December 2000 No. 59 FUNDACIÓN

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1 December 2000 No. 59 FUNDACIÓN

2 Cyanopsitta Cyanopsitta - Latin for blue parrot. The only member of this genus is Cyanopsitta spixii, the Spix s Macaw. It is a highly endangered species, symbol of Loro Parque Fundación, and of the need to conserve our planet. Message from the Founder 2 LP «Importante del Turismo 2000» 3 Collaboration with the Gissen University 4 Presentation of «Animals of the world» 6 Meeting Point 8 Loro Parque Hotline 9 Foundation News 10 Maximizing conservation leverage with Dominica s endemic amazon parrots 12 Spix s macaw recovery programme at risk?18 Board of Advisors and Trustees Meeting 20 New parrot conservation projects 21 Parrot education sign: Loriculus philippensis 23 Front Cover: New education pack Editorial Office: Loro Parque S.A Puerto de la Cruz Tenerife, Canary Islands Spain Tel.: Fax: <loroparque@loroparque.com> <dir.general@loroparque-fundacion.org> Editorial Committee: Wolfgang Kiessling, Inge Feier, Yves de Soye, Dr. Javier Almunia, Corinna Brauer. Visit our websites: Visit the website of Loro Parque Fundación, which provides you with detailed information on our programmes at: < For the website of Loro Parque, please check out < Membership: Become a member of Loro Parque Fundación to support us in our activities. You will then receive our trimestral newsletter Cyanopsitta, as well as a supporter s card permitting free entry to Loro Parque during the validity of your membership. The current annual membership fees are: Adults (non-resident):... 15,000 Ptas. Adults (resident) & children (non-resident):... 7,500 Ptas. Children (resident):... 3,750 Ptas. Please send us your membership subscription by mail, fax or , or call us, and we will sign you up immediately. Message from the Founder Sometimes, I imagine that if a being from another planet observed an oasis in Puerto de la Cruz, which gives shelter to lots of animals and plants species, and is visited every year by 1.5 million human beings, I think, he would wonder What is the reason for such attraction? The answer would be, without any doubt, animals. However, the truth is that our visitors don t only come to see the animals that live with us, but they can also find here a great part of nature, or in other words, they have an encounter with their natural origins. And the powerful sensations that this encounter evokes are reflected in the hundreds of letters that we receive every year, and in the written comments of our visitors books: The calming and peaceloving quality, The sensibility not only to the needs of men but also to those of animals, the unbeatable cleaning,... It gives enormous satisfaction that my determination to create a place devoted to leisure, education, research, the welfare of animals and the conservation of nature, has had such huge public acceptance. The success is so enormous, that our visitors increase every day, it looks like if every year all the habitants of a big city came to our Park. This trust compels us to continuously improve our exhbits and increase the facilities for our visitors. For instance, in the last months, we have enlarged the dolphinarium s sunshade in order to protect the seats that had been added previously. Besides that, at the begining of the next year, a new cafeteria will be inaugurated, in an attempt to enlarge, even more, the various gastronomic delights of Loro Parque. We are also working on a new exhibit to be placed in the planet penguin building which forced us to make unbelievable logistical decisions, due to the spectacular size of this item. But improvements have not only been carried out on the inside. Fortunately for our visitors, I can say that, after a great of effort, the Government of the Canary Islands has approved a new system of road signs that will considerably improve the information about the location of Loro Parque in the city and in the Orotava Valley. At the time of drawing up the balance of the year as it comes to an end, we are very sorry to have to give you some bad news. As you can read in detail in this issue, the last male of macaw Spix that was in liberty has disappeared. We don t know exactly what happend, but we expect the worst. This unfortunate event has coincided with the death of the eldest male of the two pairs that Loro Parque Foundation supports. But, despite this stroke of bad luck, there is still hope for the recovery of the Spix s Macaw. I wouldn t like to finish my contribution to the last Cyanopsitta of the year 2000 without stating our most sincere gratitude to the enterprises Kodak, Pepsi-Cola, Vogelfreunde Achern, Panalu, Gefiederte Welt, Caja Madrid, CCC etc, for all the support that they continue to give to The Foundation. I trust that they, and all of you, will go on helping us and so we can grow even more in the future, and with us, will also grow our wishes for the protection and conservation of nature. Bank Account: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Puerto de la Cruz Wolfgang Kiessling 2

3 Loro Parque nominated Importante del Turismo 2000 Loro Parque has been rewarded with the most prestigious prize that the Canary Islands Government gives in the field of tourism, the award Importante del Turismo 2000.The president of the Government of the Canaries, Román Rodríguez, handed this prize over to Wolfgang Kiessling, the 27 th of September, during an event celebrated in the Convention Center of Maspalomas in which the Mundial Day of Tourism was taking place. This prize gives Loro Parque the gold medal for its contribution to make the Canary Islands a quality tourist destination. The panel of judges considered, mainly, that Loro Parque has became an emblematic place, in which its visitors are immersed in an exotic world of nature, color and respect for the animals. The contributions of Loro Parque to the handling of animals in captivity and its efforts towards the conservation of nature, particularly of parrots and their habitats, were also valued. Together with the prize received by Loro Parque, there was another one obtained by its President, Wolfgang Kiessling, who was awarded the prize of Amables del Turismo y Convivencia Ciudadana 1999 (the kinds of tourism and civic socialising) by the Centre of Enterprises and Tourism (CIT) of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. For this reward, important personalities related to other tourist and prestigious enterprises were Román Rodríguez giving the prize to Wolfgang Kiessling. nominated such as Hotel Mencey, The Canary Association of Rural Tourism, the Tigaiga Hotel and the National Park of the Teide. The judges designated by the Center of Enterprises and Tourism were made up of representatives of the written and audiovisual media, like The Chamber of Commerce, Ashotel, Travel Agencies and Tour- Operators. The year 2000 has been for our organization, and for our President, a deserved recognition to an impecable, personal and profesional trajectory. The gold medal. 3

