We have heard a lot about Cayman Islands banking during this election season, but what about Cayman Islands endangered species? The three tiny islands that make up the Caymans—Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac—are home to a handful of endangered species that aren’t found anywhere else in the world. In the case of at [...]

One of the world’s rarest birds has a little bit more breathing room this week. The Giles–Fuertesi Nature Reserve in the Colombian Andes, home to the critically endangered Fuertes’s parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi), has doubled in size following the acquisition of an additional 144 hectares of neighboring land. The acquisition was a joint effort by Fundación [...]

The death of an adult female kakapo (Strigops habroptila) on New Zealand’s Anchor Island this past weekend brings the population of these rare flightless parrots down to just 127 birds. The late kakapo, known as Sandra, was killed when her transmitter harness got entangled in a tree. All kakapos are outfitted with transmitters to help [...]

Coco the Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), one of the last males of his species in Paraguay, has had a rough start. Since his birth nine years ago he has been captured from the wild by illegal parrot traders, rescued, placed into Paraguay’s Asunción Zoo, and then stolen from there—a crime that turned him into such [...]

An endangered New Zealand parrot known as the kaka (Nestor meridionalis) has had a much-needed population boost after poisons were used to kill introduced possums, stoats and rodents in Waitutu Forest Common brush-tailed possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) were introduced to New Zealand from Australia in 1870 for their fur and meat, but they overran the islands, [...]

The orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster), one of the world’s most critically endangered birds, could lose its bid at survival as a virus threatens its vitally important captive breeding program. The unidentified stomach virus that has struck the program causes the birds to lose their feathers and weakens their immune systems, Shane Radial, a veterinary professor [...]

New Zealand is home to several highly peculiar endemic parrots, with three similar-looking species being of particular interest: the Kakapo Strigops habroptila, Kea Nestor notabilis, and Kaka N. meridionalis. Here are taxiderm specimens of all three on display together (with other New Zealand endemic birds*) at Bexhill Museum, Bexhill, East Sussex. I can’t pretend to [...]