- Colombian law demands that, after rehabilitation, trafficked wildlife must be released in their original home range. But that is often difficult to determine.
- Researchers sequenced the DNA of Colombia’s six Amazona parrot species, building a genetic database to help identify trafficked birds.
- With this tool, Colombian authorities will be able to compare the DNA of the rescued birds to trace their heritage and release them into their home habitat.
- This will prevent “unscientific” release of these birds, which could affect their survival, the ecosystem and the species’ evolutionary processes.
Parrots of the Amazona genus are among the most trafficked birds in Colombia. With their distinctive feathers, these parrots are relatively easy to identify by authorities after they have been rescued.
But “determining their home territory is a much more complex task that cannot be carried out relying on just the naked eye,” says Luis Alejandro Arias, a biologist at the National University of Colombia. Different populations of each species sometimes live in various parts of the country.
Learning the origin of the rescued and rehabilitated birds is necessary to reintroduce them back into the wild. “Although the law demands that environmental authorities release the animals as close to their origin as possible, it isn’t easy to do so at the technical level,” Arias says.
To address this problem, a group of Colombian scientists led by Arias established a genetic database by studying rescued birds of the Amazona genus that had a documented origin. In their study published in the journal Bird Conservation International, the researchers analyzed the birds’ genetics and compared them with their database. This helped them to determine the most likely origin of 156 illegally-traded parrots that had been seized near Bogotá.
Technological advances are changing the field of conservation. “As new molecular tools are created, like this one just published, we can go a step beyond,” says Carlos del Valle-Useche, co-author of the study and a biologist with the Lab of Forensic Identification of Wild Species under the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and INTERPOL.
Part of del Valle-Useche’s job is determining the species of an animal — or its parts — when officials make a seizure of trafficked wildlife. The team expects to begin using this new tool soon, which has been standardized and validated by his lab, he says.
The tool will be used in both enforcement and conservation efforts. “It isn’t only for the legal authorities who intervene from the legal point of view,” del Valle-Useche says. “It’s also for the administrative authorities that respond from the point of view of wildlife management.”
A third of trafficked birds are Amazona parrots
Wildlife trafficking is taking a massive toll across the region. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Colombia notes that it is “one of the big engines for biodiversity loss in South America.”
The organization’s Team Against Wildlife Trafficking also categorizes it as “one of the big [environmental] problems” in Colombia. The statistics are astounding: between 2010 and 2019, Colombian officials seized some 90,000 seizures of animals or their parts.
WCS Colombia experts say that parrots are among the most trafficked animals because they are “very flashy.” They have beautiful feathers. Though some of these birds are quite large, they are relatively easy to transport and breed. But their capacity to mimic sounds — including human speech — makes them particularly attractive.
Investigations revealed that parrots represent the largest percentage of birds rescued from illegal trafficking in Colombia. The Amazona genus alone accounts for 41% of all seized parrots and more than one-third (37.3%) of all birds smuggled in the country.
Where should seized parrots go?
These parrots are often captured by poachers in “very remote places like the Amazon, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts or the Andean area,” note WCS Colombia experts. The birds are then sold in the capital city, Bogotá, or other big cities like Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla, del Valle-Useche said.
When trafficked parrots are rescued, they go through a rehabilitation process. Their fate is determined following that, Arias says. The first option is to keep the parrots in rescue centers, but this becomes unmanageable because of the vast numbers that arrive each year. Another option is to euthanize them. “In some countries, they prefer to do this instead of releasing them in a place where they don’t belong,” Arias says.
The third possibility is “releasing them where it’s convenient,” that is, in the place closest to where they were seized. Arias said that this alternative is problematic because parrot species have regional populations with genetic differences.
Through thousands of years of evolution, different groups adapted to the unique characteristics of the ecosystems where they lived, which can be coastal, forest or montane. If they are released just anywhere, Arias says, there is a risk of “artificially mixing populations that shouldn’t be mixed, which creates a loss of genetic biodiversity,” and with it, adaptive capabilities that increase survival.
