Wild Birds Gone Wild

Or rather, Wild Birds who Tried to Go Wild but Were Instead Captured for the Pet Industry.

Brock, a Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot
recused by the USDAWould you like a baby kinkajou? How about a little cougar cub or maybe a herd of giraffe? All is possible with the help of the internet and the booming illegal wildlife trade. A multi-billion dollar industry, the illegal wildlife trade is comparable in scale to the trade of illegal drugs or arms. From people needing to feed their families and finding no financial alternatives, to people who simply must have an exotic pet, this industry is alive and well. For example, there are about 5000 tigers in the wild and up to 10,000 PET tigers in the United States!

Many of us, especially in California, are not in the market for a lion, tiger or bear, but would consider a bird. A harmless, pretty, exotic bird: how bad can that be? Birds are the third most popular pet in the country. Millions are captive bred and fine to buy or adopt, but millions more are not.

Stuffed in cages, boxes, battery containers and tailpipes and quieted with drugs, they are smuggled in and sold to individuals, breeders and stores. Even with regulations in place, including the Endangered Species Act, the Wild Bird Conservation Act and a ban under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species, there are parrot species on the verge of extinction, partly due to the illegal and legal bird trade.

Take Brock the Parrot, for example. Brock is a Yellow Naped Amazon who came to the Oakland Zoo in 1982 at the age of 5. Records show that he was wild caught, once living on the Pacific slope of Central America, and confiscated by USDA. The USDA found a home for him with the zoo. Considering 1 in 25 exotic birds of which are illegally smuggled make it to their final destination alive, Brock was lucky. However, like many of these surviving birds, he is missing toes and toenails, probably from being stacked in cages and bitten by other nervous birds.

Of course, as a good zoo educator, I will mention that there is hope. As educated pet bird lovers know, individuals can help by asking breeders, store owners or internet bird sellers for a certified history of the bird and making sure the bird has a leg band which identifies it as captive bred. Local want-to-be bird owners can adopt from reputable sources, like Mickaboo Cockatiel Rescue (www.mickaboo.org). With the rise of Avian Influenza Virus, perhaps the trade laws will be more strictly enforced and wild birds can continue to go wild.

The Oakland Zoo supports Central American projects that work to protect birds, treat and release confiscated birds and educate the local public. ARCAS in Guatemala works with Scarlett Macaws and Green Parrots (www.arcasguatemala.com) and Amigos De Las Aves in Costa Rica works with Scarlet Macaws and the Great Green or Buffon’s Macaw (www.hatchedtoflyfree.org).

Amy Gotliffe is Conservation Manager at The Oakland Zoo.