Trade
Following the “boom” years of Cape Parrots in the caged bird industry in South Africa prior to the 1970s, interest in Cape Parrots in captivity has once again begun to grow since the turn of the 21st  century.  There have been numerous reports over the last five years detailing capture of wild Cape Parrots in Port St Johns, Umtata, Alice, Hogsback, King William’s Town, Stutterheim, and Keiskammashoek, basically wherever Cape Parrots are distributed in the Eastern Cape.  Shipments of wild-caught Cape Parrots have been reported, both officially and confidentially, in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

This re-emergence of trade in wild Cape Parrots has been largely driven by the dangerously high market value for “confirmed” breeding pairs, bolstered by the rarity of the species today and recent publicity around its threat status.  Trade in this iconic bird species has existed for a hundred years and isn’t going to go away.

Cape Parrots are a flagship species that, due to its natural heritage value, uniqueness (eg golden head) and beauty, will always be of interest to private collectors with the best and worst of intentions, be they philanthropic or profiteering.  We need to ensure that this growing interest does not affect wild Cape Parrot populations, but rather benefits them by generating public interest and investment.  Let’s hope we achieve our goal of a captive population, managed responsibly, that maintains genetic variability commensurate with wild populations, so that one day we can reintroduce Cape Parrots to “those hills that used to have Cape Parrots”.

Avian Diseases
Finally, avian diseases are a significant extinction threat to Cape Parrots at current population levels, as the remaining populations are small enough to be threatened by localized disease outbreaks.  Recently, a photograph was taken by Graham Russell, the Cape Parrot Big Birding Day count coordinator in Hogsback, of a Cape Parrot potentially infected with PBFD.  This strain of the disease may be endemic to the wild population and only represent itself when the parrots are under physiological pressure (eg malnutrition).

Although unlikely, exotic avian diseases could jump from captive bird collections to wild populations, with catastrophic repercussions.  We need to continue monitoring wild Cape Parrot populations for any signs of disease, and as a matter of urgency, acquire blood samples from Cape Parrots in the Hogsback area to determine the incidence of PBFD in that population.

Cape Parrot Trust
This year, we have launched the new Cape Parrot Trust to support the Cape Parrot Working Group.  As part of our conservation initiatives, we launched the Hogsback Cape Parrot Project in May this year.  The project will study the ecology of the Eastern Cape parrot population, focusing on the Hogsback-Keiskammahoek-Stutterheim-King William’s Town-Alice complex along the Amathole mountain range.

We endeavour to monitor the fruiting phenology of all tree species observed in their diet, track their movements using radio telemetry from a microlight, and record their feeding activity through a network of collaborators throughout the region, including foresters, local residents, conservationists, bird guides, and local community members.

This is our best chance of understanding this iconic South African parrot and saving it from extinction.  In saving this forest ambassador, we will save hundreds of other species whose fate is tied up in the future of our Afromontane mixed Podocarpus mistbelt forests. I hope that I will be able to take what I have learnt over the last six years, studying Meyer’s Parrots in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, and convert it into conservation action for the critically-endangered Cape Parrot.

For more information on how you can help Cape Parrot conservation, please contact Dr Steve Boyes, at boyes@africaskyblue.org

Steve Boyes in the Field © Steve Boyes

Dr Steve Boyes obtained a Masters degree in Environmental Development (Protected Areas Management) at the University of Natal, South Africa, in 2002. His passion has always been wilderness. As a result, the call of the bush was too strong and, after a few years working as a biodiversity consultant, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to move to the Okavango Delta, Botswana, to work as a safari guide and camp manager. Shortly after arriving in Botswana, he set up the Meyer’s Parrot Project and began data collection for his PhD Zoology, which he recently completed with no corrections. Steve’s passion for African parrot conservation is contagious and he has conducted seminars and talks at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, California (Berkeley) and Colorado, as well as the Bronx Zoo and several local and international conferences. He spent the whole of 2006 in Prof Steve Beissinger’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley, where he established a strong working relationship with the US parrot conservation community. Steve is currently taking up a DST/NRF Centre of Excellence Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town. His postdoctoral research will be on the conservation biology of the Critically Endangered Cape Parrot in South Africa, his home country.