The Associated Press. (2015, January 21). 15 Endangered Puerto Rican Parrots Released Into Wild: The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from <http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/21/world/americas/ap-cb-puerto-rico-saving-parrots.html>.

 

In Puerto Rico on January 21, a group of scientists let 15 endangered parrots into

the wild after being kept in a preserve with 204 other parrots.  It is the only native

parrot Puerto Rico has left. The 15 parrots were one to two years old and lived in a

cage separated from the other parrots for a year.  In that time they were fed local

fruits and taught to recognize natural predators, in preparation for their release.

 

This article relates to environmental science because these scientists are helping to preserve the biodiversity of their native species. I think it is really great that Puerto Rico has created a program that will allow the parrots to reproduce their population so that they can slowly release them back into the wild.  I hope that the preparation for those fifteen birds was enough to allow them to survive now that they are on their own.