4 Collaboration between Loro Parque and the Institute of Poultry Diseases of the University of Gissen, Germany. The collaboration between two sides always promises to be succesful when their starting positions are different even though their interests and objectives seem to be the same. That is the case of the collaboration between Loro Parque and the Institute of Poultry Diseases of the University of Giessen, which was established in Loro Parque lodges almost all the species of parrots of the world. There, the good observer can contemplate life, from a fertile egg and the birth of a chick, to the adult birds and even older. Almost all the parrots have excellent health in an environment suitable for all the species. From its creation, the Institute of Poultry Diseases of the University of Giessen supports a policlinic for birds( and for some years, also for reptiles), in which the sick birds receive veterinary Prof. Dr. E. F. Kaleta treatment. Besides, it has got important laboratory equipment devoted to diagnose infectious illnesses; the detection and classification of parasites, fungus, germs and virus that normally implies expensive methods are part of their daily work. They test new medicines and create new vaccines to cure and prevent infectious illnesses. All these efforts are useful not only to secure the welfare of the birds but the instruction of the students in the practice of the veterinary science. Since 1998, a group of students visits Loro Parque once a year, to increase their practical experiences and enrich their scientific knowledge, the same as to familiarize themselves with the basic conditions of maintenance and the care of the birds in captivity. There are only very few vets specialized in the topic of poultry medicine. Therefore, the Surgery in Loro Parque s veterinarian clinic. 4

5 Sex determination by endoscopy in Loro Parque. studies done by these groups in Loro Parque help them to go deeper into the theoretical knowledge obtained at the University of Giessen and so put it into practice. Thanks to the kind welcome and the generous support on behalf of Loro Paque, the students love the idea of coming back again year afer year. Apart from the promotion (of the formation) of these future vets, there is also, for several years already, great collaboration with many employees of Loro Parque in some specific fields, that I would like to mention. I have a special interest in the observation and interpretation of the normal behaviour of the psittacides. The basic elements of the chapter about the normal behaviour of psittacidae that are included in our book Compendium of the diseases of ornamental birds are based on the observations carried out in Loro Parque, that were outlined in the hotel the same night. Another example is the productive colaboration between the vets of the veterinary clinic of Loro Parque and the Institute of Giessen, with reference to the explanation to the reasons of the sudden death after the importation of red-faced lovebirds (Agapornis pullaria). The first analisis that were carried out together were made in Loro Parque and were concluded at the University of Giessen with the discovery of a mutation of poliomavirus. The results of these efforts were published in a technical and very outstanding magazine titled Avian Diseases, to facilitate the access of this new knowledge to the scientific world. Among the many species of virus that threaten the health and survival of the parrots, the Herpes virus has an important meaning as the main cause of Pacheco s illness. So, in order to prevent this, a great many samples of blood of the birds were examined to detect this virus. Fourtunately, the results of the analysis were that, up to now, the herpes virus that could be detected in parrots does not present any threat to the birds of Loro Parque. The mentioned examples will demostrate to our readers that the collaboration between Loro Parque and the Institute of Poultry Diseases of the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen is good for the birds welfare that live in their instalations; furthermore, the achieved knowledge favours the recovery and conservation of the health of all birds in general and, therefore, it contributes considerably to the protection of the endangered species. It is a global objective that both sides of this collaboration were bound to and will always be obliged to aim for. 5

6 Presentation of the didactic col- lection Animals of the World Loro Parque Fundación has recently prepared a collection of didactic materials, a step that turns Loro Parque into an essential reference for local education. Presentation of the didactic material to the media. From left to right: Francisco Fernández Cilleruelo, José Zenón Ruano Villalba, Wolfgang Kiessling and Juan Antonio de la Nuez. From 2001, the animals of Loro Parque will be present in all the infant and primary schools of the Canary Islands, thanks to a didactic collection that has been elaborated by Loro Parque Fundación together with the authorities of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports on the Canarian Isles, Bruño s editorial in Madrid, and the sponsorship of Caja Madrid copies of Animals of the world have been prepared and will be distributed during the first semester of the year 2001 to all the Infant and Primary schools of the Canary Islands by the authorities of Education Promotion. Every suitcase contains five booklets, which are also included in Bruño s Zoo-Zoo Collection: Ulises, the Spix s macaw, 6

7 Mancha and other dolphins, The chimpanzee Gudu, The king penguin Santiago and The tiger Kiyosu ; in each narration, the life of these animals is being introduced to the children. Additionally, the collection also includes five jigsaws of the same animals, whose photographs have been taken from the animals of Loro Parque, as well as an interactive CD-Rom with information, photographs and sounds of all the animals of the park, games and a data base with educational resources for the teachers. In this data base, the teachers find activities, identification exercises, motivation texts, masks to perform the tales, a complete information on all the animals etc. Altogether, it is a complete set of tools for teachers and, at the same time, didactic entertainment for the pupils. On the 13 th of December 2000 the presentation of the material to the media took place in the press room of Loro Parque s Thai The didactic collection developed by Loro Parque Fundación was in JUVENAL fair, attracting hundreds of young Canarians. Village. It was attended by the general director of the local education authorities, Jose Zenon Ruano Villalba, the president of Loro Parque Fundacion, Wolfgang Kiessling, the general director of Bruño s editorial, Francisco Fernandez Cilleruelo, and the director of Caja Madrid in Puerto de la Cruz, Juan Antonio de la Nuez. The new didactic material was very well accepted by the media representatives, and the news was published in the most important local newspapers, apart from many radio and TV stations. For the education department of Loro Parque Fundacion, this event has been the culmination of their efforts, taking them over a year to compile and elaborate this material; now that it is finished, we trust that the final result meets the expectations of the local teachers, to enable them to transmit the message of love and respect for nature which Loro Parque has always tried to convey to its visitors. In this edition of Cyanopsitta, Loro Parque Fundacion wishes to thank Caja Madrid for their help and confidence, as well as the education authorities and the editorial Bruño. At present, we are already developing a new didactic unity, which will be addressed to the students of Secondary Education. To this end, we are elaborating a project that will make use of the latest communication technologies. We trust that, once finished, it will have the same positive impact as Animals of the world. 7

