Abstract
The endangered Bahama Amazon (Amazona leucocepbala bahamensis) persists today on the islands of Abaco and Great Inagua at the northern and southern limits of its former range in the Bahamas. Historically, the Bahama Amazon was recorded on Abaco, New Providence, San Salvador, Long, Crooked, Acklins and Great Inagua islands. A subspecies of the Cuban Amazon, the Bahama Amazon is the only naturally-occurring psittacid in the Bahamas. A large proportion of the Inagua population is protected in a park operated by the Bahamas National Trust; the Abaco population inhabits the southern portion of Abaco, below Crossing Rock.
Since 1966, the Bahama Amazon has been recognized as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and by the United States Department of the Interior since 1970. The reasons for its decline in population numbers are a loss and destruction of habitat, hunting pressures and capture for pets. Although habitat alteration for development has been significant on some islands, one cannot disregard the effects of hunting for parrots as food and their capture as pets. These factors would further stress low levels of local populations, increasing their vulnerability to habitat loss and natural catastrophes, such as hurricanes.
Today, the Bahama parrot is protected by a Sl,000.00 fine. Bahamians respect this law and few parrots are hunted or taken as pets. The Bahama National Trust, a Bahamian conservation agency, is supporting the establishment of a parrot preserve on Abaco, protecting its habitat, and a captive-breeding program is being undertaken by the Trust in Nassau. It is hoped that parrots produced by the captive-breeding program can be used to reintroduce the Bahama Amazon on islands in its former range.
As part of my doctoral research at the City University of New York, I have been studying the breeding biology of the Bahama Amazon and its current status in the wild. Financial support for this research has been provided by the American Federation of Aviculture, Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, and Wildlife Conservation International of the New York Zoological Society. My field assistant, Linda De Lay and I arrived on Abaco May 3, 1985 and remained there for the duration of the breeding season ti! mid-September. Following are some of the preliminary findings from this research.
Results
The Abaco population is recorded as the northernmost breeding population of any species in the genus, Amazona. Abaco is the second-largest island (1,681 km.) in the Bahamas and is located 200 miles east of Miami, Florida, and 75 miles north of Nassau. Like the rest of the Bahamas, Abaco is relatively flat and composed of limestone. The island's climate is subtropical and fairly dry.
Bahama Amazons on Abaco, unlike any other New World psittacid, are subterraneaen nesters, nesting in natural limestone solution cavities beneath the ground. Fourteen parrot nests were found in a nesting area south of Crossing Rock. The primary vegetation in this area is yellow pine (Pinus caribaea) with a shrub understudy of
poisonwood (Metopium toxiferum], chicken toe (Tabebiua bahamensis) and pond top palm (Sabal palmetto). All fourteen nests were located in limes tone solution cavities beneath the ground, which ranged in depth from 91 to 299 cm, with an average depth of 136 cm. Many of these cavities contained ledges or overhangs within them and eggs were placed under these obstructions, concealing them from view.
Egg laying occurred in early June, and clutch size in the Bahama Amazon is two to three eggs, somewhat smaller than that recorded in other species of Amazona. Unsuccessful nests were lost within a week prior to hatching and possible causes of nest failure appear to be related to (a) physical, environmental factors such as rain and nest cavity dimensions, (b) predations, and (c) infertility of eggs and/or immature breeding pairs.
The incubation period averaged 28 days and eggs were presumably incubated by the female. During egg laying and incubation, female Bahama Amazons remained secluded in the nest cavity, leaving the nest three to six times a day to be fed by the male. Males rarely entered the nest during this period to feed the females. They called their mates out of the nest hole by characteristic high-squawk attraction calls which were given from a nearby shrub or pine. Upon exiting the hole, the female joins the male, and together they give take-off squawks and fly to a nearby pine, where the male feeds the female. Preliminary data suggests that these calls play a significant role in the individual recognition of parrots.