Hispaniolan blue-print

With the numbers of Hispaniolan Parrots and Parakeets dwindling, Loro Parque Fundación’s Correspondent, David Waugh, writes about how conservation groups are constructing a blue-print for their survival

- David Waugh

Midway between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean is Mona Island which, at only 57km2 in area, is more or less the same size as Manhattan, New York. There, in 1892, a Victorian collector called W.W. Brown shot the last known specimen (now in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) of a recognised sub-species, maugei, of the Hispaniolan Parakeet (Psittacara chloropterus). That the same subspecies occurred in Puerto Rico is only hearsay, although there is no doubt about its extinction by 1901. Perversely, the present-day occurrence of the Hispaniolan Parrot (Amazona ventralis) in Puerto Rico is the result of introduction from escaped captives, and a boat-load of several hundred illegally caught in the Dominican Republic and released off-shore in Puerto Rico when entry was refused.

Nowadays, the two species are considered to be endemic to Hispaniola, where their wild populations have declined to the extent that they are both listed in the IUCN Red List as ‘Vulnerable’ to extinction. Worse still, both species are listed as ‘Endangered’ in the National Red List of the Dominican Republic. BirdLife International estimates total population of the Hispaniolan Parrot as between 6,000–15,000 mature individuals, and of the Hispaniolan Parakeet from 1,500 to 7,000 mature individuals, with both populations declining.

The countrywide situation of both psittacines in the Dominican Republic demands a conservation broad response but, as implied by the wide variation in population estimates, there is insufficient information available. What we do know is that continued habitat loss and degradation is a major threat, even within protected areas. Factors leading to habitat loss are agricultural expansion, charcoal production, wood extraction, and human-induced forest fires. The other major threat still requiring rigorous assessment is the illegal domestic pet trade.