8 MEETING POINT - MEETING POINT - MEETING POINT - MEETING POINT Umberto Pelizzari, champion of the world and record-holder in several types of free diving, experienced new sensations during his visit to Loro Parque. The sportsman sank beneath the surface in the biggest acrylic cylinder in the world, and although the eight metres of our cylinder are not anything compared to the more than 100 metres in which he is used to diving, he has probably never ever been surrounded by so many fish. A representation of The Villa Clara province (Cuba) visited Loro Parque as a part of a tour around the most important touristic centres of Spain. A group of Euro MPs (members of the European Parliament) enjoyed a different day with the shows of Loro Parque. Dr Kaleta, together with his group of students of the University of Giessen, made one of their annual visits to Loro Parque. This visit is part of an intimate collaboration that has been etablished between the two Institutions. Loro Parque continues collaborating with the English organisation Make a Wish Foundation, in their effort to put a little bit of happiness into the life of many sick children. Rafael Medina Jáber, deputy minister of Tourism and Transport, came from Gran Canaria, together with his family, to enjoy a perfect day with us. As every year, Loro Parque collaborated with Autotaxi 2000 in order to offer a happy day to a group of seniors in Loro Parque. 8

9 LORO PARQUE HOTLINE - LORO PARQUE HOTLINE - LORO PARQUE HOTLINE Loro Parque is always in a process of continuous innovation, and even when the exclamations of amazement for Planet Penguin had not stopped, they had already started to work on a new exhibit to be placed in the same building. This new area can be seen from the lower part through an acrylic wall measuring 16 metres long, 2.5 metres high and 16 cm deep. The transfer of a item of such dimensions required spectacular logistics. It was necessary to make use of the biggest crane in the whole of the Canary Islands and the help of 40 men to locate it at its final site. But innovation is not only the building of new exhibitions, but also the improvement and restoration of the ones that are already a classic. This time it was the turn of the dolphinarium, which is the biggest in Europe, and one of the showpieces of the Park since As from now, the Loro Parque dolphinarium will have a new sunshade which will cover the total capacity of 1500 people. This has been possible with the installation of a huge structure of square metres, supported by means of four central posts of 12 metres high each. The placing of this new sunshade created unbelievable logistical difficulties. It was neccesary to bring in enormous cranes and it was only accomplished with the help of a great number of people from Loro Parque. Other areas of the Park have also been restructured. This is the case of the area where some of our flamingos live. We have enlarged the artificial lake, building a small island in the centre to offer them a little bit more privacy and so stimulate their reproduction. On the banks of the lake, the sandy beach has been enlarged in order to help avoid problems with their delicate legs. Next to the flamingos, Loro Parque is constructing a new coffee-shop which will open to the public at the beginning of As was announced in the last issue of Cyanopsitta, Yellow, our female jaguar, gave birth to a beautiful cub. In spite of the fact that they cannot be seen by the public yet, many of the people passing by the offices of Loro Parque have been able to see how the tender mother proudly walks her new cub. The preparations for the next International Parrot Convention have already started in Loro Parque. This will take place from the 19 th to the 22 nd of September, 2002 in Puerto the la Cruz. In the coming issues of Cyanopsitta we will let you know the latest news about this event. Another outstanding event in the Park is that, coinciding with the first year of the existence of Planet Penguin, the first antartic penguins were born. On the 12 th december the first chick of Papua s Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) was born in Loro Parque, and by the 29 th december, there were already a total of five new chicks. They are being bred by their parents satisfactorily. It is unusual but the chicks were not separated from their parents after four weeks to be hand-reared, as is commonly done in other zoos. After the breeding season of Papua s Penguins, comes the King Penguins season (Aptenodytes pataginicus), and they have already started to lay eggs, hopefully for the arrival of new inhabitants of our penguinarium in the coming year. 9

