Abaco Wild Parrot Study
By Alice Bain - Abaconian 15 Jun 02

Frank Rivera and Jaime Collazo from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service division of International Conservation visited Abaco with assistants Caroline Stahala and Wendy Moore to help launch an effort to gather data on the Abaco Parrot.

"We got a request two years ago from Eric Carey of the Bahamas Department of Agriculture who had been informed by locals that raccoons had been introduced to Abaco and were probably increasing in number and becoming more widespread," said Frank, "and that this involved a possible risk to the Abaco parrot. These parrots are ground nesters, and the raccoons could easily start preying on them. So we decided to get involved." The two men came to Abaco last year to learn about the local habitat and to meet the Abaconian people. At that time they started developing the idea of a project to understand the population of the Abaco parrot. The last population estimate of these birds was conducted in the 1980s, and biologists need more up-to-date numbers. "We also need to determine which predator are taking chicks and eggs," continued Frank. Possible predators include raccoons, feral cats, rats, snakes and land crabs.

"We're still in the developmental phase," Frank asserted. "We're here to conduct preliminary surveys to estimate density and population size to create a data baseline for the design of phase I of the project." Phase I will run from February of 2003 to November of that year and will be an even more intense information-gathering effort in which the entire set of environmental influences to the Abaco parrot will be studied in depth. This may involve placing remote cameras to monitor nests or putting radio transmitting collars on parrots to monitor their movements. All of this will be done as unobtrusively as possible to maintain the validity of the data. In the second phase of the project the biologists will use this data to determine which exotic predators are posing the biggest threat to the Abaco parrot and will make recommendations of ways in which to best protect the population of parrots. Control and removal of exotic predators is very expensive and requires a lot of effort but the biologists will help secure funding for this if it is needed. "Our recommendations cannot be premature," Frank insisted. "We need to fully understand the impact that predators like the raccoon can create. Otherwise efforts to control predators may become an expensive impropriety."

Frank Rivera wants to stress that this is a joint venture between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local Abaconians. They have already worked with several local agencies and individuals and presented a project overview to the combined memberships of the Rotary Club and the Abaco Chamber of Commerce. Michael Albury has been very helpful in finding matching funds for this project, and Anita Knowles has been active in securing the commitment of local organizations. The control of this long-term project will remain with Abaconians as we strive to protect our environment and the Abaco parrot.