EnglishIn 2019, a yellow-naped amazon parrot worked hard to nest and hatch fledglings. She left briefly and came back to find that her nest was empty. A local Nicaraguan poacher had stolen her fledglings and sold them to someone in San Juan Del Sur as pets. Like many times before, the mother would lose her offspring and a poacher would be rewarded with money from the buyer. That’s how the story would have gone if it wasn’t for a worker at the non-profit organization Paso Pacifico. Marlon, the head of Paso Pacifico’s parrot conservation program, informed the police of the unlawful poaching. Marlon and the police confronted the buyer and got the parrots back. The next day, they put the yellow-naped parrots back into their mothers’ nest. Marlon and his team waited for the mother to come back. Eventually she returned and began feeding her fledglings.
Man poaches parrot fledglings to sell as pets.
Marlon’s efforts are so important because yellow-naped parrots have been on the IUCN endangered list since the end of 2017. Their population is decreasing in Central America at an alarming rate. The only place in which the population isn’t decreasing is in the Paso del Istmo in Nicaragua, where Paso Pacifico has been working on yellow-naped parrots since 2007. Since their work started, the yellow-naped parrot population in the Paso del Istmo has been increasing substantially.
Two yellow-naped amazon parrots receive health checkups.
To broaden its impact on Parrots, Paso Pacifico has expanded to El Salvador and is beginning to partner with Equipo Tora Carey in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, Paso Pacifico will look at the migratory patterns of yellow-naped amazon parrots in the town of Los Jobos, which is just over the border of the parrots in the Paso del Istmo. This research will assist in further parrot conservation.
Paso Pacifico’s secret to success is getting community members involved. The first step is to educate people about the harm of buying parrots. In tight knit communities, the word spreads that parrots shouldn’t be purchased and the demand for parrots decreases. Another way Paso Pacifico gets the community involved is by rewarding community members each time they protect a fledgling that successfully leaves its nest. This technique proves effective in decreasing poaching and conserving yellow-naped parrots in the wild.
Community member sits with a rescued yellow-naped amazon parrot.
Poachers all over Central America continue to steal eggs from yellow-naped amazon nests. People like Marlon at Paso Pacifico work to protect them and take them off the IUCN endangered list. As Paso Pacifico continues to expand, the future looks up for the amazon parrots.