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Arctic adventures and the way forward in African parrot conservation

by Steve Boyes

An expedition to the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Circle, though unrelated to African parrot conservation, has much to teach us about protecting our environment and our global community. This visit left me with a clearer vision for the future, without all the doubts and worries of modern life. How can I make living? Will this be good for my career? I am going to move forward in African parrot conservation without these worries. In the knowledge that I am doing the right thing...

I recently returned from a trip on an expedition ship that circumvented Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Circle, going as far north as 81⁰N. Although entirely unrelated to African parrot conservation, beyond the Little Auk being called the “parrots of the far north”, I will relate some of the details of this Arctic expedition. Experiencing the midnight sun, witnessing climate change in action with every glacial calving, kayaking with the seals, watching Polar bears hunting on the pack ice, and visiting massive Kittiwake, guillemot and Little auk breeding colonies, were life-changing experiences that sent me back home with renewed urgency to publish my findings from the Meyer’s Parrot Project and move into a new era of conservation action in African parrot conservation. The expedition began at Longearbyen…

At first glance, the Arctic landscape appears desolate and lifeless, a frozen wasteland, the most inhospitable place on earth. Perhaps this initial perception is a reaction to not be able to process the information being provided by your senses. The freezing cold headwind on the ship, endless daylight, expansive fjords, imposing snow-capped mountains, glaciers flowing from almighty ice caps, and stark contrast of red and black lichen-covered rock faces behind rocky, green Arctic tundra, all leave the observer dazed and somewhat shocked on their first day. Maybe, this was the Russian vodka I had the night before? Either way, this was true wilderness. How could it not be?

Arctic tundra. Ahhh…Arctic tundra…my new mantra…Arctic…tundra. Arctic tundra will keep you on your knees for at least three hours the first time you experience it, on your knees photographing and identifying flowering plants, mushrooms, lichens and mosses. From a distance of 30m, the tundra is grey, rocky and uniform, but on your knees you are overcome by bright colours and intricate architecture on a scale that necessitates a magnifying glass or reversed pair of binoculars. Sunny slopes, good drainage and mature soils produce a lush carpet of flowering plants including a variety of saxifrages, Arctic bluebell, shinleaf and poppies (including the endemic Svalbard poppy). Arctic tundra is the most recently evolved biome on earth, comprising a patchwork mosaic of tough, perennial herbs and one tree, the Arctic willow, all under a few inches in height. Every now and then, you see some independent movement, you look again and you see it, a fly, again, it’s an Arctic Bunting, then later, a lemming. All you’ll ever see is a flash and then they’re gone, hence no photographs this time round. It seems these creatures have their lives in fast forward trying to cram a year of life into six months of 24-hour daylight. Whether 6am, 3.30pm or 2.45am, you’ll find insect, bird and beast doing exactly the same thing, moving quickly, and if you’re a bird, making a noise. Added to this underlying energy, is the underlying threat of the omnipresent Polar bear, the undisputed Lord of these lands. All in all, it can’t be beat, if you like that kind of thing. Well, I do, and I could spend the rest of my days learning about this fascinating ecosystem. Ever onwards…


Photograph of Polar bear on Arctic tundra

Next, we pushed the boundaries, we took on the Arctic desert. These are terminally dry, cracked, crumbling places, probably the harshest environment in the world in which to exist. From a distance Arctic desert appears as a completely uniform, smooth series of hills backing away to the mountains. No signs of ice or water, no green, absolute silence, nothing. Silence, ahhh, silence, the silence of the desert was soul-opening, leaving you exposed and almost emotional. Unexpectedly, the Arctic desert was the hardest to walk on, as the fields of glacial till, crumbling slate hillsides and coarse sandy beaches were covered in lichens, covered to the extent that the landscape was practically held together them, red, black and white, some areas so thick it looked like Astroturf. Every step had to be carefully considered. These lichens take over one hundred years to grow to the size of a dish plate. What a peaceful place, a place that will make you believe in God.

