Tag: Native species

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Urban parakeet by Dr Matt Geary

Urban parakeet
Feeds in small parks and gardens
Missing from forests

By Matt Geary

As with many islands around the world, the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean is home to a number of bird species found only there. Hispaniola is divided between two countries, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both countries have experienced severe environmental change since European colonisation, including considerable forest loss and agricultural expansion. Hispaniolan parakeet (Psittacara chloropterus) is hard to find across the Dominican Republic but a considerable population lives in the capital city, Santo Domingo. Our work explores how these vulnerable island endemics use the urban environment.

In 2019, our research team spent three months walking through parts of the city where parakeets are found, counting birds as well as measuring the natural environment around them. They covered 60 1 km2 squares of Santo Domingo, visiting each square three times. As well as looking for parakeets, they recorded sightings of another endemic, Hispaniolan woodpecker, a species which makes cavities in trees where parakeets are potentially able to nest. The team were also on the lookout for parakeet nest sites in trees and buildings.

Hispaniolan parakeet (Psittacara chloropterus). Image credit: Martingloor.

The population in the city is certainly large. We counted around 1500 birds at a communal roost site in the city centre and saw lots of birds on our surveys. We found that parakeet distribution within the city was related to the number of different tree species within the square and saw more parakeet groups where there were more small greenspace patches. This suggests Hispaniolan parakeets are using street level green spaces like small parks and gardens for foraging rather than relying on large areas of vegetation. We only found three locations where parakeets were nesting, all of which were previously know – one palm tree and two communal roosts in buildings.

This species certainly needs some support across the island of Hispaniola and we hope that by improving our knowledge about this population, which may be the largest remaining, we can help to improve the outlook for the species as a whole. Our work continues on this species and other Hispaniolan endemics. @AndreaThomen is putting the miles in with survey work across the island for her PhD research so we hope to have much more to report in the near future.

Further reading: Geary, M., Brailsford, C.J., Hough, L.I., Baker, F., Guerrero, S., Leon, Y.M., Collar, N.J. and Marsden, S.J., 2021. Street-level green spaces support a key urban population of the threatened Hispaniolan parakeet Psittacara chloropterus. Urban Ecosystems, pp.1-8. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-021-01119-1

Dr Matt Geary (https://mattgeary.github.io/) is a Conservation Ecologist working in the Conservation Biology Research Group at the University of Chester. Twitter: @MattGeary

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Indigenous Engagement

The benefits of
indigenous engagement:
Ethics and Science.

Local knowledge and an awareness of local context can be integral to conducting a variety of research. However, one thing that’s less often considered is the impact of the diversity of the research team itself.

Conservation research by Ward-Fear et al (2019) into the impact of cane toads on yellow-spotted monitor lizards in Australia has unintentionally produced evidence of the scientific benefits of collaborating with local indigenous people.

Large cane toads are spreading through tropical Australia but are fatally toxic if eaten by yellow-spotted monitor lizards. Ward-Fear et al (2016) trained lizards with smaller, non-lethal cane toads and then compared the survival rates of trained and non-trained lizards in the wild over an 18 month period. They found that trained lizards had a greater survival rate than non-trained lizards, suggesting that the training helped the lizards to avoid eating the larger toxic cane toads.

Yet their study also revealed the importance of researcher diversity. In monitoring the population of lizards over 18 months, the research team included western scientists (professional, nonindigenous ecologists) and indigenous rangers (Australian-Aboriginal Traditional Owners of the region).

The indigenous rangers saw lizards from a greater distance, in more dense vegetation, under poorer light levels, and more frequently when the lizard was stationary. Additionally, when assessing the behavioural traits of the lizards, those that were spotted by the indigenous rangers were found to be more shy. What’s more, the ranger caught lizards appeared to benefit more from the training against the toxic cane toads.

All this highlights the importance of cultural diversity within research teams and in particular shows that indigenous collaboration can be utterly crucial for conservation efforts.

Original research:

Training of predatory lizards reduces their vulnerability to invasive toxic prey: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0863

Collaboration with indigenous peoples can alter the outcomes of conservation research: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12643

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Where are all the wildflowers?

Monoculture crops.

Where are all the wildflowers?

Where is all the life?

 

Modern intensive agricultural practices have had a devastating impact upon the native wildlife that inhabits arable land, from the density of worms in the soil to the number of apex predators patrolling the skies. In particular, monoculture crops, herbicides, pesticides and the removal of hedgerows have resulted in depleted numbers of invertebrates and subsequently the numbers and variety of birds and other vertebrates that feed upon them.

The farmer and writer John Lewis-Stempel approached this issue by taking a small arable field in south Herefordshire, UK, and spending a year growing wheat following traditional methods. Whilst sowing a mix of wheat he also sowed various species of wildflower, both in the margins of the field and amongst the crop itself. As the year processed he charted the wildlife that appeared in the field, from harvestmen and worms to hares and barn owls.

The blossoming of life was astonishing, absent in the vast, monoculture fields that dominate much of agricultural Britain. Lewis-Stempel’s work begs the question whether such endeavours if repeated across the countryside could transform the levels of biodiversity in the UK? Are the (supposed) gains that modern intensive farming bring worth the environmental devastation they create? As a consumer I am guilty of benefitting from cheap food, it’s hard not to be. But as Lewis-Stempel says “every time one buys the lie of cheap food a flower or a bird dies”. I do believe in flowers and birds, I do, I do.

I can’t recommend his book documenting the project enough: ‘The Running Hare: The Secret Life of Farmland’. From the quality of the prose to the clearly outlined arguments throughout, it is outstanding. If you care about native species, conservation or agriculture then this is essential reading. For everyone else it’s just highly recommended. (And how nice it is to see Herefordshire getting any form of recognition or acknowledgement in the media).