10 FOUNDATION NEWS - FOUNDATION NEWS - FOUNDATION NEWS News from the Echo Parakeet Conservation Programme. Another world first for the Echo team. Captive released Echo Parakeets have nested in new supplementary nest sites, boxes designed by Lance, the fauna manager. One captive reared female had paired up with a wild male, the other had paired with a captive-raised male. Sadly Txixi started to pull feathers from her chicks and both had to be saved to the Gerald Durrell Endemic Wildlife Sanctuary (GDEWS) hand-rearing team. Gabriella (one of the first three birds released in 1997) is still raising her wild chicks and doing well. Food shortage is the major limiting factor this year in terms of wild productivity. After last year s fruiting flush that seemed to have been brought on by the previous drought year, this year s native forest fruit production has been comparatively tiny. Most pairs are struggling to feed their nestlings. The Echo team is now monitoring 10 nest sites. Currently there are 10 chicks in the wild, 5 eggs due to hatch in the next few days, 5 chicks have so far been saved to the GDEWS. The Echo Parakeet hand-rearing team is very busy this year. Ann from Chester Zoo and David from the New Zealand Department of Conservation are heading the work, and Marie-Michelle, one of our most experienced young Mauritian staff is being trained in hand-rearing techniques. So far the team has been caring for a total of 8 chicks, 3 captive bred and five wild. Sadly one wild chick that was fostered to a captive pair was Drifter and Cassidy - Gabriella's chicks, both have fledged. Photo: Nancy Bunbury rejected and killed this is the first time such a fostering has been unsuccessful. Currently 4 chicks are being hand-reared and 3 have been fostered to captive pairs. The team expects to receive many more chicks from the wild in the next few weeks because food shortage is causing very poor chick development in the wild. In December 2000, Dr. Carl Jones reported twelve Echo Parakeets at the captive breeding station that are due for release. These will be released in the next two months. This season three of the previously released females were nesting, two in nestboxes. The LPF has developed a series of promotional posters for each of our current parrot field projects. The posters, 180 cm high and 60 cm wide, are currently exhibited at Planet Penguin, inside Loro Parque. Each one is titled with The Advisory Board of Loro Parque Fundación Tomás de Azcárate y Bang Ministry of the Environment of the Canary Islands Tenerife, Spain Susan L. Clubb Avian Veterinarian Florida, USA Nigel J Collar Research Fellow BirdLife International Cambridge, England Wolfgang Grummt Animal Park Friedrichsfelde Berlin, Germany Povl Jorgensen Aviculturist Haslev, Denmark Ian R. Swingland President and Founder Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology Kent, England David Waugh Director Royal Zoological Society of Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland Roland Wirth President and Founder Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations Munich, Germany Sponsors of Loro Parque Fundación 10

11 FOUNDATION NEWS - FOUNDATION NEWS - FOUNDATION NEWS the scientific name of one of the focal species. A world map indicates the project location, and a brief text in three languages gives information on the threats and main goals of the project. All the posters are illustrated with high quality photos of the parrots and project. We hope that this presentation on the Foundation supported projects can become in the future on a source of additional funds for conservation. Early in the autumn Paul Salaman reported some news on the Conservation of the Yellow Eared Conure project, in Colombia. After some minor problems in the area, fieldwork was starting again, the field team was concentrating in the community involvement and awareness (raising the profile of the project and avoiding any misconceptions). The parrots were all fine, and still at the site. Nesting was almost finished and Alex and Juan Carlos were commencing the trapping of birds to place ten additional transmitters before any possible dispersal, and the informative material was ready to sent out. News coming from Action Sampiri at the closing of the previous edition of Cyanopsitta were not so optimistic. The red-and-blue Lory Eos histrio was reported extinct on all but the largest island in the archipelago Karakelang in the Talaud island group. Whilst the subspecies challengeri is considered an invalid form, the subspecies histrio, restricted to Sangihe, Siau and Tagulandang, is probably extinct. Only people over the age of 60 remember Sumpihi and claim that it was still trapped up to its disappearance in the 1950s. Nobody in Siau knows the bird, and it seems that it had gone for quite a time on that island. Their 1998 trip to Tagulandang showed that the histrio population probably persisted there until early 1990s, but is now almost certainly extinct. All Tagulandang s forest has been cut down and the island is now almost devoid of large trees due to the boat building industry there. On Salibabu and Kabaruan only a few individuals persist, in small forest remnants. The field team supposes that this species never naturally occurred on the small Miangas and Nanusa Islands where they are now absent. The few free-flying birds on Sangihe all appear to be escaped talautensis.and sadly, this analysis concludes that Karakelang hosts the only viable population. One of the project posters. 11

12 Maximizing conservation Dominica s endemic Ama Story and photographs by: Paul R. Reillo, Ph. D. Director, Rare Species Conservatory Foundation Loxahatchee, Florida (USA) This year, the Loro Parque Fundación has started to finance and collaborate in a new conservation project on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, which is led by Dr Paul Reillo (Rare Species Conservatory Foundation) and the Dominica Forestry and Wildlife Division. For the first year, a sum of 20,280 US$ will be put at the disposition of the project. After the early involvement between 1987 and 1995, a period during which the foundation contributed around 140,000 US$ to the work of Dr Paul Evans and the Forestry and Wildlife Division, the Foundation thus resumes its conservation activities for the island s two endangered endemic Amazon species, Amazona arausiaca and A. imperialis.

13 leverage with zon parrots

14 Renovation works on the Parrot Conservation and Research Center (PCRC). Few conservation strategies are as compelling as the flagship species concept: save the right emblematic species that characterizes a critical ecosystem, and you ll save vast habitat along with its biological inventory. Among the parrots which as a group embody functional and cultural links to much of the world s tropical, natural heritage the endemic Amazons of Dominica are exemplary flagships for ecosystem-level protection. Last year, culminating a million-dollar campaign championed by Dominica s Forestry and Wildlife Division (DFWD) and the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF), the Government of Dominica declared the world s first, new national park of the millennium, the Morne Diablotin National Park (MDNP). Encompassing 3500 ha of pristine, oceanic rain forest, the area is a vast bioreserve, comprising some of the finest old-growth forest in the Lesser Antilles. What made this declaration so inspiring is that Dominica s endemic parrots, the Sisserou (Amazona imperialis) and Jaco (A. arausiaca) were pivotal. MDNP is the stronghold for the Sisserou, Dominica s national bird the largest and oldest Amazona. To appreciate the yield from parrot conservation initiatives in Dominica, one need only realize that The Nature Island of the Caribbean, as Dominica is affectionately known, is a land of superlatives. With a land mass of 751 km 2, it is the largest, northernmost, and most vertically impressive of the Windward Islands. The confluence of climate and extreme terrain, accented by two volcanoes, Morne Trois Pitons in the south (1424 m) and Morne Diablotin in the north (1730 m), yields over 350 rivers and a diversity of vegetation types unrivaled in the region. Dominica boasts 75% undisturbed forest cover, which accounts for its high biodiversity (e.g., 1600 flowering Sisserou female at the PCRC. 14