Right, this next paragraph is for the birds. Out on the open ocean, we were trailed by Northern fulmars that zoomed past the bridge, using the wind shadow and slip stream behind the ship to accelerate past, Tour de France-style. They weren’t feeding, although I am sure one eye was glued to the water, but mainly, it seemed for fun, our permanent companion. As we entered a fjord, the fulmars would peel off back out to sea, as this new spectacle came into view. In well-sheltered fjords, reasonably close to deep water, but far enough from the glacier to have clear blue water, we would find Kittiwake, Brunnich’s guillemot and Little auk colonies. Kittiwake colonies are numbered in tens of thousands, guillemots in hundreds of thousands and Little auks, who are, in some circles, reputed to be the most abundant bird on earth, in the millions. In amongst and between these chaotic, ranting colonies of hundreds of thousands of birds were breeding pairs of Glaucous gulls and Black guillemots. On new perfectly flat and uninhabited islands exposed by the receding glaciers, we would find pairs of Arctic terns and Sanderlings tending their eggs. Witnessing hundreds of thousands of birds perched on every available ledge, on top of each other, awake 99% of the time, strangely, seems very normal in this grand place. These birds come for one reason, the unrivalled bounty of the Arctic Ocean. The sea literally goes emerald green in the early summer, as green algae proliferate in the 24-hour sunlight. From space the entire ocean literally goes green. Then as the zooplankton devour the algae, the ocean gradually turns bluer and bluer as the summer progresses. The result is a teeming soup, a meriad of copipods, polychaete, amphipod, euphausiids and pteropods, that support these millions of breeding seabirds, the surviving pods of Minke and Beluga Whales, and the fish (mostly Arctic cod, white fish and salmonoids) that feed the seven seal species that feed the Polar Bears that, as a favor, feed the Ivory Gulls. To complete the circle of life, the Arctic bird colonies, ducklings, and Arctic Lemmings feed the Arctic Snow Foxes. A frozen wilderness frenetic with life through summer in preparation for the harshest winter on earth, life on the edge. Or is that? The brink.


Photograph of Little Auks ("parrots of the far north") at breeding colony


Photograph of Brunnich's guillemot at breeding colony


Photograph of Arctic puffins at breeding colony


Photograph of Arctic fox pups at their den

This wilderness area is not so far north that it is beyond the reach of global pollution and the effects of global warming. In fact, due to global warming temperature increases 12 times faster at the North Pole than at the equator. Many of the fjords we were navigating were uncharted due the fact that they were below 50 – 100m of ice ten years ago, and cartographers can’t chart all the fjords quick enough to keep up with the receding glaciers. Some of the glaciers had retreated all the way back to the ice cap. Once those disappear, it takes over a thousand years to re-establish. We walked on glaciers on several occasions and had opportunity to listen to these massive ice flows groaning and cracking under the pressure rising temperatures. These disturbing moments lying on a glacier were confirmation for me that the world is changing. We need to change or are we too far in already. Tornadoes, typhoons, hurricanes and monsoons set new records every year. Lake Chad dried up and caused all the unrest in that region of Africa. We need to start making conservation decisions now that protect our wild places through these turbulent times. We need conservation action and a significant shift to a sustainable planet. Our global barometer is spiking.


Photograph of glacial calving in the Arctic

Although still cleaner than the both the North Sea and the Baltic, traces of contaminant have been found everywhere in the Arctic environment, in the air, in the soil and sediments, in snow and ice, in salt and fresh water, in fish, birds, mammals, and humans. Persistent organic pollutants, including chemical contaminants from organo-chloride insecticides and industrial chemicals (e.g. oil refineries, mines, etc.), have probably led to the weakening of the immune systems of Polar bears, Glaucous gulls, Arctic charr and Harp seals. In addition, Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) levels in Polar bears around Svalbard are 2-6 times higher than Polar Bears from Alaska and Canada. Pollutiion levels cannot be diluted anymore in this vast environment. These animals have a right to a clean environment. At present, we have heavily hunted wildlife populations that are now protected but struggling to recover due to an ailing environment and failing ecosystem.

