Creature Feature: Vasa Parrots.

Oh! A Creature Feature! It's been a while, hasn't it? Let's look at the weirdest parrot you've eeeeveer seen:

This long-legged, uncanny parrot is a Greater Vasa parrot (Coracopsis vasa). Vasa parrots of all species are native to Madagascar (AKA "that African island with lemurs that got a movie series." Yes, you can get them as pets, but please do your homework.

First of all, these parrots are black. Not gray like an African Gray, not iridescent - gray-black. It's not glossy black, like a crow, but more of a matte black - charcoal black, if you will. That's virtually the last color one expects from a parrot. The pinkish bill stands out, too, making for a striking bird on the whole.

Vasas are thought to be among the most primitive of parrots. Some of you who keep up with animal news might remember a deal a while back when it was found that not all "raptors" - that is, eagles, falcons, hawks, and owls - were related. In fact, parrots are quite closely related to falcons, and the vasa's got some pretty good evidence of this, starting with being a hunting parrot. Females are also larger and dominant, as they are in birds of prey. They also have another very primitive trait that I will get to later, but

Then these parrots start showing their mating colors. What, do I mean that the black suddenly erupts into multicolored plumage? Oh, I wish; vasa parrots have a much stranger mating patterns. Mating groups are open, to say the least, with any given female having 3-8 males in her non-exclusive manharem. The skin of the female turns yellow-orange beneath her feathers while she's tending young...and then she becomes bald so that everybody can see it:

Vasa are also the only parrots to have hemipenes. The cloaca, usually dickless, everts when the birds are mating. The lock can last for up to an hour. That's probably more than you ever wanted to know about parrot sex, but there you go. 

Wild Fest 2013 Coverage!

Today was the 2013 Wild Fest! I had no idea how to get there or how big it would be. It turned out to be relatively easy to find and a small exhibit that fit into a Sunday afternoon nicely. A lot of wildlife centers in IL were present. So, without further ado...pictures!

SOAR (Save Our American Raptors) had a booth at the show. FYI, "raptors" here means "Birds of prey" - let's not go Jurassic Park here. They had a lot of owls, a peregrine falcon (the fastest animal in the world) and a bald eagle. While we were not allowed to touch the raptors, they were still awesome to see. How often do you get up-close and personal with a bald eagle, after all?

Animals for Awareness had a lot. Parrots, hedgehogs, and an albino male boa were pretty much par for the course. What I did not expect was the kinkajou - a smallish Central and South American mammal related to raccoons. She was very active, so unfortunately, my pictures sucked. Fret not; I will call them about volunteering opportunities.



Incredible Bats was just that: A bunch of awesome fruit bats that people could see right in front of them. Both species (Egyptian and Straw-Colored) were from Africa, which is usually not praised fro its fruit bats. Alas, bats are nocturnal, and these guys were not very interested in the fruit we offered them.

Jim Nesci is something of a legend among reptile people. He uses exotic reptiles for a lot of educational shows and appears regularly at ReptileFest and NARBC. We just missed his big display involving an albino Burmese python. BUBBA was there, too; check out the little girl getting a ride on an alligator's back!

Finally, Big Run Wolf Ranch made it to this awesome exhibition. Neither Shanoa nor Zeus wanted to show up; instead of the standard gray wolf, we got to see Canuck (sp?), a British Columbian wolf. These wolves are actually the ranch owner's favorite, sparting dark coats, brilliant yellow-green eyes, and a white mark on the chest. It's a shame I couldn't figure out how to get my camera to shoot right. Kirby II was there as well.

This was a pretty awesome event, if small. With only so much space to work with and so much time, it's pretty easy to see everything in an hour. Stick around for a show; you won't regret it.

Creature Feature: Rose-ringed Parakeet.

As Black Friday edges ever closer, be on the lookout for "robo-pets." These are cute, often remote-controlled amusements that will sate one's interest for a while, but generally get boring fast. They never quite have the thrill of a real animal; alas, moms generally will not buy their kids real tigers and cheetahs.



Wait a sec. That's a real bird?

