The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Aviculturalist The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Aviculturalist
Showing posts with label Aviculturalist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aviculturalist. Show all posts

Thursday, October 19, 2017

In Puerto Rico, a Hopeful Sight: Endangered Parrot Spotted After Hurricane Maria


WASHINGTON — Since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico about one month ago, a team of scientists has trekked daily into El Yunque National Forest hoping to pick up signs or sounds of endangered Puerto Rican Parrots.

Their habitat stripped of foIiage by Hurricane Maria, the parrots, both wild and those released after being bred in captivity, went quiet.

“Hurricane Maria seems to be a major setback for recovery of the parrot,” said Jafet Veléz-Valentín, a wildlife biology/aviculturalist for the Iguaca Aviary, formerly the Luquillo Aviary.

On Wednesday, 28 days after Maria, there was “a new hope,” as Veléz-Valentín described it in a string of texts from the island. Someone spotted a cotorra, the Spanish word for parrot, with a radio collar and an orange leg band in Barrio Caguitas in Aguas Buenas.

The person notified the aviary through Facebook. The collar and band mean the parrot is part of a population bred during the 2016 season, Veléz-Valentín said.

“One of our biologists, Gabriel Benítez Soto, contacted the person who saw and photographed the parrot,” he said, adding that another search is on in the forest and vicinity for more parrots.

To read more on this story, click here: In Puerto Rico, a Hopeful Sight: Endangered Parrot Spotted After Hurricane Maria

FOLLOW US!
/