For hundreds of years, the Arctic Ocean has been plundered for its natural resources. The Arctic region is rich in oil, gas, gold and coal resources, but for hundreds of years before the discovery of these hidden resources, the abundant wildlife was the focus and blubber was the business. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of whales, walrus, and seal were rendered into fat, Polar bears killed for sport, and Arctic foxes for their luxuriant winter coats. To feed this rush on blubber and fur, whaling boats would stock up on thousands of eggs, Arctic puffins, geese and much else. Just to put the killing into context, the quota for a whaling boat 120 years ago was 50 Blue whales or equivalent for the season. Even today, there are trapper’s huts at every walrus haul out, bird colony or secluded bay. Next to two of these huts that we visited were massive piles of walrus and Beluga whale bones. Now, at last, that the whaling, seal clubbing, puffin harvesting, Polar bear hunting and Arctic fox trapping are under control, and the Arctic wildlife are trying to recover. The Arctic finds itself less capable of recovery due to increasing levels of persistent organic pollutants and rising temperatures. Polar bears are protected, but are finding it harder to catch seals on the thin ice, resulting in females being unable to recover sufficient condition to breed and males wondering hungry into human settlements. Our solution is to either kill them or scare the life out of them by helicopter lifting them back to where they worked so hard to leave. Are we living in a world that is like this already? Is it just that, in the stark Arctic landscape, all the fat is cut away and we can see it more easily. If we protect our wilderness areas and endangered species, will they bounce back? Have we gone too far? Regardless, of the answers, the time is now, we need to change and make decisions towards a new future. Otherwise, one day we will wake up alone, in control of every aspect of our world with no truly free, wild places, no peers to share the warmth of our sun with.

In African parrot conservation we have languished in scientific investigation and monitoring for too long. We need now, in this time of rapid forest habitat loss, violence and atrocities, poverty and food crises, bushmeat and wild-caught bird trade on the African continent, to enter into a time of conservation action. The groundwork has been laid; we have the tools we need to start developing conservation project ideas that will make a difference to the safety and security of African parrots in the wild. World Parrot Trust projects, such as the “Save the Greys” campaign, are initiatives that we need to invest our time and money in. Similarly, the campaign to halt the wild-caught bird trade in southern Africa represents an investment in changing perceptions, supporting aviculture and protecting African parrots in the wild. To protect the Agapornis loverbirds, Poicephalus parrots, African Greys, Madagascan Coracopsis parrots, and Mauritian Echo Parakeets, we need to engage all governments of African parrot range states to ensure the wild-caught bird trade is halted, illegal trade sufficiently policed, and alternative livelihoods created for rural communities that persecute wild bird populations. These people are not wrong in defending themselves against perceived crop pests or trying to feed and clothe their families. We are wrong in not assisting them protect their, our natural heritage. African governments cannot be expected to achieve these goals independently, they need our assistance. Next year, I will dedicate my time to setting up the African Parrot Survey, a four stage expedition to 32 African countries aimed at checking on the status of all significant African parrot populations inside protected areas, visiting markets to measure the impact of the wild-caught bird trade, and most importantly to meet with government and conservation authorities to ensure that effective policy in place to manage the wild-caught bird trade. We have no idea of the status of the majority of African parrot populations, as most of our records are over 30 years old and range states have remained politically unstable, thus closing the door on international scientists coming in to do monitoring. I have been on several expeditions in southern Africa to check on the status of African parrot populations, and have been disappointed every time. My expedition to southern Mozambique yielded no Brown-headed Parrots. Extensive travels in Zambia recorded infrequent sightings of Meyer’s Parrots and Lilian’s Lovebirds. Sadly, there has been massive range reduction for the Ruppell’s Parrot in northern Namibia. It our responsibility as a global community to reach out to those who do not have the opportunities we have for reflection on the changes happening around us, on the imminent threat to species survival in our African forests. Credit crunch or not, we need to tighten our belts, live with less and give more.. I am not necessarily talking about donating money, I am talking about investing your mind power and energy in a new future. Think about other people, think about climate change, live a mindful life that recognizes the impact of our decisions and actions.