Yep. He's a ringnecked, or rose-ringed, parakeet (Psittacula krameri). Specifically, he's most likely an Indian Ringneck Parakeet (P. krameri manillensis), the most common in the trade. These parrots are native to a small little ribbon in Africa and a much larger proportion of India, hence the name. There are several subspecies in this relatively wide range, which is only getting wider with time.

Unlike many common pet parrots, female and male rose-ringed parakeets are easy to tell apart: the male has a ring and the female doesn't. This is only visible in adult birds, however. Both make equally good pets, although it's usually said that male birds will talk more readily. For your convenience, they come in many colors, including blue, green, yellow (lutino) and albino. That said, please don't get one without doing your research; parrots are fairly high-maintenance as far as pets go.

Ringnecks are probably the oldest species of domesticated parrot. They go back to at least 200 B.C., when Indian religious leaders began keeping them for their ability to mimic human speech. The Greeks and Romans were also fond of the various ringnecks, meaning that keeping them goes back even farther in India. The ringnecks became even more popular in the 1920's, when birdkeepers started to breed them for the bright color palette seen above. Of course, the birds' intelligent, charming temperament helped in maintaining their popularity.

That said, this popularity has yielded an expected, yet still somehow surprising, result: Feral parrots. Everywhere. The U.S., Japan, South Africa (which isn't too far from home, really), Italy, and the war-torn Middle East all have thriving feral parrot populations. Even Australia has these guys. These birds are that hardy and adaptive to human "disturbances," plus they get so much yummy bird seed in those feeders. One wouldn't expect to see them in the U.K., but there ya go. India's revenge on the Brits is cute and feathery. No word on anything Hitchcock would write, though.

They still seem to be conspiring against us...

Creature Feature: Palm Cockatoo.

Aww, parrots! Pirate references aside, there are few things that have the charm of a rainbow-colored, bright-eyed hookbill. There is very little bad to be said about parrots (unless you try owning one - then you get dust issues). Overall, they're happy, brightly-colored, intelligent, fun-loving birds.

Then you remember they have beaks. Parrots have strong, heavy beaks that can crush nuts with ease. Seriously, your finger is screwed if a large parrot bites it. If only they had the aggressive look to match that badassery...

(From thepetwiki.)

....yep, perfect candidate for "heavy metal parrot," there.

The Palm Cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus) is probably the best parrot-y logo for a band ever. It crushes nuts for food, which is a good threat to anybody's masculinity.  It is native to Indonesia, New Guinea, and northern Australia. Unlike many of the creatures in that range, the palm cockatoo is nowhere near endangered. This is somewhat of a miracle, but more on why later.

Palm cockatoos are in a class all their own. No, really; they're the only members of their genus. Molecular testing says that they're distantly related from most other cockatoos.  If any cockatoo is an ancient cockatoo, it's probably the Palm.



Genetics talk aside, palm cockatoos are impressive birds to look at. They're the largest species of cockatoo in the world. Those red patches get brighter if the cockatoo gets stressed, making them one of the few birds that can change color. Their bill size is second only to that of the hyacinth macaw. Again, please think about that before you piss one of these birds off. (Is this guy nuts?)

These cockatoos have one of the neatest-sounding behaviors in the world: they drum. As in, they take a seed pod or heavy stick and drum it against a dead tree. Nobody really knows why they do this - dress rehearsal, perhaps? Their vocal repertoire isn't lacking, either, sporting a large vocabulary, a variety of whistles, and a call that sounds like a human's "hello." These guys truly are the rock stars of the parrot world!

You lookin' at me?

Palm cockatoos are available in the exotic pet trade with a price tag over 5,000 USD (I've seen snakes worth more). I'm honestly surprised they are not worth more; one of the candidates for "good pet" is a relatively fast breeding rate compared to humans. Some palm cockatoos do not breed until their 30's or 40's. They also live into their 80's, so if you do happen to be able to afford one, be sure to provide for it in your will.

Also...they can eat meat.

Creature Feature: Spix's Macaw.

For the last two weeks or so, I've been reading The Lizard King. Long story short, it's a book on the dark side of the exotic pet industry - smuggling. Virtually every animal in Petco was, at some point in its history, taken from the wild and smuggled into captivity. A lot of common pets actually come from Australia, a place known for strict wildlife laws. Thank smugglers for every cockatiel, budgerigar, and bearded dragon outside of Oz.

