Along Guatemala's Pacific slope, Dr. Kim Joyner, a vet, wildlife services official Dr. Jim Wiley, and University of California at Davis (UC-Davis) avian sciences researcher Ann Brice, who wrote the report, visited a cattle rancher family southeast of Escuintia in southern Guatemala, the Bergers, who were also conservationists and counted birds in preparation for Joyner completing a grant research project next year.
The area had large cattle pastures divided by old fence rows, often big trees. A large tropical lowland forest grew on the Bergers' property, with open patches made 20 years ago from cutting mahogany and teak.
One of the flocks there was the Yellow-Naped Amazon* and a few pairs of White- Fronted Amazons. The Amazons were seen in pairs (January, February) and chose nest sites in large trees, such as ceibas that stood by themselves in the middle of cattle pastures. Interestingly, the birds appeared to prefer the single trees in open areas to nest sites in the forested section of the property, which one would presume more closely resembled their original habitat before cattle came.
They logged over 500 observation hours for nearly a month, and recorded breeding behavior. The Amazons, they said, were very secretive at the nests once they were on eggs. They had located 20 Yellow-Naped nests, but admitted there may have been more, but time ran out.
When the others left in early February, Kim and the local guide continued the watch. Though Amazons were still on eggs, there was evidence at most of the nest trees that someone else had been climbing the trees, "presumably by trappers waiting for the young to hatch," Dr. Brice wrote. "If this unregulated harvesting of parrots continues, there may be no noticeable effect for some time. We may see the same number of...Amazons there for years and, because they are so long-lived, not realize that virtually no new birds are being recruited into the population because of poaching...By then, it may be too late to save the remaining birds."
The Bergers hadn't realized the extent of poaching on their land, so they called everyone together; employees and families were offered some incentives to protect the sites, nestlings, and see the young fledge. The results of that have not been reported on.
The UC-Davis research project is looking for donations to support educational and anti-poaching efforts in Guatemala. From all their reports, "Parrot poaching for the pet trade is very active on virtually all accessible land around the country. Without immediate action, there may be no birds left to study."
-From the Exotic Bird Report, Spring, 1991, Avian Sciences, UC Davis, Davis, California 95616. Donations to "UC Regents," specify. Dr. Joyner, a guest speaker for BCV a few years ago, was vet for ABRC in Florida and with Dale Thompson in California.
Ann Brice has a PhD in ecology from the University of California at Davis, where she now serves as coordinator of the Psittacine Research Project since 1989, and edits the quarterly Exotic Bird Report sent to donors. Besides nutrition and immunology laboratory and breeding research, UC-Davis has begun studies of the feasibility of sustainable harvesting and captive propagation in countries of species origin, perhaps resulting in potential income for local populations, while having species preservation in the host country.
*Yellow-Naped Amazons (A. auropalliata) come from the Pacific slope of Central America from eastern Oaxaca, southern Mexico, south to NW Costa Rica. The parvipes (A. a. parvipes) is the sub-species and is like the nominate nape, but with red on the bend of the wing, and comes from Roatan, Barbereta and Guanaja in the Bay Islands, Honduras, especially on its eastern slope along the Caribbean, and NE Nicaragua. Its green is paler than the nominate.