I am back at my desk, so more to come on the African Parrot Survey in the coming weeks.

Yours in African parrot conservation,

Steve Boyes

Posted by Steve Boyes on 10/03 at 01:30 AM

Of elephants and parrots: The uncanny relationship between African elephants and Meyer’s Parrots

by Steve Boyes

Though almost entirely circumstantial and coincidental, there are some striking commonalities between African elephants and Meyer's Parrots...

Two striking qualities of the Okavango Delta are that this massive system of islands, floodplains, and meandering channels, is home to the largest populations of African elephants and Meyer’s Parrots in the world. There are now estimated to be anywhere between 120 000 and 150 000 elephants in northern Botswana, of which approximately 50 000 seasonally frequent the Okavango Delta. Similarly, the sighting frequency of Meyer’s Parrots in the Okavango is the highest I have recorded on my travels to protected within their range in southern, central and eastern Africa. Unfortunately, in most areas sightings were limited to one or two parrots every three days, between 10 and 30 times less than the Okavango.

During the 2007 field season of the Meyer’s Parrot Project we spent March and April exploring and mapping our study area in the Okavango Delta, on foot. We spent five hours every morning out in the bush, and had the privilege of walking a wilderness area home to leopard, lion, elephant, and buffalo. We maintained very close tabs on our resident male lions and their associated pride, which visited once a week to hunt and mate. Our initial plan was to walk a sequence of sections along an outlet of Kubu Lagoon, the most significant body of water in the study area. Aerial photographs, however, revealed large, unexplored (at least recently), islands and lagoons, and on foot we found a veritable maze of small islands, salt pans and lagoons. On these islands, we found some amazing Baobab trees, large groves of Leadwood, and beautiful islands of Wild Date palms and Marula trees along the main channel. A wonderland, into which we departed eagerly every morning, anticipating the discovery of another beautiful scene or spiritual encounter with an elephant, lion, warthog or Meyer’s Parrot. It was on these walks that we began to notice direct and coincidental links between Meyer’s Parrots and African elephants.

Early in March each year, Meyer’s Parrots begin courtship and nest preparation in the Okavango Delta, and thus all active breeding pairs can be found announcing ownership of their breeding territories comprising up to 5 nest cavities. On the walks, we followed and located as many “dueting” couples as possible, in order to GPS mark nest cavities for subsequent inspection for breeding activity. Often, what we found was a single male, managing to achieve the “dueting” effect by himself. This seemed to be very attractive, as subsequent visits to the nest cavity revealed that he either had a partner or found one as a result. Active nest discovered during these walks formed the basis of the Meyer’s Parrot Nesting Project, which was launched that season, whereby we monitored nesting activity during 10-hour nest observations. In total, we recorded over 1300 hours of observations.

Just as the Meyer’s Parrots got into the swing of things, the elephants began migrating towards the Okavango Delta as the pans up north began to dry up. In late March, walking became more hazardous due to the arrival of the first wave of the migration. The breeding herds pouring into the area at this time were all haggard after daily 30 – 40 mile hikes through dry Mopane woodland between seasonal pans for the last few weeks. These elephants were, needless to say, very irritable and positively ravenous. Often the focus of their feeding activity was the sugar-rich cambium under the bark of Knobthorn Acacia trees, resulting in large section of living vascular tissue and bark being stripped off and part of the canopy or entire tree dying. In a similar fashion, elephants seemed to disturbed Mopane trees as much as possible too. Males elephants seemed to focus on pushing entire trees down to browse the canopy – it is estimated that a large bull pushes over 1500 trees a year. Females, on the other hand, are lot more gentle, and typically disturb the Mopane tree as much as possible without killing it. In so doing, they stunt the growth of these tough Mopane trees, thus creating vast areas of scrub Mopane woodland that has the appearance of stands of fruit trees or vineyards. African folklore, says that female elephants do this to ensure that the leaves of Mopane tree are available to their offspring. This makes sense, as Mopane leaves have the highest protein content of any tree in the African savanna analyzed thus far. Anyway, elephants cause a lot of damage when they return to the delta. They repeat this migration every year, as they are dependent on the winter floodwaters to sustain them through the dry season. This establishes a distinct migration route utilized by the same breeding herds each year, and engineers both Mopane woodlands and Acacia-Combretum marginal woodland flush with snags, dead branches and the resultant nest cavities. Second and third waves came in early and late April, during which we witnessed literally thousands of elephants move through our study area in aggregations of several breeding herds, including up to 50 elephants of different ages.

