With the 2019 hurricane
season now upon us, the Department of Environment (DoE) asks
members of the public who are making their own preparations, to also
consider the resilience of Cayman’s natural habitats and species
during this storm season.

Our
local ecosystems have evolved along with the threat of major
hurricanes, such as 2004’s Hurricane Ivan, as well as Hurricane
Paloma, which hit Cayman Brac in 2008. While these natural disasters
have taken their toll, ongoing human-made impacts have also served to
make certain species less resilient when storms do occur and these
impacts have been seen, particularly within our local bird
populations, especially to the population of our national bird, the
Cayman Parrot.

Hurricanes, and even
tropical storms, are generally devastating to avian populations on
small islands, but DoE scientists believe that the potential risk has
become worse in Cayman, in recent years, due to the annual loss of
the parrots’ natural habitat, combined with the poaching of
parrots.  

“We lost an estimated
50-60 per cent of our parrot population during 2004’s Hurricane
Ivan, and more than half of the parrots on Cayman Brac during 2008’s
Hurricane Paloma,” said DoE Terrestrial Resources Unit Manager Fred
Burton. “Over time, the Grand Cayman Parrots made it back to
pre-Ivan levels. The Brac Parrots took about five years to recover
from the effects of Paloma.”  

DoE population
assessments done since Hurricanes Ivan and Paloma have found that the
parrots, while resilient, are now concentrated in smaller areas on
both Cayman Brac and Grand Cayman. Those studies also suggest a lower
number of breeding parrot pairs on both islands.

“Stresses on the
population from clearing of natural habitats and also from unlawful
poaching have made our Cayman Parrots less able to come back from
major losses experienced during hurricanes or tropical storms,”
said DoE Research Officer Jane Haakonsson, adding that Cayman Parrots
are a protected species under the National Conservation Law (NCL).  

Grand Cayman Parrots are
now mostly restricted to the central and eastern mangroves and dry
forest. On the Brac, breeding mainly occurs on the bluff and in the
dry forest. Cayman Brac Parrot populations that once inhabited Little
Cayman stopped breeding following the disastrous 1932 storm, which
largely destroyed their breeding grounds. The Brac Parrot’s home
range is now among the most limited of any Amazon parrot subspecies
in the world.

Mr. Burton said Cayman
has not been required to adopt captive breeding measures in attempts
to boost its local parrot population, as has occurred in Puerto Rico,
where hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent preserving the
local species. Puerto Rico managed to reestablish some of its parrot
populations earlier in the decade, only to have the species depleted
again following 2017’s Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

“Puerto Rico lost a
huge number of its re-established native parrots during the 2017
storms,” said Jafet Vélez, wildlife biologist at the Puerto Rican
Parrot Recovery Program. “The captive breeding efforts needed to
support the remaining population are both expensive and
time-consuming. It is far better, in the Cayman Islands situation, to
conserve what natural habitats remain and try to curb such issues as
poaching of the birds.”  

“We certainly don’t
want the added expense some other countries have incurred trying to
protect their indigenous wildlife via captive breeding efforts,”
Minister for Environment, Hon. Dwayne Seymour said. “Let’s ensure
Cayman Parrots can safely remain in their natural habitat.”

For more information
about Cayman Parrots, conservation efforts and what you can do to
help, please contact DoE Public Education and Outreach Officer Brent
Fuller via email at brent.fuller@gov.ky
or via phone 244-5984/922-5514. Please check out the DoE website for
further information on our local bird species:
http://doe.ky/terrestrial/animals/birds/bird-guide/

IMAGE:

Photo 1 – Cayman Parrot pair engaged
in grooming. Credit: Stuart Mailer