The Largest Parrot Colony In The World Was Threatened

The team of the Argentine biologist and researcher Juan Masello, who since 1998 has led the Barranquero Parrot project, revealed the death of at least 800 adults of the species in this last reproductive season (2020-2021). The causes: the lack of food, as a result of the La Niña phenomenon and the clearing.

Last December, the work team led by Argentine biologist and researcher Juan Masello at El Cóndor (where he has directed the Barranquero Parrot project since 1998) noticed that something was wrong.

Hundreds of adult parrots appeared dead in this spa in the Municipality of Viedma (province of Río Negro) and, until then, the cause was unknown.

The site houses the largest colony of parrots on the planet and 71% of all individuals of the species live there (both from Argentina and Chile). Therefore, any negative event that affects this colony puts the entire species (burrowing parrots) at risk, already a phenomenon of world nature.

The mortality situation was serious and it was clear that this was a special event. The first thing that was ruled out, with scientific methods, was death by poisoning. Only then could the true causes be quickly identified: the parrots were dying from lack of food.

It so happens that the current Burrowing Parrot breeding season (September 2020-January 2021) was affected by the La Niña-El Niño climatic phenomenon characterized in northeastern Patagonia as being a time of low rainfall, which resulted in less production of plants and crops. This meant that Burrowing Parrots in the region had serious difficulties finding enough food for themselves and their chicks. Unfortunately, it resulted in high mortality from famine.

However, human action also has implications: excessive cleaning is one of the most serious. --How did you manage to determine the cause of parrot mortality and what is the impact on the species?

-- Chicks usually die, which we saw during the 1998-1999 breeding season when the strong La Niña phenomenon also took place, but today there was high adult mortality.

To corroborate the explanation for the lack of food, my work team at El Cóndor, in collaboration with personnel from the Secretary of Environment and Climate Change of Río Negro, weighed the recently dead adult parrots to compare their weights with the weights at our base. of data. All weighed dead parrots weighed 20% less than the average of our years of study with the species, since 1998.

In addition, we recorded the lowest known weights, even lower than the minimum observed during the 1998-1999 La Niña phenomenon. All these results lead us to point to a lack of food availability in the region as the main cause of mortality observed in December 2020 and January 2021.

-- The flora of the Monte is the main food for wild bird species in the area, including Burrowing Parrots. Clearing in the districts of Patagones, Villarino, and Adolfo Alsina (in Río Negro) has been decimating the native vegetation for decades and putting various species of threatened birds present in the region in greater danger.

Professionals from the INTA Hilario Ascasubi Experimental Station demonstrated that there is one of the highest natural vegetation loss rates on the continent: an average annual rate of biomass loss of 3.7%. This rate is 10 times higher than the average loss experienced by the world's tropical forests.

--What actions could be carried out to protect them?

--The Burrowing Parrot breeding colony of El Cóndor should be declared a Protected Natural Area of ​​the province of Río Negro, as has already been established and requested by the Rio Negro legislature in numerous legislative instances (projects 120/2015, 567/2011, 232/ 2009, 260/2006).

Until now, problems of jurisdiction between the province of Río Negro and the Municipality of Viedma and also the lack of funds have been raised. However, the creation of a nature reserve would be a tool both for the preservation of nature and for the promotion of sustainable tourism development.

--What strategic and sustainable plan could be carried out to conserve?

--In principle, it is necessary to stop disassembling, completely. It has already been dismantled more than it should have. It is something that humans also urgently need to stop climate change. Desertification is going to leave parrots without food, but also human beings since there is less and less soil suitable for crops for the same reason.

Without a doubt, at the same time, it should be reforested. A practical way is to restore and replant the Monte species on each roadside, on each shoulder, on each roundabout, in each unused paddock, on private land as well, with the respective scientific advice, and summon the neighbors interested in saving the parrots to “take the shovel in one hand and the watering can in the other”. In this way, when the inevitable climatic events occur, they will find a way to mitigate their catastrophic effects in a healthier and more intact Monte.

--Why do Burrowing Parrots have so many detractors or are they associated with pests?

-- The main myth is that they are a crop pest. It was declared a national plague in 1935. And for this reason, during 1972-1974, the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs of the province of Buenos Aires destroyed what was then the largest burrowing parrot colony on the Quequén Salado river. That colony had 45,000 nests.

Juan and Petra, the researchers who became fascinated with these birds and today continue with more projects. Photo: Fabian Llanos.

And it was also at that time the largest colony of parrots, parrots, macaws, and cockatoos in the world. Unfortunately, that was lost thanks to its fumigation by the ministry. A huge loss for global nature that must never be repeated. Currently, only the province of Buenos Aires considers Burrowing Parrots a pest.

I think it's a perception problem. Burrowing Parrots are very noisy and move in large flocks to protect themselves from the many predators they have. This causes an impression that often turns negative, although we should marvel at this spectacle that Nature gives us! and makes people think that they are going to destroy everything, which then does not happen.