During 2007, the Meyer’s Parrot Nesting Project yielded nest cavity characteristics for over 40 active nest cavities. An analysis of these nest cavities revealed that over 80% of nest cavities resulted directly from elephant disturbance to Mopane, Leadwood or Knobthorn Acacia trees. In addition, when projected onto an aerial photograph, Meyer’s Parrot nest cavities were clustered along the elephant migration path that followed the edge of Kubu Lagoon. Therefore, African elephants play a significant role in the nesting ecology of the Meyer’s Parrots. Whether or not Meyer’s Parrots are as dependent on tree disturbance by African elephants in other areas requires further investigation. Nevertheless, subsequent investigation of any other connections between these two iconic species revealed the following story.

Meyer's Parrot stamps from around Africa



A study of elephant dung in the Kalahari revealed that African Ebony fruit, Marula fruit, False Mopane pods and Sycomore figs frequently appeared in the diet of African elephants. In our study, we attempted to measure the relative impact of Meyer’s Parrots on pollination and seed dispersal of 25 tree species in the Okavango Delta. This revealed that Meyer’s Parrots dispersed significant numbers of fruits and pods to the ground during feeding activity, including the above food items in the diet of African elephants. It is almost as if in an African folklore story, Meyer’s Parrot was thanking Elephant for preparing trees and branches for cavity excavation and subsequent habitation. In ecological terms, however, this contribution has no discernible impact on the dietary intake of elephants. Coincidentally, both Meyer’s Parrots and African Elephants are both long-lived, grey in colour and maintain strong familial or pair bonds. They also have distributional ranges that uncannily overlap, extending almost the length of Africa throughout the subtropics. They are both true ambassadors of the continent’s wilderness areas, largely dependent on protected areas and healthy river systems for their species survival. They are part of an age far removed from the one we know, and teachers that we would do well to stop and listen to. I have always believed that every person needs one guiding image that supports their moral framework, one symbol for a perfect world that guides them in their decisions. Mine is that of the African elephant and Meyer’s Parrot, whereby anything that would harm them is wrong, and all that would do them good is right. Simple, and applicable to all levels of endeavour, whether personal, ethical or political. For example, political and economic stability in Johannesburg make elephants and Meyer’s Parrots safer in South Africa, just the same as not damming the Okavango River in Namibia.

Elephant in the sunset; Meyer's Parrot feeding on Sausage fruit

Posted by Steve Boyes on 06/01 at 11:57 PM

Cape Parrot in trouble

by Steve Boyes

I recently visited the home of the Cape Parrot and it got me thinking…

My work on the Meyer’s Parrot in the Okavango Delta has made the Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus and Grey-headed Parrot Poicephalus fuscicollis suahelicus a specific point of interest in my work, resulting in a keen understanding of their ecology and current threats.




