Low abundance of the Endangered timneh parrot Psittacus timneh in one of its presumed strongholds

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  • Simon Valle
  • Nigel Collar
    BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK
  • Benjamin Barca
    Royal Society for the Protection of Birds/ Gola Rainforest National Park
  • Patrick Dauda
    Royal Society for the Protection of Birds/ Gola Rainforest National Park
  • Stuart Marsden
    Manchester Metropolitan University
Although both the grey parrot Psittacus erithacus and the recently recognized timneh parrot Psittacus timneh are categorized as Endangered because of harvest for the pet trade and loss of habitat, the latter has a much smaller range
and may be largely restricted to a few stronghold areas. In March–April 2018 we surveyed for a total of 114 hours in and around one of these presumed strongholds, the large and well-protected Gola Rainforest National Park, the
Sierra Leonean portion of the Gola Transboundary Peace Park. Timneh parrots were encountered at a rate of 0.1 groups/h in the National Park and 0.3 in the buffer zone, indicating densities of 1-3 individuals per km2. These figures are similar to recent density estimates from the Liberian side of the Peace Park, suggesting that the transboundary population amounts to c. 2,400 individuals inside the Park and an unknown number in the surrounding areas. Densities of the timneh parrot may be generally low even in strongholds, its numbers may be declining steeply, and the global population size is probably lower than previously believed.

Keywords

  • Conservation, Encounter rate, Grey Parrot, Psittacus timneh, Sierra Leone, West Africa, wildlife trade
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)74-76
Number of pages3
JournalOryx
Volume54
Issue number1
Early online date4 Oct 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2020

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