Many of us grew up knowing at least one parrot that we loved to listen to as it mindlessly mouthed any phrase its master had drummed into its yellow - head. But while these pretty polly's were celebrated house pets just 15 years ago, it is now illegal to own one. The widespread sale and capture of these birds has decimated their population, so much so that the yellow-head has been tagged as an endangered species. Conservation NGO, Programme for Belize is hoping to save the local yellow-head population with an awareness campaign that, if successful, will re-populate yellow-head communities. But as I found out, they're getting no help from the birds themselves - who are talking their way right into captivity:
Indira Craig reporting,
Indira Craig
It's this singular gift of gab that set these birds apart. They're charming, exotic, and irresistible. In fact they may be the perfect pet - faithfully mimicking their master's every word.
Gina Young
The parrot is very smart and it's very well able to imitate voices and sounds and for that reason people believe they can talk. Actually they can't, but that's the reason they love to have them in cages and have them as pets.
Indira Craig
To human beings it's seen as a special ability, but for the parrots it's been a recipe for disaster, and unwittingly their singular skill has been the key to their demise. They are in high demand by pet owners who want to hear that darling voice saying their name. This demand has made them a valuable commodity for those in the trade - but its put an undue pressure on indigenous bird populations. In Belize, parrot poaching is illegal, but that fact has done little to safeguard these endangered birds.
Gina Young
We have noticed, especially in our area that the hunter men have been going into the pine savannahs and seeking these parrots from the time that they are at the chicks stage and selling them to people in the urban areas and then they have them as pets in cages. They have now come under conservation concern, they are being classified as endangered which means that they are two steps away from being extinct actually.
Indira Craig
So to ensure that these birds are around for our future generations, not in cages, but free in nature, Programme for Belize has undertaken an awareness campaign to educate the public. The message is: yellow heads don't exist to entertain us, they have what should be an inviolable home in the wild. While it is a hardline, they're not sermonizing, they're looking for the community's help.
Gina Young
That's exactly the message that we are trying to bring out to the public. We want to make them aware of the fact that if they don't stop the problem right now, we won't have these parrots later on to, in future generations we won't have them around, we won't see them flying out in the wild.
The awareness campaign is targeting communities across the country where these birds are widely traded.