Herlitz Davis, a graduate student in biology at Jamaica's University of West Indies, knows well the twists, turns, and steep climbs of a 12-mile trail that cuts through the forests of "Cockpit Country," the largest wild area on the island. The Arawaks, an indigenous group vanquished by the Spanish in the 14th century, likely cut the passage through the trees. Africans fleeing slavery on coffee, cacao, and sugar plantations later traveled the trail.
Davis hikes the historic footpath to track Jamaica's two native Amazon parrots. He and ornithologist Susan Koenig are field researchers with the Gosse Bird Club, a conservation group that hopes to conserve the 50,000 forested acres of Cockpit Country. The region's challenging terrain, called 'karst,' is limestone eroded by rainfall into a mosaic of conical and steep-sided hills and fertile basins, or 'cockpits.' Even though it rains 100 inches per year, the forest is dry and rocky because the water quickly percolates through the porous karst.
According to the Gosse Bird Club, the area shelters plant and animal species found no where else on the island, and also provides most of western Jamaica with drinking water. Davis's intensive survey of the two large parrots, the yellow-billed (Amazona collaria) and the black-billed (Amazona agilis), estimates their population to be 5,000 each.
While it's illegal to keep the birds in captivity, the biologists believe that the pet trade continues to have a serious effect on the parrot population. "Poachers sell the birds locally for $15 U.S.," Koenig says. But loss of habitat is the most serious problem, as the tall trees in much of Cockpit Country are logged for valuable timber. "The yellow-billed parrots often nest in 50-foot tall trees," explains the Ph.D. student at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
In addition, saplings are stolen from the forests for "yam sticks," which prop up the vines on which the tasty tubers grow. Millions of tree saplings are cut each year to prop up yams, a major export.
With funding from the Environment Foundation of Jamaica, Wildlife Preservation Trust International, Denver Zoological Foundation and Air Jamaica, the Club's Parrot Project is collecting valuable data on the native parrots, especially their breeding habits, population density, and habitat needs. The information should help the club set priorities for conserving Cockpit Country.
One of the project's principal achievements, notes Catherine Levy, vice-president of the Gosse Bird Club, is that it has fostered cooperation between Jamaicans and overseas experts." We lack training, but we are receiving it through this project," she says. "It is we Jamaicans who should make decisions about conservation priorities, not people who have never set a foot in the forests."
CONTACTS: Gosse Bird Club, 2 Starlight Avenue, Kingston 6, Jamaica West
Indies, tel-fax (876) 927-1864
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Conservation Media Center,
based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille,
Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383;
Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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