The Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) is a critically endangered bird. This USA's only living native parrot species is one of the ten most endangered birds in the world. It may be (possibly) the world’s rarest wild parrot. The accusing finger is pointing towards global climate change.
The bird was declared federally endangered in 1967, and by 1975 just 13 individual parrots occupied a patch of rainforest habitat in the Caribbean National Forest. The species is the only remaining native parrot in Puerto Rico and has been listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union since 1994.
Puerto Rico is an island that is away from mainstream American culture. Rivers are drying out and hence plants and animals are facing extinction. If the levels of pollution continue to rise, it is possible that Puerto Rico’s island paradise can become a wasteland in just a matter of years.Pollution has attacked the aquatic ecosystem directly by diminishing the levels of plankton that once thrived superfluously in Puerto Rico’s crystalline water. The root cause of the problem is the ongoing production of waste created by factories. Economic growth is also responsible for driving a lot of the island’s creature on the border of extinction.
By the mid 1970's only a handful of individuals were thought to remain.Captive breeding programs in Rio Abajo and El Yunque and the release of these birds have had some success, but the number of these birds in the wild is still very low.
The first sequence of this large Neotropical Amazona bird, A. vittata, has been published by a genomic sequencing project in BioMed Central and BGI's open access journal GigaScience on Sept. 28 2012.
The Parrot is quite large, about a foot-long. it has a red forehead with thick white eye-rings, flesh-colored bill and feet. It reproduces annually. the female lays eggs and incubates them till they hatch. the chicks receive both motherly and fatherly love. Both males and females have predominantly green plumage, though their feathers have blue edges. The juvenile birds have plumage similar to adults. The primary flight feathers of the wings and the main covert feathers are dark blue. The color of the feathers on the underside varies depending on the body part: the feathers on the underside of the wings, which can be seen during flight, are bright blue; those in the tail have yellow-green tone.
The bird was declared federally endangered in 1967, and by 1975 just 13 individual parrots occupied a patch of rainforest habitat in the Caribbean National Forest. The species is the only remaining native parrot in Puerto Rico and has been listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union since 1994.
Puerto Rico is an island that is away from mainstream American culture. Rivers are drying out and hence plants and animals are facing extinction. If the levels of pollution continue to rise, it is possible that Puerto Rico’s island paradise can become a wasteland in just a matter of years.Pollution has attacked the aquatic ecosystem directly by diminishing the levels of plankton that once thrived superfluously in Puerto Rico’s crystalline water. The root cause of the problem is the ongoing production of waste created by factories. Economic growth is also responsible for driving a lot of the island’s creature on the border of extinction.By the mid 1970's only a handful of individuals were thought to remain.Captive breeding programs in Rio Abajo and El Yunque and the release of these birds have had some success, but the number of these birds in the wild is still very low.
The first sequence of this large Neotropical Amazona bird, A. vittata, has been published by a genomic sequencing project in BioMed Central and BGI's open access journal GigaScience on Sept. 28 2012.
The Parrot is quite large, about a foot-long. it has a red forehead with thick white eye-rings, flesh-colored bill and feet. It reproduces annually. the female lays eggs and incubates them till they hatch. the chicks receive both motherly and fatherly love. Both males and females have predominantly green plumage, though their feathers have blue edges. The juvenile birds have plumage similar to adults. The primary flight feathers of the wings and the main covert feathers are dark blue. The color of the feathers on the underside varies depending on the body part: the feathers on the underside of the wings, which can be seen during flight, are bright blue; those in the tail have yellow-green tone.
No comments:
Post a Comment