Cape Parrot and Grey-headed Parrot (copyright and courtesy of Cyril Laubscher)

I recently visited the areas around Creighton, across the Umzimkulu River and into East Griqualand, and onwards to Kokstad. These areas are today recognized as the source of the surviving Cape Parrot metapopulation. I must confess that I wasn’t visiting the area specifically to see Cape Parrots, but rather to join friends trying to set up a tourism circuit between all the cathedrals, monasteries and chapels the early missionaries established in the region. Even after thinking deeply about any connection between these monasteries, cathedrals and schools and the Cape Parrot nothing becomes apparent. These monks did not keep Cape Parrots as pets, quite the opposite, as they preached love and respect for all living things. However, very quickly it became apparent that all of these massive structures, all the altars, prayer benches, clock towers, supporting beams, bunk beds, tables, etc, etc. were made from Yellowwood, and Podocarpus Yellowwoods are the primary food resource and nesting tree of the Cape Parrot. One of the people with us was an antique restoration specialist, so we were actually seeking out Yellowwood beams and furniture, and we found huge amounts of it! Basically, these early settlers and missionaries had decimated the resource of old growth Yellowwood trees in the surrounding areas. In between visiting these old buildings, I surveyed the area for remaining patches of indigenous forest detailed in our research at the Research Centre for African Parrot Conservation. The closest I could find to this was the Ingeli Forest Reserve, and upon closer inspection thereof I found no Yellowwood trees of a suitable age, and was dismayed to discover that the woodland had been largely taken over by Australian (e.g. Black Wattle) and South American (e.g. Solanum Bugweed) exotics. So, the rapid decline towards extinction of the Cape Parrot is understandable and seemingly unstoppable at this late stage of degradation. We have seen this happen before with the Echo Parakeet, the Carolina Parakeet and the Puerto Rican Parrot, to name just three out of many. Once again, for all out abilities and technology, we seem powerless to help another species in trouble as a result of our careless and misguided development.


On of many cathedrals constructed by missionaries in the region.

The Cape Parrot Working Group recently conducted the “Cape Parrot Day” in an effort to count flocks leaving and returning communal roosting areas. The results, I am sure will become available very soon. Let’s hold thumbs that there is evidence of a population recovery. From recent reports of Cape Parrots in trade here in South Africa and the same stories of habitat loss and degradation, I am unfortunately not hopeful. Though breathtakingly beautiful this species has had a terrible run of luck over the last two hundred years. Firstly, foresters chopped down all of the Yellowwoods, then, almost unfortunately, society fell in love with this truly South African parrot and began to trap it for the pet trade. Our adventures around Creighton, Richmond and East Griqualand yielded no Cape Parrot, however, locals reported flocks of up to 50 parrots feeding on their pecan nut plantation. There were also reports of trappers in the area and a growing trade in wild-caught Cape Parrots. This is an illegal, but very attractive practice, as price for a wild-caught Cape Parrot breeding pair is now between US$20,000 – US$30,000, and rising all the time.

I began my studies with the intention of becoming a forester, spending five years doing an honours degree in Forestry specializing in nature conservation. Upon actually working for a Forestry company I realized that doing conservation within the context of forestry was impossible. All we seemed to do was stay away from rivers, check that the rivers were still recovering very, very slowly, count ungulates in the grassland corridors for the hunting quota, and census biodiversity in adjacent plots we had not yet planted with cloned eucalyptus or pine seedlings. I must admit I produced some wonderful reports and was enjoying the trout fishing, but I had to leave, as nothing that forestry company could do within its power could ever make up for the millions of hectares of grassland already converted and the loss of indigenous, biodiversity-rich forest habitat that was never going to be reversed. By the early 1800’s the first foresters had set up extensive logging operations along the east coast of South Africa, aggressively removing Yellowwood trees to satisfy the growing market in Cape Town, requiring this timber for furniture, housing, wagons, ship building and much else. Unfortunately, unbeknown to them, the Cape Parrot was completely reliant on old-growth Yellowwoods for their food and nesting requirements. Cape Parrots had likely been in gradual decline due to the gradual drying of the coastal and mist-belt forests upon which they were dependent, but this sudden loss of keystone habitat was unprecedented. Now suddenly their food resource was becoming more and more patchy and nest cavities were altogether disappearing from some areas. Due to the increased effort required to find food the parrots were not able to muster the energy to successfully lay eggs or provision incubating and brooding hens. Basically, the population got older and older and eventually went into rapid decline. As population densities plummeted in the first half of the 20th century and the forest habitat and Yellowwoods became more and more sparsely distributed, the probability of encountering another Cape Parrot became less and less. Therefore, the opportunity to benefit from or share information on favorable food resources all but disappeared. As a lingual feeder, Cape Parrots are reliant on this mechanism to be effective in their natural environment. At just about this time, people became interested in owning Cape Parrots, resulting in the unsustainable capture of thousands of birds by professional trappers, using decoys or live birds in cages to lure Capes into mist nets. With nothing to eat and trappers in pursuit, the Cape Parrots turned on the last source of food they could find and that was agricultural crops, including nuts, citrus and apples in the region. This caused farmers to turn on this innocent victim and deliver the final “death blow”. Now there are less than 600 Cape Parrots left in the wild and I will never work in Forestry and will continue to fight the wild-caught bird trade.

