BlO—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 21,1984
Demand for
threatens
In biblical times, Hebrew sailors
would bring macaws, the brightly
colored parrots of the tropics, to
the Court of Solomon.
Were Solomon as wise as he is
purported to be, he might have
discouraged the practice, because
today the very survival of these
birds is threatened by their in
creasing popularity as pets in
America, according to the current
issue of National Wildlife
magazine.
They bring high prices some
sell for $30,000 apiece but the
birds themselves may be paying
the highest price of all. Faced with
continued raids on their
populations by fortune-hunters and
increasing losses of habitat to
development, many species are in
trouble, according to the bi
monthly publication of the
National Wildlife Federation.
Distinguished from other parrots
by their bare facial skin, large
beaks and long tail feathers,
macaws are now found throughout
parts of the tropics from Mexico to
Argentina. One species of macaw,
the hyacinth, measures 40 inches
from head to tail. In the nineteenth
century, reports National Wildlife,
flocks of more than 300 macaws,
which tend to roost in groups, were
commonplace. Today a flock of
more than three dozen macaws is a
rare sight.
It’s no coincidence that the
decline in macaw populations
parallels an upturn in their
popularity as pets. Forty million
Americans keep birds in their
offices or homes; parrot sales
along account for $3OO million in
sales a year. Consequently, the
volume of parrots imported into
the United States has doubled in
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species
the last decade, according to
TRAFFIC, a World Wildlife Fund
sponsored group that recently
completed an extensive study on
macaw trade. And as imports have
increased, so has smuggling.
More than 90 percent of all birds
seized by U.S. customs officials
are parrots. Smugglers, who can
avoid the red tape of legal im
portation, are tantalized by the
high price-tags macaws carry. In
pet stores, their brightly colored
plumes bring prices that range
from $5OO to $30,000. “Pound for
pound,” said one customs agent,
“a parrot is worth more to a
smuggler than marijuana.”
Current means of trapping
macaws in the wild inflict their
own damages on these birds, ac
cording to the magazine. When
nesting trees are cut down to
retrieve baby parrots, valuable
and increasingly scarce nesting
sites for other birds are destroyed.
Young birds are often killed when
their nests crash to the ground.
For the birds who survive this
kind of treatment, more abuse
awaits them on their travels to the
United States. To quiet these
natural talkers, smugglers feed
them tranquilizers, chloroform or
corn meal mixed with tequila so
that border officials won’t be
alerted by the bird’s squealing and
squawking.
The irony of all this “macaw
madness,’’ as National Wildlife
calls it, is that macaws don’t make
great pets. They have been known
to use their powerful beaks, which
help them to feed on nuts in the
wild, to tear apart cages and even
furniture in private homes. Many
(Turn to Page Bill
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Try this
acorn puzzle!
ACROSS
Kind of willow tree
We get syrup from it,
Evergreen tree.
First two letters of a tree’s
covenng.
Some trees lose these in
the fall.
An evergreen that bears
cones,
Its leaves quiver in the
slightest breeze.
Indians used its long
thorns as sewing needles
DOWN
Large tree in danger of
dying out in the U.S. from
disease.
Tall, slender tree some
times planted in rows.
A pine tree’s leaves.
Liquid inside a tree.
Fruit of fir and pine trees
In the fall when all the
leaves drop off a tree,
it’s
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A tree with whitish bark
Wood used for making
baseball bats.
Wood of the Douglas fir
is used for making rail-
road
Tree that lias acorns
4-/9-91
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