Most people would, off the top of their heads, say that taking animals from their wild habitats is a bad thing. Businesspeople and zoos aren't stupid; they know that, to have a future in their business, they have to sustain populations of these animals. For all the ill smuggling brings, there is a silver lining to the cloud: Sometimes, a captive-bred population is all an animal has.



Enter the Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii). Native to only to the Bahia state of Brazil, this bird was cited in The Lizard King as being extinct in the wild, but having three members in one man's captive collection. It is small as macaws go, being up to 2 feet in length. It is so endangered that we are not sure whether or not it has any wild relatives. 

In this case, the Spix's Macaw was hit two-fold. Not only was the Amazon rainforest already under threat (do you like hamburgers? You just killed a parrot if you said yes), but the Spix nested in only one type of tree: the Caribbean Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia aurea). These trees were unsustainable for timber. The Africanized bee and exotic pet collection did not help, either. Ironic that captive breeding is the only thing keeping this species alive.



Currently, the only known Spix's Macaws are in captivity. Various zoos have been able to breed them largely thanks to animal smugglers. It is becoming more and more the situation that zoos are evolving into "living museums." We're living unsustainably, and, knowing how humans work, we will continue to do so. There are somewhere around 85 of these birds in captivity. Until its natural habitat can be restored, the Spix's Macaw must join the Scimitar-Horned Oryx on the list of "extinct in the wild."

From the movie. Yeeep.

Aside from The Lizard King, the only other media outlet that has really covered these birds is the movie Rio. Although the movie says Rio and his mate are "blue macaws," their rarity and scientific name point to Spix's. Subtle reference is subtle, but still there.

Freak Week 3.5: English Parakeets.

Now, here's a good question: Why, of all the creatures in the world, has the ever-popular budgerigar escaped this blog? Sure, they aren't very strange, but they are amazing in their own right and the author has personally kept several. Alas, it's hard to fit them in. Parakeets/budgies have very little going for them in terms of breeds, and even regular budgie hobbyists have mixed feelings about the one true breed budgies have:



That big, fluffy head means that the parakeet above is an English budgerigar. Isn't it British enough for you? Carry on. Stop in for tea and crumpets later!

English budgies are characterized by that big, poofy head, extended mask spots, and being twice the size of a normal budgerigar. The skull is not any bigger, proportionately - all those feathers are just feathers. They are not good flyers and will usually squat on perches for long amounts of time.

Blue British, green normal. From The Budgie Place.

English budgies are the only budgies with vague show standards. Breeders are supposedly meticulously clean about their birdies before an exhibition, going so far as to trim the mask and fluffy feathers so that everything looks nice and neat. No doubt dog enthusiasts take their precious pooches to the groomer's before a show...but birds do not have that luxury.

Unfortunately, these birds, much like overly-fluffy dogs, have issues. They have been so extensively bred that their lifespan is virtually cut in half (a good budgie will live 15-20 years if properly cared for; an English, 7-11). Breeding too many English budgies can also result in what are called  "feather dusters." Feather dusters are so fluffy that they only live for a few months.

Budgies seem to be at that critical crossroads where owners are fully aware that breeds exist, but wonder if they're really the right thing for the species as a whole. Nobody has a problem breeding for simple color variations. It's when British budgies - a breed so different from regular budgies it's uncanny - show up that people start raising eyebrows. Bird owners are not like dog owners were eons ago. They realize that the English budgie has a weak gene pool to work with, and will probably fade out of existence in the long run.

Creature Feature: Lovebirds!

Happy Love Day! C'mon, don't kid yourselves; nobody cares about St. Valentine. We care about exchanging cutesy cards, chocolate, and flowers. And, of course, love. Take that however you will.

 

 Awww, lovebirds! Even if you are not a big bird person, you have probably seen lovebirds around. They are popular, herbivorous parrots from Africa. (There is also a feral population in Arizona.) Even their generic name, Agapornis, means "lovebird." The species of lovebird are grouped, however vaguely, by whether they are sexually dimorphic or if they have rings around their eyes. Overall, they are similar enough to lump under one entry. Pick your favorite color palette and go, really.

Now in cute!

