The Neotrópico Foundation and the Department of Environment and Animal Welfare of the City Council of La Laguna have launched a program for the control of the populations of Kramer’s parakeet (Psittacula krameri) in the municipality, with non-lethal procedures but through its capture with traps.
At this time, the entity is finishing the testing phase to determine the best work methodology and the best locations, although it has already been concluded that “the Long Way is where there are the greatest number of specimens, between 15 and 20, and where there are greater risk because it is where the palm trees are, which is one of the main species affected by this exotic invader because when they make their nests they make holes in the palm trees and end up killing them. And, furthermore, they compete with Canarian species and can transmit diseases to them”, explains Jaime de Urioste, president and research coordinator of Fundación Neotrópico.
For this reason, from the foundation they are focusing the work on this point, which “is the area where we should emphasize the most and now we are determining the best time of day to put them, because it is an area where many people pass through and they end up scaring away to the parrots”, he points out.
Although they have been working on this test phase for around a month to determine the best point to place the traps, since “the information we had was that they were mostly in La Vega park and traps were placed there and some flew by but that’s really not where they are. We have also cheated on the roofs of some private homes that have collaborated, and the same thing, the parrots pass over it but do not stay in the area”, says Jaime de Urioste, finally seeing that where they are most concentrated, and have made nests, it is on the Long Road.
“What does not mean that they later appear in La Vega park or La Concepción square, because they are animals that fly kilometers although they end up returning to the place where they are making nests or where there is more food,” he points out. This makes it difficult to have a concrete estimate of the number of specimens that may be in the municipality, “because they are animals that move a lot and no scientific study has been done, we only have very approximate estimates, but what is in the urban area of La Laguna could have between 30-50”, he indicates.
The work to capture the specimens consists of the installation of Larsen-type traps, which “have three cubicles, a central one where a couple of parrots are located with a roof and shade and water and food, and on the sides there are two others where food is placed. Generally, when a trap is set, the feral parrots do not approach it because they are afraid, but when they see that there is food and that in one of the cubicles there are two other calm parrots eating, they think that nothing is wrong and they approach and trap them. The traps have a door that is activated by a spring and when it lands on a stick, it falls and the spring acts and the trap is closed with the parrot inside”, explains the president of the foundation.
Although it is laborious work, he points out, because these parrots are “very intelligent and very distrustful animals, and we have to gradually get them used to the presence of the trap so that they get closer. But once we start the captures, everything will probably go much faster, but we are still in the phase of getting used to the presence of the traps”.
In this sense, he points out that when, for example, they have worked in La Granja park, in Santa Cruz, “we have captured them by placing the traps at ground level and thus we have captured more than 90 parrots, the problem is that here when the parrots are about to enter someone comes with a dog or jogging or comes to look… and the parrots get scared and you have lost all day trapping”.
For this reason, “for the first time we are using a scaffolding that is placed on the ground and then the traps are about two meters high, and the area is also cordoned off so that people do not access it. So, the animals already feel a little calmer”. They are also trying to locate some on rooftops near the area, to achieve the greatest possible effectiveness.
The president of the Neotrópico Foundation emphasizes that in this program “we have a zero sacrifice policy.” “These animals are captured, microchipped, quarantined and then kept in permanent storage at our facilities until they die of old age. They are not allowed to breed but they are not slaughtered,” he explains.
