News
Peru: Visiting macaws in their home
February 23, 2009, 5:56PM MT
By Sharon St. Joan
Studying parrots to save them
Studying parrots to save them
By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network
The "saving endangered parrots" project sounded so worthwhile and so exciting to Dr. Aldo Wilson, who was then still in vet school in Peru, that when he heard about it, he dashed off a barrage of around fifty emails over the next few weeks to the director, asking if he could join the project.
His enthusiasm rewarded, he was granted an interview for the volunteer post, and since 2003, when he first went there over the Christmas holidays, volunteering at the Tambopata Macaw Project has been an important part of his life. He's spent, in total, around two years there. Most recently, this past December, he and his wife Anna Gonce, also of Best Friends, traveled back to Peru to spend two weeks with the enchanting parrots of the rainforests.
A licensed veterinarian in Peru, Dr. Aldo works as a vet tech at the Best Friends Clinic. Last year, he traveled along with Rich Crook back to Peru following the devastating earthquake there to help lead Best Friends' relief program in the weeks following that disaster.
This past December, Anna and Dr. Aldo returned to the Tambopata Nature Reserve to spend from December 8 through December 23 volunteering with the Tambopata Macaw Project. The Macaw Project has been going for twenty years. It is run by Rainforest Expeditions, an ecotourism company which was created a couple of years after the Macaw Project began, as a means both of funding the project and enabling people to take part in the wonderful experience of the rainforest. Donald Brightsmith, who is with Texas A&M, a major project sponsor, is the Director.
High up in the trees
What does Dr. Aldo actually do with the parrots while he's there?
He spends much of his day swinging in a harness about 100 feet high up in the trees. One of the questions volunteers are asked is if they have a fear of heights. Actually, the harness that he is in doesn't usually swing freely from side to side--only in very strong winds!
High up in the trees he's able to monitor the little nestlings of the macaws. The macaw's breeding season is from November to April (these are the summer months south of the equator), and they breed either every year or every other year--so far no one knows for sure.
Like most birds, they are monogamous and live throughout their lives with one mate. Each pair produces one set of chicks during the breeding season, and 95% of the eggs hatch, but they don't all hatch on the same day. As is true for some other birds, there is a two to three day gap between the times the babies hatch.
The first hatchling has a 60% survival rate, the second has a 40% survival rate, and the third, sadly, doesn't survive unless something unfortunate has happened to one of the first two. As we know, nature is not always kind, and the third hatchling is mostly a kind of insurance policy.
Counting birds
When not swinging high up in the trees, Dr. Aldo is standing 200 feet across from the clay lick, which is also up high on a cliff overlooking the Tambopata River. From this post, he is counting birds.
He doesn't really count each and every bird, since there may be over a thousand at any one time. There are ways of estimating them and counting them in bunches. Every five minutes, he starts the counting process again--and just keeps counting.
There were around ten other volunteers helping out with the project there in December, all working together compiling information about the birds.
The purpose of counting is to keep track of the populations of the various species. The ultimate purpose of the whole research project, Dr. Aldo says, is to "develop techniques for helping endangered populations of macaws."
A wildlife corridor from Bolivia through Peru
The 680,000 acres (275,00 hectares) of the Tambopata National Reserve are home to six species of macaws--three large species; the Green-winged Macaw, the Scarlet Macaw, and the Blue and Gold Macaw--and also three smaller species; the Severe macaw, the Red-bellied Macaw, and the Blue-headed Macaw. "The Blue-headed Macaw is very rare, almost extinct. There are fewer than 2,000 left in the wild." Dr. Aldo adds that he has seen up to four of these birds at the same time.
The Tambopata National Reserve is one of the smaller areas of wilderness set aside by the Peruvian government. There are other reserves that are even larger. The area is open to visitors, but only for eco-tourism, not for any activity that could harm the wilderness. No logging is allowed.
From Bolivia through Peru stretches the Vilcabamba-Amboro Corridor--an amazing 30 million hectare corridor of biodiversity (74 million acres), with the Tambopata National Reserve being part of this corridor.
There are ongoing threats to these wilderness areas and, equally, intense, ongoing efforts to protect them as wildlife habitat.
The corridor is a testimony to how much can be accomplished to preserve wilderness for wildlife--yet, at the same time, right nearby, forces still continue to destroy wild habitat.
Dr. Aldo describes the new interoceanic highway which goes from Peru to Brazil and which cuts directly across the corridor. In Peru 70% of the highway has already been completed, and in Brazil it has nearly all been finished. As it cuts across wilderness, the highway causes severe disruption of fragile ecosystems and the lives of the parrots and other creatures living there.
Environmental groups are now focusing their efforts on calls for the enforcement of existing protection laws, since there is a significant gap between the intent of the laws and the enforcement.
Hence there is the continued need to study the natural history of the various parrot species, which will provide scientific information that can be useful in furthering their protection.
Tracking where the birds fly
One of the means of gathering information is attaching radio collars to some of the birds. Dr. Aldo has participated in this aspect of the program on previous visits. At first he was concerned that the radio collars might harm the birds. A major point of reassurance was seeing that the collars are designed to fall off within less than a year. He was shown one of the little pins that holds the collar together, already rusted in a very short time.
Prior to starting the program with birds in the wild, a study was done with wild birds in captivity that had been confiscated from smugglers and were being held prior to release. They discovered that the mate of a bird wearing a radio collar would, while preening her mate, have a go at trying to dislodge the collar. But, apart from that, there seemed to be no harm to the birds. The birds' flight and relationships with other birds were not impaired.
The collar weighs 3% of the weight of the bird. The bird's location is monitored once a week from ultralight aircraft. The World Wildlife Fund sponsors the radio collar program.
Carrying out this program, they worked in teams of four. As each bird was trapped and held, generally for a five-minute period, Dr. Aldo took veterinary samples--of DNA, feathers and blood samples--to use in determining the health of the populations.
The purpose of all their intense research is to protect the lives in the wild of these amazing birds.
50 % of all parrot species are endangered in the wild. Many have been severely depleted by the parrot trade--and also by destruction of their habitat.
Studying parrots in the wild can contribute valuable information that will lead to greater understanding and greater protection for them.
As we all know, protecting the parrots and other creatures of the rainforests is protecting our own habitat--the planet earth--at the same time.
What you can do
To read more about the Tambopata Macaw Project, please go to
http://vtpb-www2.cvm.tamu.edu/brightsmith/
Top photo: Dr. Aldo Wilson/ A scarlet macaw chick
Anna Gonce / Dr. Aldo Wilson on the Tambopata River
Anna Gonce / A volunteer with the Tambopata Macaw Project with a four day old macaw chick