Five captive Puerto Rican parrots today joined the 23 to 36 wild parrots remaining deep in Puerto Rico's tropical rainforest. The captive-bred birds were raised in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Luquillo Aviary in the Caribbean National Forest. Four of the birds are getting their first taste of freedom. One of the birds, a female, was previously released but she returned to the aviary and was retrained and released with the 2004 birds.
"It is always an exciting and gratifying sight to see captive-breds of one of the ten most endangered birds in the world take flight to freedom," said Sam D. Hamilton, Southeast Regional Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We?ve made one more step toward our ultimate goal of establishing several new populations in the Caribbean National Forest and in the karst region of Puerto Rico.?
Working together cooperatively in the Puerto Rican parrot recovery program, the Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Forest Service (USFS), and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER) now have a minimum of 48 captive-bred parrots at its Luquillo Aviary and 94 parrots in the Rio Abajo aviary in the Rio Abajo Commonwealth Forest. An undetermined number of juveniles will be added soon because this is the parrot's breeding season.
"We remain committed in our recovery efforts toward the endangered Puerto Rican parrot at El Yunque.," said Pablo Cruz, Forest Supervisor, Caribbean National Forest. "Thanks to our dedicated personnel and the exceptional cooperation between PRDNER, the Service, and USFS, we have achieved major progress towards full recovery of the species.?
This 2004 release of captive-bred parrots marks the fourth time that parrots have been released into the Caribbean National Forest. The first group of 10 parrots was released on June 27, 2000; sixteen captive-bred parrots were released in 2001 and nine in 2003. All of the released birds are monitored by radio telemetry, and survival estimates from the previous three releases average 45 percent. Because the radio batteries only last from six months to a year, birds cannot be tracked beyond a year from their release. However, some birds with radios on their necks have been seen foraging, flying, and attempting to reproduce with the wild parrots in the forest. Primary causes of mortality for released birds and wild fledglings are inclement weather and predation by red-tailed hawks.
"Today's release was the last one in the Caribbean National Forest before we move to initiate a second wild flock in the karst region in 2006," said Fernando Nu