15 plant species). Dominica s modern cultural affinity with nature no doubt has its roots in the indigenous Carib Indian culture, which today survives only on Dominica. Not surprisingly, the Caribs believed they were reincarnated as parrots. The comprehensive parrot conservation and research program on Dominica derives from several key inputs. Foremost is DFWD, which, with modest government support and intermittent international, financial aid since 1980, has shouldered the daunting responsibility of studying and protecting Jaco and Sisserou populations in the wild. Several environmental education campaigns since 1980 helped engender a sense of national pride about Dominica s parrots, even as the booming banana industry devastated more forest in Dominica in a decade than during the previous 1000 years. From the late-1980 s to mid-1990 s, the Loro Parque Fundacion s substantial investment in Dr. Peter Evans research there proved instrumental for illuminating basic parrot life history information and interpreting the complex interplay between local politics, regional and international agro-economics, responsible natural resource use and sustainability, and the potential for conserving essential parrot habitat. mature rain forest for all of its activities. Local population density estimates and preliminary habitat surveys suggest a total population of < 250, but this is little more than an educated guess. Its vocalizations are distinctive among Amazon parrots haunting, hollow, yodel-trumpet calls. MDNP s success notwithstanding, the Sisserou s ecology is largely un-quantified, as nests and birds are notoriously difficult to find. Last year, the parrot team monitored an active nest containing a single chick. A premature expulsion by the father forced the juvenile to flutter from its cavity 30 m above-ground in a huge Gommier tree to a sapling near ground level adjacent to a farmer s field. Thankfully, the parrot team responded, rescued the young bird (a female), and, after a couple of weeks of hand-feeding, successfully fledged it into the Parrot Conservation and Research Center (PCRC) at the Botanical Gardens in the capital city of Roseau. Thus we can observe Sisserou development in a controlled setting, and contemplate captive breeding, since the young female has bonded with the only other captive Sisserou on Dominica an eight-year-old male. Since 1997, RSCF and DFWD have directed the parrot program toward specific ecological queries, with an eye to devising real-time conservation strategies for the birds and their habitat. A specially designed intra-cavity video probe and time-lapse video monitoring system have helped verify that the Jaco lays a clutch of three eggs, and can consistently fledge two chicks from its single clutch per year, due to vigilant bi-parental care. Despite its large size, the Jaco represents a resilient island endemic that may compensate for periodic population crashes (e.g., from hurricanes) with its high reproductive potential and ability to utilize transitional habitat between agricultural areas and protected forest. Gregarious, and generalist in its foraging behavior, the Jaco has achieved a cosmopolitan distribution throughout Dominica s interior, with local population densities often exceeding one bird per 25 hectares. In contrast, the Sisserou elusive, rare, and enigmatic has been a species of concern for decades. Residing primarily in mature forest on extreme-grade slopes in MDNP between m elevation, the Sisserou remains a poorly understood parrot, even as it serves as the impetus for one of the region s most aggressive forest protection schemes. Labor-intensive field surveys over the past few years tell us that the Sisserou is shy, rarely ventures into open areas, likely lays a single-egg clutch, and is restricted to select, View of Morne Diablotin from Picard Valley. 15

16 With the new funds from the Loro Parque Fundacion, the parrot program will cover more ground both literally and figuratively. Renovations at the PCRC are roughly half completed, and critical lab and husbandry equipment is being purchased to sustain the eight Jacos and two Sisserous at the PCRC, as well as any offspring that might appear. Soon, the PCRC will become a stand-alone research center for collecting, interpreting, and collating data on parrots. Upgrading the time-lapse gear for the field and PCRC will permit Sisserou nests to be monitored remotely from greater distances, and tapes to be scored more precisely. Most exciting, the parrot program can now take advantage of new Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and computer software that pinpoints field positions to within one meter. Vital parrot population and habitat data can be digitized to computer-based topographic maps and satellite images. However, the major challenge to data collection remains physical trekking across kilometers of mountainous, forested terrain, ground-truthing vegetation types, verifying habitat utilization by parrots, and making assessments of local parrot population densities. During a series of recent expeditions, the parrot team put some of the new technology to work, exploring MDNP, the heights of Salisbury, Morne Prosper (in Morne Trois Pitons National Park), and Maikay Estate, near Morne Turner (in MDNP). Jaco male at entrance to nest cavity, Fond Pie area. These exhausting, treacherous treks yielded much valuable information, the most exciting of which was the confirmation of a Sisserou population in Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Secluded in a pocket of mature forest at the base of Morne Watt, we saw Paul R. Reillo along Syndicate Nature Trail, Morne Diablotin National Park. 16

