The P4P Challenge 2010 will support the Parrot International’s Slender-billed Conure Project in Southern Chile, South America.

In October 2008 Parrots International traveled to Southern Chile to fund and assist in the launch of the Slender-billed Conure Project. The Slender-billed Conure in endemic to southern Chile and one of the most southerly occurring of all parrot species. Detailed scientific data on the basic biology and ecology of the species are virtually nonexistent.

Parrots International volunteers participated in the selection of the project site, assisted in the capture of the first Slender-billed Parrots for science, the placement of radio collars, and the collection of radio telemetry data. Parrots International funded the field equipment, the USFWS donated the telemetry receivers, and Dr. Janice Boyd, Ph.D. donated the telemetry transmitters.

The Project’s lead investigators are Dr. Jaime Jimenez, Ph.D. and Ana Bertoldi of the Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile. The Project advisor is Dr. Thomas White, Ph.D. of the USFWS Puerto Rican Parrot Project.

The major goal of the Slender-billed Conure Project is to acquire basic ecological data on the SBP. Such data include nest site selection and nesting behavior, specific data on reproduction chronology and productivity, size of flocks, distribution, abundance and movements in the region, relationship to landscape variables, and habitat used for foraging and other activities. To better understand the impacts of human activities on SBP, these ecological aspects will be studied and compared with agricultural landscapes and native forests. Comparisons between these landscapes will provide information that will allow managers to target specific areas for conservation and to quantify the current impacts of agricultural practices on the ecology of this species. Moreover, the project results will facilitate the identification of specific threats to SBP, the reevaluation of its conservation status, and the proposal of effective conservation measures that promote the sustainable coexistence of SBP and farming activities.

With most parrots, it is usually only when a species has become critically endangered that notice and actions are taken to avert extinction or further decline. Unfortunately, if such actions are taken too late, the necessary conservation measures will have become extremely costly in trms of the human and financial resources needed to overcome the daunting ecological and sociological challenges necessary for recovery efforts. Notable examples include species such as the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) and Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari). The long range goal of the project is to take a more prudent and proactive approach with the SBP to insure that the species does not become a future “crisis case” requiring drastic and costly measures to assure its survival.

January 2009 represented an important milestone in the Project. Parrots International volunteers again self financed their trips to assist. Our trip was timed to coincide with the week before the Slender-billed Conure chicks were expected to begin fledging from their nests hight in the beech trees. Slender-billed next almost exclusively in old growth beech trees (Nothofagus). The continued habitat fragmentation and felling of these old growth Nothofagus trees represents the greatest threat to the Slender-billed Conure.

The goal of the PI volunteers was to climb the next tree, lower the chicks to the team at the base of the tree to allow them to place radio collars, leg bands, inspect and weigh the chicks, obtain DNA samples and return them to their nests to fledge naturally. The 18 chicks would then allow the project members to track the flocks with telemetry equipment and begin to understand the natural history of the Slender-billed Conure and how they use their increasingly fragmented habitat.

Winning Prizes

The highest fund raising group will receive the following items (may change depending on the year):