Yellow-eared Parrot saved from extinction thanks to the Vatican and conservationists

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The celebration of Palm Sunday is a very popular tradition in the Catholic world of Latin America. In Colombia the feathers of the Yellow-eared Parrot have been  used as decorations during this festivity. The local Church intervened trying to get people to change the custom and achieve the recovery of the bird populations.
This proved to be effective over time and people stop killing parakeets.

  However, by 1988 this species had disappeared in the Colombian Andes and the scientific community  was feared that the species had become completely extinct.

The Loro Parque Fundación (http://www.loroparque-fundacion.org/) indicated that the last 20 specimens were found in Ecuador and after a year of searching a population of 81 individuals was found in the community of Roncesvalles in the Central Andes of Colombia. Subsequently, in January 2001, a second population of 63 individuals appeared in Jardín, in the Department of Antioquia.

Since that time, protection efforts have been continuous and the recovery has been so successful that in 2010 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reduced the threat category of the Yellow-eared Parrot from critically endangered to endangered according to the Journal El Espectador on September 12.  That is really good news!

This is a story of success and positivism that you can read in full in the following article:

International team of scientists declare the Yellow-eared Parrot saved from extinction thanks to conservation action https://proaves.org/en/international-team-of-scientists-declare-the-yellow-eared-parrot-saved-from-extinction-thanks-to-conservation-action/

Wildbird Tours organizes birdwatching tours and photography trips to Costa Rica and Panama. Birding groups, customized birding holidays and bird watching vacations anywhere in Costa Rica.

Note: This is a series of articles about birds of the Neotropics.  The species of birds that will be covered in this collection of articles are toucans, quetzal, motmots, manakins, tanagers, and many other species.

  The articles do not have a scientific format, but rather have a general informative character. The text is the product of the investigation of works written on the subject, although bibliographic citations are not provided.

Wildbird is a tour operator agency that organizes birdwatching trips to Costa Rica and Panama. Tours for photography and birding holidays.