17 Durand, Winston and Reillo on Morne Prosper, December Grand Soufriere Hills and Morne Gouverneur are visible in background. This is the area where the new, southern population of Sisserous was discovered. Sisserous vocalizing in flight and perching high in the canopies of huge Chataigner trees. The sighting is significant because Sisserous were extirpated from this area by hurricane David in In fact, only the population on Morne Diablotin survived that devastating hurricane. But clearly, Sisserous have re-colonized the southern half of Dominica after 20 years. Just as the Jaco has rebounded thanks to the integrity of interior forest, so has the Sisserou benefited from forest conservation but its recovery may be much slower. The coming year will bring a flurry of activity to the parrot program: expanded field surveys, GPS and GIS data collection, time-lapse monitoring and video-probing of Sisserou nests, and continued renovations and improvements at the PCRC. The ambitious program on Dominica illustrates how zoological and conservation organizations, working cooperatively with host governments, can leave tangible conservation legacies. Dominica is a model for demonstrating how real-time conservation of flagship species can translate into biodiversity protection at a grand scale. Her parrots have proven their value and leverage, and deserve every effort. Current parrot field conservation projects of Loro Parque Fundación: * Brazil: Spix s Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii Recovery Programme * Brazil: Environmental Education Programme for the Red-tailed Amazon Amazona brasiliensis in Superagüi National Park, Paraná * Bolivia: Blue-throated Macaw Ara glaucogularis Conservation * Ecuador: Cerro Blanco Bosque Protector - Lilacine Amazon Amazona lilacina & Guayaquil Macaw Ara ambigua guayaquilensis Field Study & Environmental Education Programme * Ecuador: Conservation of the Yellow-eared Parrot Ognorhynchus icterotis I * Colombia: Conservation of the Yellow-eared Parrot Ognorhynchus icterotis II * Dominica: Conservation of the endemic Red-necked and Imperial amazons * Belize: Scarlet Macaw Outreach Program * Zambia: Status, Ecology and Conservation Biology of the Black-cheeked Lovebird Agapornis nigrigenis * Zambia/Zimbabwe: Conservation Status and Biology of the Greyheaded Parrot Poicephalus fuscicollis suahelicus * Thailand: Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary * Philippines: Red-vented Cockatoo Cacatua haematuropygia Conservation Programme * Philippines: Construction of parrot aviaries in two wildlife rescue centres in West Visayas * Indonesia: Action Sampiri - Conservation of Endangered Parrot Species on the Sangihe & Talaud Islands * Indonesia: Conservation of Endemic Parrots on the Tanimbar Islands * Mauritius: Echo parakeet conservation programme 17

18 The Spix s macaw recovery programme at risk? Since the CPRAA (Permanent Committee for the Recovery of the Spix s macaw) last met in Houston in September 1999, the field project in Brazil has seen few notable results, and attention unfortunately increasingly needed to focus on the captive population and the political situation within the committee. The Loro Parque Fundación decided to suspend funding of the programme until a meeting convened by IBAMA in Brazil (19-20 February 2001) that will address the recent development. In December, the last wild male was declared lost after it had not been seen since early October. Tragedy also struck in Tenerife, when the old founder male died. The field project suffered greatly from the departure of Yara de Melo Barros, who had been the field coordinator during the last four years. She decided to leave the project in February of this year to head a new Brazilian parrot conservation NGO. Several months expired before a suitable new candidate could be found. Yara however continues to be responsible for several aspects of the programme. Still, in the months before her departure (December 1999 and January 2000), the first clutch of the hybrid pair was replaced with wooden eggs, to be left to test how long the pair would incubate before abandoning the nest; they were removed after 40 days when the pair started to lose interest in the nest. With the second clutch, a new fostering experiment was conducted, transferring young Illiger s macaws to the nest of the hybrid Spix s x Illiger s macaw pair, but the hatchlings were lost due to predation like in the before-last season. In an earlier experiment (with the first clutch), it could again be confirmed that the hybrid pair s eggs are infertile. In what concerns the group of Illiger s macaws re-introduced to the wild in December 1998 and January 1999, four of the nine released birds could still be observed in April 2000 near the release site; while this in itself is an excellent survival rate for re-introduced captive-bred birds, it is even conceivable that more birds survive that do not anymore frequent the release site. wild Spix s macaw was feared lost. The reports mention that his Illiger s macaw female returned to the dormitory tree alone. The male was seen for the last time by the field team on 5 October. Reports by locals who claimed of having seen the macaw were investigated during extensive search operations led by Yara Barros, but without success. Although there is no evidence of any relation, the CPRAA members were informed in October that mining explorations were planned within the macaw s range. In what concerns the captive population, the two breeding pairs held by LPF on behalf of the CPRAA did again not reproduce this year In early December 2000, IBAMA released a statement to the press that the last LPF financed multiple activities related with the conservation project, such as the renovation of the Raul Coelho Theatre..

19 The last wild male will never fly again... one of the two pairs ( Pair 1 : the original LPF founder male and the female from Sao Paulo Zoo) laid several clutches but all the eggs proved again infertile. On 28 September, the birds underwent a thorough medical examination, performed by our staff veterinarian Dr L Crosta and the visiting Dr Susan Clubb including endoscopies during which the testes of both males were biopsied. The results unfortunately confirmed our fears: while the sexual organs of the young male from Sao Paulo Zoo ( Pair 2 ) indicated a low fertility (that however could be reversible), those of the old male proved definitely infertile it was thus lost as founder bird for the global Spix s macaw population. To create additional stimulus, at least for the younger pair, both pairs were transferred to the breeding centre at La Vera on 25 Ocober; an even larger aviary had been prepared where the birds could be flocked and still have all the privacy they needed. However, the condition of the old male was confirmed weeks later, when tragedy struck and it died overnight in front of its nest box on 20 December. Only three birds now remain at Loro Parque Fundación. At the same time, Mauricio dos Santos of Criadouro Chaparral, after implementing the husbandry changes recommended on the 1999 meeting in Houston, was able to rear the first young from his genetically very valuable pair. In summer, the Loro Parque Fundación came to know and subsequently informed the CPRAA that one of the committee members had sold four birds to a non-member in the Middle East. Attempts have since been made by the holder of the International Studbook and responsible for the coordinated management of the global captive population, Natasha Schischakin, to address the situation. We are hopeful that this and other issues will be addressed in a meeting convened by IBAMA in Brazil on 19 and 20 February in Brazil, and that a new strategy can be identified between all involved parties that will lead to the recovery of the species in the wild. The loss of the male is a huge setback to the recovery effort, but not forcedly its final demise. Several options remain how the species can be restored to its natural habitat: the cross-fostering of eggs or young under wild Illigers macaw nests, and the reintroduction of young or subadult birds bred either at off-site facilities or an on-site breeding facility. In the meantime, the status of Spix s macaw is sadly: Extinct in the wild.