It is my feeling that African parrots populations throughout Africa are declining in a similar fashion, it is just that development in range states is happening on a different timeline to South Africa. For example, 10 years after Mozambique declared the end of the civil war and began to develop Brown-headed Parrots have disappeared from the south of the country. Meyer’s Parrots have all but disappeared from South Africa, Chad, southern Zimbabwe and the whole of Zambia due to deforestation and live capture. The shrill calls of Poicephalus parrots are distinctive in the African bush, and I am afraid we are approaching a time when, in the words of Peter Mathiessen, all we will have is an “African silence”. For this reason I plan on undertaking an African parrot expedition, visiting all range states to check on their status and conservation biology, and create awareness around these ambassadors of the African bush.

For more information on this and other initiatives within the Meyer’s Parrot Project please visit our website:

http://www.africaskyblue.org/Meyers_Parrot_Project.html

Posted by Steve Boyes on 05/22 at 01:17 AM

How important are family units to Meyer’s Parrots in the wild

by Steve Boyes

Very, and may be the mechanisms central to maintaining their social structure. Let's see...

Over the past two weeks I have been going through my Meyer’s Parrot flocking and roosting behaviour data sets for 2004-2007 in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, as part of my thesis write-up. I have found this investigation to be an interesting journey into the possible ways in which these parrots could think about and perceive their natural environment. It is clear that they can navigate by the fact that during the breeding season males range far and wide in search of larval tree parasites, flying over floodplains, umpteen forest galleries, grasslands, winding channels, and papyrus swamp, and yet manage to find one hole in one specific tree in a forest of many trees. The biggest hill you can expect to find in the Okavango Delta is 2m, and therefore, from the air there are no reference points, beyond termite mounds and dead trees, a perfectly flat blue and green mosaic from the air. From top to bottom, the Okavango Delta is approximately 250 kilometres long, over which distance there is only a 60m change in altitude. Meyer’s Parrots navigate effectively through this mosaic, and are therefore, likely familiar with the spatial distribution of food resources in their established feeding territory.


Photo of study area – Vundumtiki Paradise

In summer, the Meyer’s Parrots utilize primary communal roosts, usually containing 6 – 10 parrots. These parrots leave the roost about one hour after sunrise to catch the warm morning sunshine. They sun themselves for 30 minutes, maintaining pairs or small groups, likely family units, of three or four. These sub-units then disperse into a patchwork mosaic of eleven different forest habitat types. During the mid-morning the Meyer’s Parrot undertake most of their feeding, and as the morning progresses begin to aggregate through lingual feeding. Lingual feeding can be obligate or facultative, but involves constantly vocalizing during feeding activity. Meyer’s Parrots are obligate lingual feeders, and based on mobility they have a high probability of encountering or hearing each other. By midday small groups of between three and six have come together to utilize secondary communal roosts. These small roosting flocks then disperse for feeding in the mid-afternoon, again aggregating towards the end of the day to form activity centres adjacent to roost trees. At activity centres the parrots preen and allo-preen within their family units or pairs exclusively. Towards sunset they vocalize synchronously and assemble in a neat row in the crook of Leadwood or African Mangostene. In winter, most Meyer’s Parrots use nest cavities and natural hollows to roost, but this also the breeding season, during which approximately half of the population engage in the breeding effort.

