world’s largest woodpecker, a tragic event that likely significantly reduced their population size. Habitat loss and poaching have also reduced this parrot’s numbers, which currently are estimated to be fewer than 2,000.

Tracking data were collected during a three-year effort that began after Dr Sheppard convinced a technology company to sell the team the necessary supplies to construct the parrots’ transmitter “backpacks” (Figure 3).

“They weren’t going to sell us the technology because they didn’t think it was possible to attach GPS transmitters to these strong, boisterous birds,” Dr Sheppard explained. “But we convinced them and proved it could be done.”

Since first attaching the solar-powered transmitters, Dr Sheppard and collaborators remotely collected a data set of more than 40,000 locations from the tracked parrots, enabling the discovery of a new nesting location as well as their overwintering home ranges, migration paths and stopover sites.

“Prior to this study, there was only anecdotal evidence to suggest where thick-billed parrots spent their breeding and overwintering seasons,” said Ernesto Enkerlin-Hoeflich, Director of Conservation and Sustainability at Parque Fundidora, who was not involved in the study. A prominent Mexican conservationist, environmentalist and researcher, Dr Enkerlin-Hoeflich specializes in parrot ecology, environmental policy, sustainability and biodiversity stewardship.

“Now we can show the birds spend their breeding season mostly in the states of Chihuahua and northern Durango then overwinter in the south-central Sierra Madres, and we can share this information with regulatory agencies and engage them and the conservation community to protect the forests the parrots need to survive,” Dr Enkerlin-Hoeflich observed.

But Dr Sheppard and collaborators discovered something that is deeply worrying: almost none of the endangered thick-billed parrots’ range is protected from logging.

“Strikingly, less than 20% of the newly identified thick-billed parrot overwintering habitat is protected from the timber industry and common clear-cutting practices,” Dr Sheppard stated, noting that less than 1% of the old-growth forest that once covered the Sierra Madre Occidental remains today.

“Further, existing networks of protected sites may not be adequate for the parrots’ survival as a changing climate increases the intensity and frequency of forest fires as well as exacerbates pine beetle outbreaks, which can devastate a previously healthy forest.”

But knowledge is power, and this study could motivate environmental authorities, stakeholders and conservation biologists to protect essential habitat for these endangered parrots.

“The good news is, we understand what’s needed to save this iconic bird,” Dr Sheppard pointed out.

“Now, with the sustained engagement of local stakeholders, we hope to successfully recover wild populations of thick-billed parrots as well as old-growth forests, and perhaps one day, use this information to reintroduce thick-billed parrots to their former ranges, including in the U.S.”

Source:

James K. Sheppard, Javier Cruz, Luz Francelia Torres González, Miguel Ángel Cruz Nieto, Ronald R. Swaisgood, and Nadine Lamberski (2023). Spatial behaviors and seasonal habitat use of the increasingly endangered thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha), Global Ecology and Conservation 48:e02712 | doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02712

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