Tropical birds like parrots with their bright colours and high IQs are in trouble within their native environments.
Deforestation, hunting for pets, and other related factors have put over fifty types of parrots on the verge of being wiped out from the face of the earth. The most affected are several species of baby parrots, and their survival is very important for the constant parrot population.
But the lively application of conventional practices in conserving natural resources has not been very successful, hence the search for efficiency measures.
There is one such revolutionary approach that is an unconventional strategy, and this particular method looks like it might just save these avian infants from becoming endangered.
The Unconventional Approach: Parrot Adoption and foster
Explaining this unproven strategy is the essence of this article, since it’s a cross between fostering and adoption.
Unlike the previous approaches to managing species diversity and distribution, such as in-situ measures including habitat rehabilitation or anti-poaching policies, this strategy calls for a unique fostering system. In this approach, the baby parrots that have no parents or whose parents are dead are nurtured by other parrots in controlled settings.
These foster parents are usually healthy normal parrots that have been hand-reared to help in the rearing of the chicks. This method enables the baby parrots to get the kind of attention they require to grow and be protected from the many dangers there are a round the world today that threaten the survival of wild parrots.
Implementation and Success Stories
Such an approach is time-consuming and needs effective planning and coordination when it is being implemented. Conservationists collaborate with other field officers and lead avian trainers so that surrogate parrots are well trained and the fostered chicks are well raised.
This is mainly done in an attempt to mimic the natural conditions as closely as possible: Diet, their interaction with other animals, as well as toys and other forms of environmental stimulation. Several conservation programs show that this approach is effective by sharing a number of success stories.
For instance, the Yellow-Eared Parrot, which was recently listed as a species at the brink of extinction, has been revived in the areas where this fostering process has been implemented. Today the productivity ratio of the fostered chicks has enhanced and it increases the number and there is a positive prognosis for this species.
Challenges and Future Prospects
However, this method is not without any problems, as has been noted above. Many people, however, feel that establishing the fostered parrot population may not possess the necessary genetic diversity.
It is important that these fostered birds should be able to find a place within a healthy breeding gene pool within the wild. Further, the costs and resources needed to continue such programs can again be intensive.
But as time goes on and technology, along with techniques, improves, then these problems are solved. Research and development work is concerned with improving the foster care practices and how they may be incorporated with other works to help coming up with a strategy to protect these parrots.
A Beacon of Hope
This unique approach therefore is a ray of hope in the battle against the possible extinction of parrots. Using modern techniques of fostering and the application of conventional methods of conservation, researchers and conservationists are reaching great milestones in an endeavor to protect baby parrots and consequently the birds.
It remains a valid and increasingly successful approach as the future development of this method holds more answers to the general problems of endangered species across the globe.
This method successfully speaks volumes that the parrot population is in excellent health and also that to gain such results, creativity should be employed for the benefits of the respective species.
ASH CK