20 Advisory Board Meeting For the fifth time since the creation of the foundation in 1994, the Advisory Board of Loro Parque Fundación met for its annual meeting on 28 and 29 September It was a great pleasure to welcome two new members of the Board, who already before played a notable role in parrot conservation: Dr Nigel Collar and Dr David Waugh, the former Scientific Director of LPF. Dr Joachim Steinbacher was named the first Honorary Vice-President of Loro Parque Fundación. The meeting was held at the Thai Village inside Loro Parque. The participants included the Advisors Povl Jorgensen, Roland Wirth, Susan Clubb, Joachim Steinbacher, Wolfgang Grummt, Nigel Collar, David Waugh and Ian Swingland, as well as Wolfgang and Brigitte Kiessling, Antonio Caseras, Inge Feier, Yves de Soye, Javier Almunia and Corinna Brauer for the LPF. As usual, the discussions dealt to a large extent with the field conservation projects supported by LPF with the results obtained, the proposals for continuation of existing projects and also newly received funding applications. In 1999, the LPF spent 231,000 US$ in parrot field conservation; until September 2000, Loro Parque and its foundation have spent and allocated a total of 1.5 million US$ to such programmes. The board decided to adopt two new projects (see pp in this issue), but it decided also that several proposals could not be approved. Two proposals for continuation of existing work were rejected in their present format and improvements requested from the implementor (the case with the proposal for the Philippine Cockatoo and the work on the Guayaquil Macaw and Lilacine Amazon in Ecuador). A large portion of the board meeting was devoted to the recent development in the Spix s macaw programme, about which the Board expressed its profound concern (see pp ); a letter was written to the President of the Brazilian environmental authority IBAMA in which an independent review of the governance of the CPRAA is proposed. The Board also decided to contribute 5,000 US$ to the Proventricular Dilatation Disease research of Dr Bran Ritchie at the University of Georgia (USA), and to maintain the yearly contributions to RARE Center (1,000 US$) and the Conservation Breeding Specialist (5,000 US$). The education and research programmes conducted under the leadership of LPF were presented and reviewed in detail. Further improvements of the bulletin of the LPF, Cyanopsitta, were discussed, which included a proposal to further increase the number of pages in each issue, and possibly publishing the issue in colour; some concern was also expressed at the The Board of Advisors and Trustees in the main entrance of Loro Parque. repeated delay of the publishing, caused by the great workload of the LPF team. In addition, the agenda included several important issues that had not been discussed to such depth on earlier meetings, which dealt with fundraising activities and the related future development of the LPF. It will be one of the aims of the LPF, to increase its corporate support and eventually establish an endowment fund which can secure a continuous consolidation and further expansion of the LPF s activities on a long-term basis into the future; the possibility of a Europe-wide tax exemption was considered, to increase the likelihood of corporate funding from several countries in the region. Another topic in this context was the planning of partnerships that are of interest to LPF. The Advisors emphasised that the LPF should focus on the most reputed organisations in parrot welfare, research and biodiversity conservation in its search for potential partners, to ensure the greatest possible benefit to parrot conservation and the aims of the foundation. The LPF will in the coming year evaluate various potential partners in this sense. Finally, future members of the advisory board were discussed, which will be invited to the next meeting scheduled for September

21 Two wo new parrot field conservation projects We are proud to present two more parrot conservation projects newly funded by Loro Parque Fundación. This increases the number of supported projects to sixteen - a new record in the history of the foundation. For the first time, the LPF has decided to support the efforts by Dr Carl Jones, to save the highly endangered Echo parakeet, the last species of the genus Psittacula on the Western Indian Ocean islands. The second project focuses on the conservation of the endemic parrots in the Visayan group of islands in the Philippines; it will complement the activities already in place in the country to protect the Red-vented cockatoo. Echo parakeet conservation programme Project area: Focal species: Implementor: Support by LPF: Partner: Mauritius Echo Parakeet Psittacula echo Dr Carl Jones/Mauritius Wildlife Foundation 20,000 US$ The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Jersey) The Echo Parakeet (Psittacula echo) from Mauritius is the last surviving native member of the genus to be found on any of the Western Indian Ocean Islands. These islands once supported a radiation of Psittacula parakeets with additional endemic taxa on Reunion, Rodrigues and Seychelles. The Echo Parakeet survived into the past century in low numbers coming perilously close to extinction in the 1970 s and 1980 s. The causes of the parakeet s decline and rarity are multi-factorial; habitat destruction and degradation, seasonal food shortages, and the impact of introduced predators, competitors and diseases. Conservation efforts were initiated in 1973 and intensified in 1987, focusing on habitat protection and improvement (fenced and weeded forest plots), rat control around nest sites, manipulation of breeding, supplementary feeding, and provision of next boxes. Between 1993 and 1995 the programme was further refined. The main emphasis is now on predator control, nest cavity improvement, clutch manipulations (including harvesting eggs, downsizing of broods to one chick per nest, fostering of removed chicks and eggs, and hand-rearing removed chicks), frequent examination of active nests, and rescueing chicks and eggs from falling nests. A release programme of hand-reared chicks began in 1997 and is continuing. This programme intends that released birds encourage wild birds to take supplementary food and use artificial nesting sites. The past breeding season has been difficult for Echoes in the wild because of a pronounced shortage of food. In this situation clutch manipulation has proven as an excellent management tool for this species. The wild team managed 12 nests, downsizing most of them to a single chick and, in a few cases, even rescuing the last chick from the nest. Rescued chicks have been hand-reared at the Gerald Durrell Endemic Wildlife Sanctuary, and will be released back to the forest. The greatest success of the season has come from Gabriella, one of the first three birds released in Gabriella has taught her wild male to use supplementary feeding stations and, while most wild pairs had great difficulty in feeding a single chick, they were able to produce two healthy fledglings. On the other hand, release operations had been improved to involve younger chicks (youngest being 72 days old), attracting the chicks with whistles to feed on a syringe. The Loro Parque Fundación has decided to support the efforts by Dr Carl Jones and the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation, through a partnership with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, to ensure the continuation and further improvement of the recovery activities. Future plans will enable the population to produce the maximum possible number of fledglings each season, breed the maximum possible number of individuals for release into the wild, maximise the success of the released Echo parakeets and ensure the survival of the full range of genetic variation currently available. 21