For example, during our study of the supposed effects of Burrowing Parrots on sunflower crops in the Patagones District, we photographed flocks of up to 4,000 individuals flying over the fields. However, in those same fields where the photo was taken with the 4,000 parrots, we measure the economically insignificant damage of 0.1% to 0.4% of the sunflower crop. And no damage was detected in other important crops in the region, such as wheat and oats.

Taking into account that sunflower crops represent a maximum of 1% of the total crops in the study area, the regional importance of the loss attributable to Burrowing Parrots is economically insignificant.

--What kind of food do parrots prefer or need?

--They prefer the food provided by the Mountain. There, and not in the crops, they find the nutrients that allow them to reproduce and adequately feed their chicks. That is why they travel between 60 and 240 kilometers per day to bring the chicks quality food from the Mount. I usually give this example to show simply what is happening: one can, in cases of need and emergency, survive eating biscuits and drinking water, but that does not mean that one will live healthily if they do it for a long time.

Cereals are to parrots what biscuits are to us. Kind of like junk food. They can survive eating cereals, but that type of food is not enough for them to acquire a healthy condition that allows them to reproduce and healthily raise their chicks. Some parrots manage to survive the winter in areas of Patagonia, without migrating north, taking advantage of the stubble that falls in the fields after the harvest or the seeds that spill from the trucks that collect the harvest.

--They are monogamous, they live in colonies... what other information about their habits is known?

--Yes, the first surprising result was to demonstrate with genetic methods that it is a monogamous species. It was known before that they formed stable couples, but it could have been social monogamy, where the couples are stable, but there are still copulations outside the couple. Well, that's not the case. Individuals in a pair of Burrowing Parrots are extremely faithful to each other. This result was quite surprising to us as many species of birds show social monogamy without being genetically monogamous.

Another important discovery was that, unlike many other birds, Burrowing Parrots do not have blood parasites. Not one. At first, this discovery perplexed us. But then we also discovered how they did it: they consume many foods from the Monte that contain secondary metabolites with antiparasitic properties. Unfortunately, there is more and more land clearing and these natural medicines could be lost forever!

The commitment of researchers since 1998

It was a bit of a fluke. He was with his wife, the German biologist Petra Quillfeldt, looking for a seabird colony where they could research why some birds nest in colonies, and thanks to a friend and a ranger from Río Negro, they arrived at El Cóndor. There they saw the impressive cliff full of holes: the nests of the parrots.

The parrots were not there, it was autumn, and they had migrated north but they decided to start investigating those birds that excavated so many nests and became fascinated by their beauty, behavior, and intelligence.

“Then we realized how many problems they have from a conservation point of view and that motivated us very strongly to do things to protect them. This is how we began, almost 23 years ago, to write scientific articles, popular articles, bills, management plans, chapters in books, give talks, to give interviews on radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines in many countries of the world” Masello said.

They also coordinated an educational campaign that involved 11,000 children in Patagonia and their teachers, created an international group of researchers dedicated to parrots that currently have more than 470 members, and works tirelessly to investigate and conserve these birds in all the continents where they are found. find.

“A revolution in our own lives!” reflected Masello, a native of Sarandí, with a degree in Biological Sciences from the UBA and a doctorate in Natural Sciences from the Freie Univeristät Berlin, Germany.

The largest in the world

Nests. The Burrowing Parrot breeding colony of El Cóndor has an average of 37,000 active nests, distributed along 18 km of cliffs. There live 71% of the total number of individuals of the species (both from Argentina and Chile).

Relevance. It is the largest colony of Burrowing Parrots (Cyanoliseus paragons, its Latin name) and also the largest known colony of Psittaciformes (a group of birds that includes all the world's parrots, parrots, macaws, and cockatoos).

Risk. Any negative event that affects this colony puts the entire species (burrowing parrots) at risk and is one of the most important phenomena of world nature. The colony of El Cóndor has been threatened on several occasions and does not have legal protection.

Mountain range. The Burrowing Parrots crossed the mountain range, at the height of Mendoza, about 120,000 years ago, during a time of retreat of the glaciers. In this way they arrived in Argentina and began to colonize it in two directions, to the northwest, in the Cuyano-Andean region, and to the south, reaching Patagonia. "We were able to discover all of this by analyzing the DNA that we extracted from feathers that we found falling at the foot of the colonies where the parrots nest," said Masello.

Distribution. The Burrowing Parrot Cyanoliseus patagonus is a Neotropical Psittaciformes distributed mainly in Argentina and Chile, occasionally reaching Uruguay. This species is distributed in Argentina in regions with arid to semi-arid climates.

Retraction. The Burrowing Parrot has suffered a clear decline in its distribution area since the beginning of the 19th century, particularly in Chile, the Pampean region, Córdoba, and southern Patagonia.

Factors. This retraction is due to a set of factors: 1) the intense capture for the pet market promoted in the past and of sporadic illegal occurrence in the present, 2) the rapid loss and degradation of its natural habitat as a result of profound changes in the use of the land, and 3) the illegal persecution suffered by the species as it is unjustifiably considered an agricultural pest. Due to this anthropic pressure, the current distribution of the Burrowing Parrot is fragmented and its abundance is highly variable.