There are other risks, too. A trafficked bird may carry viruses or bacteria that the resident populations have no immunity to, which could trigger a deadly disease outbreak.
Del Valle-Useche has found that rescued specimens often do come from nearby habitats. For example, if the birds are being sold in Colombia’s capital, it’s likely they were caught in the Andes, not from the Amazon or the coast, which are further away.
Barcoding to identify the birds’ origins
Arias and his team sequenced a specific gene called cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) for each of Colombia’s six Amazona species. It’s a gene often used to generate a genetic barcode to identify animal species. But in this case, it was used to assess the geographic distribution of each individual.
Arias said they began by gathering DNA samples from parrots living in different parts of the country. Analysis revealed genetic differences within individual species. Birds from each region have a particular genome that indicates their origin, Arias says. “They aren’t homogenous populations. Some regions have different genomes. In some cases, it’s very different.”
The next step was sampling the seized parrots and comparing their genetics with those in their reference database to learn generally where they came from.
Ultimately, this tool will be used to conduct directed releases, says Arias, and though the process can’t determine the exact location the parrot came from, it can effectively identify the geographic region.
The authors found that most of the studied parrots, which were seized in Bogotá, came from the Andes. A smaller number had been taken from the Amazon and even fewer from the coast.
Surprising diversity
In the course of their study, the researchers identified differences among distinct populations of each of Colombia’s six Amazona species: the festive Amazon parrot (A. festiva), the scaly-naped Amazon (A. mercenarius), the mealy Amazon (A. farinosa), the orange-winged Amazon (A. amazonica), the red-lored Amazon (A. autumnalis) and the yellow-crowned Amazon (A. ochrocephala).
Arias and his team identified three different genetic groups for the mealy Amazon, an Andean species, and they found that the birds had been poached from both sides of the Andes in similar numbers.
They also observed a “significant genetic difference” between the festive Amazon parrots that came from the Meta River in eastern Colombia and those from the south-central Amazonas region. The scaly-naped Amazon also showed genetic divergence that depended on where their home flocks lived: the central Andes or the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In contrast, they didn’t find any significant variations in the red-lored Amazon.
For del Valle-Useche, an important finding was that the yellow-crowned parrot showed great genetic diversity. “It means it’s a very complex species from the evolutionary point of view,” he says. He adds that this could allow it to survive in different ecosystems, from humid tropical forests to Magdalena’s Caribbean coast. This increases its odds for long-term survival, which is especially important amidst rapidly changing climate.
A costly but necessary tool
Arias says that establishing both the methodology and the databases is expensive. Other costs involve time in the field collecting samples, extracting DNA from birds living in various parts of the country, as well as lab work, sequencing and careful validation of their results. Once the database is set up, obtaining samples from the trafficked individuals is “relatively easy and cheap,” he says.
However, the researchers are searching for methods that cost less. They are trying to perfect the use of real-time PCR testing, a process similar to that used to detect COVID-19. This would eliminate the need to sequence DNA, which is a far more costly procedure.
While these technologies require investment, they are fundamental to the fight against wildlife trafficking. “These types of contributions that academia and [government agencies] are making are extremely necessary to improve the actions of Colombian authorities to rehabilitate and return species to their habitat,” an expert at WCS Colombia says, adding that these efforts should be replicated in other countries.
This type of research is still new in Colombia, Arias says. They have used it for a few species, including primates and mata mata turtles (Chelus fimbriata). Del Valle-Useche believes that the Colombian ministries of environment and science must prioritize use of genetic tools for other species that top the list of the country’s most trafficked animals.
Banner image: A red-lored amazon. Image by Nick Athanas via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
This article was first published here in Spanish on Jan. 30, 2025.
Citation:
Arias-Sosa, L., Del Valle-Useche, C., Brieva, C., Tusso, S., & Vargas-Ramírez, M. (2024). Utilising mitochondrial barcode sequencing to evaluate phylogeographical structure and guide the release of illegally traded Amazon parrots. Bird Conservation International, 34(e43). doi:10.1017/S0959270924000339
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