 

Lovebirds are social. They are monogamous and thrive on each others' company. They are intelligent parrots that can bond so deeply with their parents that they preen their favorite humans. Talking is uncommon, but the more interaction your lovebird gets, the better. They also like a variety of foods, ranging from seeds to flowers to bok-choy. Most health foods are perfectly fine for lovebirds, but avoid mushrooms, potatoes, and uncooked onions. Theoretically, the lovebird can eat your table scraps, just like a mammal might.

Lovebirds have some weird nesting habits. Some nest in termite mounds. Others carry bits of nest materials in their feathers. The Masked Lovebird does the sane thing and carries material in its beak. As soon as the nest is built, the lovebirds get busy. One egg is laid until the nest has a clutch of four to six. Awww.

And then you find out how much work a baby parrot can be. These two are named Jellybean and Starburst, but no, they aren't mine.

Before you buy these birds, however, there are a few factors to consider. One, parrots are very talkative. Two, lovebirds in particular need to spend a lot of time bonding with each other and humans. Three, if one of the lovebirds passes on, chances are the other will be very depressed. These are social parrots. They need either you around interacting with them all the time or the TV/radio on all the time. Otherwise, you will wind up with aggressive, unhappy birds. Of course, having each other around helps, too.

Creature Feature: Hyacinth Macaw.

, souSome pigments are harder to come by in nature than others. Nearly every type of vertebrate can make black; mammals have a very general black-sepia range; everything else has that and possible iridescence; some reptiles produce a shade that looks a lot like purple to human eyes, often called "lavender" by hobbyists. There is a fairly big color spectrum in any group except mammals.

Nowhere is the pigment for one family quite as diverse as it is in parrots. Parrots can, literally, come in any color of the rainbow. It's obvious on rainbow lorikeets and scarlet macaws, but all parrots are blessed with special pigments unseen in any other vertebrate. More on that here. Parrots have even hit the obscure blue-purple called indigo:

The Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is among the happy few vertebrates to sport not just purple, not just blue, but a strange purplish blue. (Perhaps I can only enjoy this because I am a chick; there is a plethora of information and jokes regarding a woman's color palette VS a man's.) The skin around the beak and eyes are bright gold, a perfect contrast to its azure plumage. It shares its color with Lear's macaw, a far rarer, smaller bird.

The Hyacinth Macaw is the largest flying parrot in the world; those magnificent dark wings spread 120-140 centimeters from tip to tip. This macaw is also the longest parrot at 100 centimeters (39 in) from beak to tail. It is not, however, the heaviest; the title of "world's heaviest parrot" goes to the flightless Kakapo of New Zealand, weighing in at 3.5 Kg. Since that bird is slowly going the way of the dodo, however, expect the Hyacinth Macaw to take its position.



Like many macaws, the Hyacinth Macaw has a strong, hooked bill. It can cut through Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts...even coconuts. If it can break through a coconut, your finger does not have a chance. Do not poke through the cage bars, please.



Speaking of, this bird is severely threatened by the pet industry. Overcollection and habitat loss (specifically due to power plants) are mostly to blame for this beautiful bird's endangered status. Once again, however, natives are people, too; the Hyacinth Macaw's feathers are used in Kayapo headdresses. The bird is also hunted for food by native peoples.

It is also one of the most coveted pets in World of Warcraft. Good luck getting a VIRTUAL Hyacinth!

It's just not easy being purple. Or blue. Or indigo.

Creature Feature: Eclectus Parrots.

Quick. Which bird is male and which is female?

If you guessed the green one for the female...you're wrong. In Eclectus Parrots (Eclectus roratus), the female is bright red and purple. (Seeing one in person today was exciting - the Greek "phoenix" comes from the word for deep red/purple.) This is the opposite case from most sexually dimorphic birds. Both sexes look stunning in their own right.


This could be a manga cover.

These parrots are native to Papua New Guinea and the surrounding islands. They are sometimes considered pests for eating fruit off of trees, but really, birds will do that. These strike me as an animal that would be more valuable alive than dead - their colors make them uncommon in the exotic pet trade. (Also, DAMN YOU Austronesia for having such awesome parrots!)

