Africa’s Most Endangered Parrot Fighting for Survival

South Africa’s Hogsback State Forest is a magical preserve of
dewy ferns and giant trees covered in a fuzzy lichen called old
man’s beard. Rumor has it that the region’s mist-wreathed hills and
plunging waterfalls inspired the literary imagination of J.R.R.
Tolkien, the South
African^[1]-born author of the
Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Hogsback^[2] is a haven for
yellowwoods, South Africa’s national tree. Logging companies favor
the tall evergreen for furniture, and since the late 1800s they’ve
razed 60 percent of the country’s yellowwood forests.

The widespread loss of these native trees has had dire
consequences for South Africa’s only native parrot^[3], the Cape parrot, which
relies on yellowwoods for food and nesting cavities. An often-fatal
virus called psittacine beak and feather disease has also taken a
toll. The virus’s origins are debated, but research suggests wild
parrots may have caught it from captive birds kept in aviaries.
(Learn
more about the impacts of deforestation^[4].)

Today the Cape parrot bears the dubious title of Africa’s rarest
parrot, with remnant populations spread among three isolated forest
patches in the South African provinces of Eastern Cape, Limpopo,
and KwaZulu-Natal. But teams of dedicated researchers are toiling
to better understand the little-known species and reverse its
downward spiral.

Balanced high on the rim of a hollow tree, a male Cape parrot
cocks his yellow head, ablaze in the morning light. “He’s checking
us out,” says Cassie Carstens, research manager at the Wild Bird
Trust’s Cape Parrot
Project^[5], as we sit motionless in
a grove of yellowwoods in Hogsback State Forest. A flash of emerald
feathers and the male disappears into a dark cavity where his mate
is likely incubating eggs.

Cassie and spouse Kate Carstens are the power couple of Cape
parrot research. They bushwhack through thorny vegetation to find
hidden nests, and brave the 4 a.m. chill to follow the birds’
squawking calls, observe their courtship rituals, and study their
every behavior. (Read why
birds matter, and are worth protecting^[6].)

Constantly on the hunt for yellowwood seeds, Cape parrots fly
great distances—easily over 60 miles a day—to find trees that are
in fruit. But when their preferred food isn’t available they adapt,
eating as many as 30 different types of seeds, nuts, and fruits,
though it’s unknown if such substitutes are as nutritious as their
mainstay.

Africa’s Rarest Parrot
Filmed Mating for the First Time Conservationists
filmed the intimate footage while monitoring the bird, which
numbers only 1,500.

At a small pecan orchard about an hour from Hogsback, Cassie
hands me a nutshell that a parrot had deftly cracked open. Miming
with his hand, he demonstrates how the bird would have grasped the
nut in its left claw, flipped it, and gnawed away.

As we walk through the copse of bare-limbed trees, pecan shells
crunching under our feet, Carstens happily recalls the February day
when he saw nearly 600 Cape parrots soaring over the orchard.

There are reports of children from a nearby town using
slingshots to down the birds and sell them alive for 200 rand, or
about 15 U.S. dollars. Such incidents reveal a lack of awareness
and appreciation for a bird that should be valued as a national
treasure, say its advocates.

The Carstens are based in the village of Hogsback that’s home to
1,000 people and hundreds of Cape parrots. Flocks of the rare birds
can often be spotted winging overhead at dawn and dusk.

Over breakfast at a Hogsback hotel, I chat with a group of
tourists exploring the town’s gardens, which have whimsical names
like Fairy Realm, Labyrinth, and Mirrors Gallery and Garden. The
visitors have never heard of Cape parrots, and they’re surprised to
learn that such rare birds soar over the gardens several times a
day.

When I mention this to Kate Carstens, she’s visibly
frustrated.

“This is known as a mystical place of fairies and forests,” she
says. “But here’s this magical bird endemic to South Africa, and
many people don’t even know it exists.”

To help increase awareness of the Cape parrot’s presence,
Colleen
Downs^[7], a zoologist at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal, founded the Cape Parrot Big Birding
Day.

“Numbers have stayed stable in the last 10 years, which we
didn’t expect,” says Downs, who has studied the birds for
decades.

That stability is owed in part to laws requiring anyone who
wants to keep a Cape parrot as a pet to obtain a special permit.
But, says Downs, “it doesn’t mean they don’t want them.”

To keep track of captive birds and their origins, Downs teamed
up with geneticist Sandi
Willows-Munro^[8]
to create an official Cape parrot studbook. Willows-Munro has
identified molecular markers in the birds’ DNA that allow her to
identify individual parrots.

“Combining genetic analysis with a good studbook,” Willows-Munro
says, “will make it possible to determine if a parrot is captive
born or has been taken from the wild.”

To give Cape parrots a chance to rebuild their numbers, South
Africa needs to protect at least 18 percent of its indigenous
yellowwood forest, says Steve Boyes, scientific director for the
Wild Bird Trust. Boyes, also a National
Geographic explorer^[9], is working to establish
a 45,000-acre refuge for the birds.

Meanwhile, the Cape Parrot Project manages yellowwood nurseries
in Hogsback State Forest, supplying seeds and seedlings to growers
in a neighboring village and buying the seedlings back when they’re
large enough to plant. (Related: “Restoring Trees to Save South Africa’s Rarest
Parrot^[10].”)

One afternoon, Cassie walks proudly through the micronursery in
Sompondo village, a collection of small houses in a valley below
Hogsback. The village is surrounded on all sides by tall forest
ridges, a mosaic of greens interrupted by the occasional
waterfall.

In the shaded greenhouse, each owner cares for a small section
of baby yellowwoods at different stages of development. Right now,
they’re mostly leafy sprouts about a foot high, lined up in
pots.

But before long, these tiny trees will take root in the
hillsides around us, growing taller and stronger until the
long-anticipated day when their canopies are again filled with the
chatter of South Africa’s native parrot.