Central to my study was to more fully understand the mechanisms behind flocking and roosting. Why Meyer’s Parrots fly long distances and use complex vocalizations to aggregate and roost at a seemingly central point? What are the primary benefits? When and why do Meyer’s Parrots flock on certain food items? Some researchers put forward that species that utilize communal roosts are likely doing so to benefit from information sharing about food resources during periods of resource scarcity. Reduced risk of predation by improving detection of predators and diluting risk of capture are simply byproducts of this information-sharing. My study and several others on African and Australian parrots suggest, however, that these parrots don’t use communal roosts as information centres, but rather use them to facilitate dispersal from a central point. My study also shows that this central point is constantly moving according to shifts in food resource abundance and distribution. Therefore, in order to stay with the roosting community Meyer’s parrots have to repeat the daily activity cycle described above throughout summer. As indicated previously, family units of the breeding pair and one or two of their progeny have been observed together for up to a year, until the breeding pair nests again. Over this period is it not feasible that the offspring, while foraging with the parents, learn the lay of the land, and thus where all the seasonal food resources can be found, and all the tricks they will need to know to be effective in this, their natural habitat. For example, fledglings from the previous breeding season have been observed to assist in provisioning the female during the egg-laying period. The male likely uses this period to teach his offspring where to find and how to utilize larval tree parasites that are keystone in the breeding effort. After this period, these sub-adults are chased away from the nest cavity. I would like to put forward that Meyer’s Parrot communal roosts are central to the social and spatial organization of Meyer’s Parrot populations, resulting in a cellular population structure with lots of overlap between feeding territories. This structure has distinct social and cultural benefits, adapting the members of a roost to the specific requirements of the area within which they forage. The maintenance of genetic diversity is likely facilitated by extra-pair copulations and high mortality.

To what extent is information shared at the communal roost? I don’t know, but it is probably communicated passively, whereby the roost subtly moves to the area with the highest food resource abundance, established by aggregation during the day through lingual feeding. Basically, the location of the communal roost is constantly moving towards food resources. In my study Meyer’s Parrots used a specific communal roost for no more than a few days before it had to move. Similar to musical chairs, throughout the day the parrots wander in search of food, aggregate somewhat by midday and then as the sun sets rush to find a new or established communal roost site. They are not too selective, as all they require is the crook in large closed canopy of an African Magostene, African Ebony, Mopane, Knobthorn or Leadwood tree. All of these are in abundance, and thus, again, the most important unit the family or community associations. Roosting flocks were seldom larger than 12 parrots, and thus could very well be several generations. Another indicator of inter-generational continuity is the evident use of certain nest cavities for over one hundred years. This was determined by assessing the age of dead Leadwood tree in which the Meyer’s Parrots were nesting. One of these nest cavities was in a petrified Leadwood tree, but at the entrance there was evidence of excavation characteristic of Meyer’s Parrots (i.e. lines radiating from the entrance hole). These excavations had to have taken place prior to petrification. In addition, the lower lip of the entrance has been smoothed by generations of parrots entering the nest cavity.

For more information regarding these findings and other from the Meyer’s Parrot Project in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, please contact Steve Boyes at . I also have .pdf’s of the nine magazine articles that I have published on the project. Peer-reviewed scientific papers will become available later in the year, after the completion of my PhD thesis. If you would like to contribute towards the project please use the following link to donate through the World Parrot Trust – just scroll down to Meyer’s Parrot.

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This something I have been meaning to share, but seemed to slip through the works. This is a photo of that glorious moment from for any parrot researcher, the first flight from the nest cavity, the moment of fledging!


Photo of parrot fledging at Vundumtiki, Okavango Delta, Botswana

Posted by Steve Boyes on 04/25 at 01:16 AM

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