There are at least nine subspecies and several extinct types of Eclectus, all exhibiting this elaborate dimorphism. The type most commonly found in captivity in the U.S. originates from the Solomon Islands.

Eclectus parrots are the only parrots that exhibit acute sexual dimorphism. The differences between the two are so obvious that they were not considered the same species until the 20th century. I imagine that the only way they found out otherwise was, well...the hard way.


Nice gold under this girl's tail, too! Perfect phoenix palette!

Creature Feature: Kakapo.

While searching for elephant bird information, I came across some comments along the lines of this: "The natives kept the population up just fine;" "It wasn't until Europeans came along that the elephant birds started to go extinct;" "it's a cultural issue, not a problem with humanity." Basically, there was a whole lot of white guilt concerning the elephant bird.

Guys, no. Stop treating natives like they are/were some sort of holy people that can do no wrong. Yes, white people have backhanded everyone at some point in history. We're douchebags. Most of us feel some level of 'sorry' for the crimes that came along with our skin color. There, happy?

That does not in any way absolve the natives from their own crimes. They make/made war just like white people do/did. They kill animals and make awesome clothes out of them, just like rich white people. Ever wonder why the mammoths died out LONG before Europeans got to the U.S.? 'Natives' got them all.

They are humans. Therefore, they will kill flightless birds that are basically really large chickens, messing up the ecology just as much as any other race out there.

New Zealand used to have a bird that could give the elephant bird a run for its money called the moa. Moas were wingless ratites that, before the advent of man, had no natural predators besides a giant eagle. It was like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds meets Jurassic Park.


They revived a couple of Haast's Eagles just for Gandalf.

Then the Maori - considered native people by the Europeans - came with dogs and wreaked havoc on the bird-dominated ecosystem. When they talked about moas and the Europeans wanted to see some, an awkward "uuuhhh..." probably followed.



This is not about the moa. This is about a rare parrot so desperate for some lovin' that it humped a photographer's head:



The Kakapo (Strigops habroptila) is a huge, flightless parrot native to New Zealand. It is nocturnal, herbivorous, and can live for up to 120 years. For a bird, it has an exceptional sense of smell and gives off an odor itself. The Kakapo is the only parrot that engages in lek mating, which you can see more about in the hammerhead bat and prairie chicken entries for if you so desire.



As with the elephant bird and cassowary, these guys are excellent seed dispersers. Whole 'kakapo gardens' have been made where the birds reside.

When humans first came to the island, the kakapo was considered the third most common bird on all three islands of New Zealand. As of right now, there are only 122 kakapo parrots remaining.

Not 10,000. Not 9,001. One hundred and twenty-two birds. Each and every one has a name.



That is a really small number. To put things in perspective, the current amount of giant pandas in the wild is 1,590, with the possibility of a thousand more unchecked individuals. You could fit every single Kakapo out there in a room. The birds are currently on two predator-free islands.

You have probably guessed by now that humans were the cause of this bird's sudden decrease in numbers. As previously stated, there were no mammalian predators at all before humans came to New Zealand.


(We won't even get into what the hobbits did.)

The Kakapo, despite looking dorky, cute and helpless to us, was remarkably well-adapted to avoiding the native predators on New Zealand. For starters, it evolved nocturnal behavior; the only nocturnal predatory birds are owls. Its feathers camouflage it well against the forest floor, and if it senses that it has been spotted, the Kakapo will promptly freeze like a deer caught in headlights. This works wonders when your main enemies are visual predators looking for movement.

For those of you who know absolutely nothing about how mammals hunt, dogs rely more on their senses of smell and hearing than vision. Also, they can hunt at night. Shit. (Later, cats and weasels were thrown into the mix, too. See, the Europeans didn't help the issue, but they were not the first people to screw New Zealand up.)

Wait a minute, these dogs belong to the natives, right? Surely they must be doing something for the Great Spirit above by hunting flightless parrots.


Too cute to die.

Uh...no. Not really.

To be fair, there is not much food on an island like New Zealand. The Kakapos were one of the few sources of good meat. They were also apparently a good source of decorative feathers for capes and, disturbingly enough, had their heads used as earrings.


No luck with the earrings.

So Kakapos were made into capes, earrings, and food. Lovely. How innocent are 'native' humans looking, now?