22 Construction of parrot aviaries in two wildlife rescue centres in the Philippines Project area: Focal species: Implementor: Support by LPF: The Philippine archipelago has a rich flora and fauna, with high levels of endemism in both plants and animals. Accordingly, it has an impressive diversity of parrots, with a total of 6 genera, 12 species and 29 subspecies currently recognised, of which 9 species and 27 subspecies are endemic. Unfortunately almost all Philippine endemic taxa are threatened to varying degrees, some critically so. Some of these forms are undoubtedly amongst the most endangered parrots in the world; the most notable being taxa endemic to a few highest priority conservation centres: West-central Visayas (Ticao, Masbate, Panay, Guimaras, Negros and Cebu), Mindoro, South Luzon (including the larger offshore islands of Marinduque, Catanduanes and the Polillo Group), and certain smaller Pleistocene isolates such as the Sulu Islands, Basilan, Camiguin, Siquijor, Sibuyan, Romblon and Tablas. Since 1990 various species conservation recovery programmes have been initiated and these are linked under the auspices of the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Programme, which has recently been extended in an effort to develop integrated biodiversity conservation programmes for each of the highest priority regions in the country. In addition to the West Visayas, these are Mindoro and its satellite islands and Southern Luzon and its satellites: Marinduque, Catanduanes and, especially, the Polillo Islands. These programmes comprise a suite of inter-related activities, including: field status surveys; networking and development of management plans for the declaration of new protected areas; organisation and development of local community-based wardening schemes; production and distribution of conservationeducation materials, personnel training; design and implementation of selected species conservation recovery programmes and (in the West Visayas) the creation and maintenance of local wildlife rescue and breeding centres. Since 1990, three such rescue and breeding centres have been created (one on Panay and two on Negros). These centres also serve as main focal point and administrative headquarters for conservation activities, provide a crucially important resource for the development of local awareness, conservation education and applied research functions and activities. All three centres have achieved notable successes in accessing (mostly through donation and confiscation of illegally held animals), and maintaining and breeding founder stocks of several critically threatened endemic taxa, unfortunately none of them parrots. Various threatened parrots are offered regularly to the Mari-it Conservation Park (Panay) and the Negros Forests & Ecological Foundation s Biodiversity Conservation Centre, and most of these offers had to be refused due to the lack of suitable accommodation, despite of the obvious potentials for establishing properly structured, locallybased captive breeding, research and education projects for selected, most threatened taxa. With the support of Loro Parque Fundacion, six aviaries will be constructed at Mari-it and the NFEFI-BCC. The project is aimed at the construction of high quality breeding aviaries for various threatened endemic parrots, which have been donated by private owners or confiscated and deposited by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). These birds are currently maintained in temporary (and therefore inadequate) enclosures, or temporary housed in high-quality permanent enclosures intended for other equally threatened endemic birds. The particular parrot species in question are (currently) Blue-crowned Racquet-tails (Prioniturus discurus whiteheadi) and Visayan Blue-naped Parrots (Tanygnathus lucionensis salvadorii), but other threatened species (including Red-vented Cockatoo Cacatua haematuropygia, Blue-back Parrots Tanygnathus sumatranus everetti and Visayan Hanging-Parakeets Loriculus philippensis regulus) have also been offered in the past but reluctantly turned away owing to the shortage of accommodation. With this financial support, Loro Parque Fundación complements the ongoing work on the conservation of the Red-vented cockatoos on the island of Rasa near Palawan, and extends its efforts to other Philippine endemic parrot taxa. The Foundation tries to help rationalise and integrate Philippine conservation programmes to ensure long-term sustainability of conservation efforts and the most efficient use of available funds, local expertise, facilities and other resources. The present pioneer involvement may represent a first step towards a broader Philippines Parrot Conservation Programme at some point in the future. 22 West-Central Visayas, Philippines Visayan Hanging Parrot Loriculus philippensis regulus, Blue-crowned Racquet-Tails Prioniturus discurus whiteheadi, Visayan Blue-naped Parrot Tanygnathus lucionensis salvadori, Blue-backed Parrot Tanygnathus sumatranus everetti and Philippine Cockatoo Cacatua haematuropygia William Oliver, Fauna & Flora International 11,145 US$

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