FOR RELEASE: April 1, 2009
Long thought extinct, Carolina Parakeet
rediscovered in Honduras
Captive bird and radio
tagged individual shows a non-migratory population survives in vast
forested areas
ITHACA, NY. -- Long believed to be extinct,--the Carolina
Parakeet, North America's only member of the parrot family -- has been
discovered in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve in the Mosquitia region of
northeastern Honduras.
photo by John Heldee |
A photo of a Carolina Parakeet
researchers named "Coqueta" now living in captivity in
Honduras. |
A little fewer than 100 years after the last
confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team
today announced that a small non-migratory population survives in vast
areas of neotropical forest in Honduras.
A full report is due to be
Published in the journal Science in the April issue. The findings
include multiple sightings of the long thought to be extinct parakeet as
well as preliminary data collected from an male bird tracked through radio
telemetry. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search
in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve (RPBR) involving more than 50 experts
and field biologists working together as part of the Parakeet Conservation
Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell
University and The Nature Conservancy. The Parakeet Conservation
Partnership was founded over one year ago but kept quiet while more
information was gathered. A similar partnership was formed when Cornell
researchers took up the search for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. "These
types of partnerships have a track record of proven results," said Dr.
John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
photo by John Heldee |
Decares examines a study skin of a Carolina
Parakeet from 1882. |
"The bird we currently have in captivity, the individuals
we have seen in the wild and the male we are tracking through telemetry
are absolutely the Carolina Parakeet" said Hubin Tubbs, the Science
article's lead author. "We know from historical data that the Carolina
Parakeet was migratory to this general region. There must have been
individuals that did not migrate and they have formed a small but viable
non-migratory population all this time."
While parrots are not known as long distance migrators,
the Carolina Parakeet did historically migrate north through the Eastern
United States as far as Pennsylvania and up the Mississippi, and Missouri
Rivers to the Platte and regularly to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Wisconsin and Nebraska.
DNA analysis from feathers taken from the birds in
Honduras was compared to that extracted from study skin specimens from the
University of Connecticut, The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Both an
initial limited mtDNA haplotype comparison and a more detailed mtDNA
cytochrome b, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 and 3, and D-loop sequence
confirmed the living species are indeed Carolina Parakeets. "What we find
is a match," said Juan Decares the co-author of the forthcoming article in
Science. "There was slight genetic variation consistent with what we would
expect to see in an isolated sub-population in 100 years. Comparing the
DNA of multiple living specimens indicates that the
population has very limited genetic variation and may have arose from as
few as eight birds."
photo by John
Heldee |
A researcher tracks the daily movement of the
carolina parakeet flock. |
"A non-migratory population forming from
migratory birds is not as strange as it may seem,' says co-author Juan
Decares. "The Canada Goose re-introduced across North America is
essentially non-migratory in much of its range. While Canada Geese used to
migrate though the United States to breed in Canada, there are year-round
populations in many parts of the country and they are breeding further
south than they did historically. It should not be thought of as uncommon
for birds to lose their migratory ability."
The Recovery Plan
"Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the
future of this spectacular bird." The excited researchers believe there is
still a chance for recovery in North America using captive bred,
re-introduced individuals similar to what was done with the peregrine
falcon in the 1970s.
An exotic species, the Monk Parakeet, has thrived where
they have escaped in locales such as New York City, Chicago, Cincinnati,
coastal Rhode Island and Connecticut, and southwestern Washington. There
is estimated to be a feral population of 100,000 in Florida alone. "There
is still suitable habitat available," said Tubbs.
While the establishment of new non-migratory populations
in southern climates may be possible, reintroduction across the full
former range of the bird may prove more difficult. "The Carolina Parakeet
was once found as far north as Ohio," says Decares. "Clearly with the
harsh winter climate of Ohio we would have to have a migratory population.
Birds released in colder climates would simply die when winter comes as we
believe they have lost the migratory instinct.
Studies done by German researchers have shown that
Crossbreeding experiments with blackcaps from a nonmigratory population
(of the Cape Verde Islands) and a migratory population (from southern
Germany) demonstrated that the urge to migrate as well as orientation
behavior can be transmitted rapidly into a nonmigratory bird population
and thus has a substantial genetic basis. "Because there are no living
Carolina Parakeets with that migratory genetic information we cannot
simply breed it into them," says Decares.
The only member of the parrot family in North America, the
Carolina Parakeet is known through lore as a bird of beauty and
indomitable spirit. The birds numbers shrank after large amounts of forest
were cleared for agriculture. At the same time, it was also hunted for
feathers for the millinery trade. The birds that remained were ruthlessly
hunted by farmers who believed they would damage their crops. Flocks
became rare by the 1880s and the last Carolina Parakeet died in captivity
at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. While there continued to be possible
sightings through the 1920s and early 1930s the species was officially
declared extinct in 1939 by the American Ornithologists Union.
***
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit
membership institution with the mission to interpret and conserve the
Earth's biological diversity though research, education, and citizen
science focused on birds. From its headquarters at the Imogene Powers
Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Ithaca, N.Y., the Lab leads
international efforts in bird monitoring and conservation, and fosters the
ability of enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels to make a difference.
The Nature Conservancy is a nonprofit organization
that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the
diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to
survive. To date, the Conservancy has been responsible for protecting more
than 15 million acres in the United States and more than 102 million acres
in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.
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