Experts Warn Pet Trade Is Putting Caribbean Parrots At Risk Of Extinction

The long-standing Caribbean tradition of keeping parrots as pets is pushing some of the region's native species closer to extinction.

That's according to experts from across the region gathered in Trinidad and Tobago for the first-ever Caribbean Parrot Conservation Summit, hosted by Birds Caribbean, to discuss how the illegal pet trade, poaching, deforestation and natural disasters are affecting the species.

The Caribbean is home to 11 endemic parrot species, many of which are considered among the most vulnerable in the world.

President of Birds Caribbean, Andrea Thomen, warned that the long-standing tradition of keeping parrots as pets is placing significant pressure on wild populations.

"It’s culture within the tradition to have them as pets. It’s very engrained within the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean nations, but this is a tradition that we need to stop right now because a lot of these species are heading toward extinction, and for some species it’s not about occasional international smuggling, but in the case of the Dominican Republic at least, we think that 3% of households have a parrot, and this means over a hundred thousand birds are in captivity right now. This exceeds the number of parrots in the wild."