The Yellow-naped Amazon Parrot (YNAP; Amazona auropalliata) has long been listed as an Endangered species in need of further protection. An alarming 9/10 nests are poached every year and there’s little hope of improvement unless we act. This year, we discovered an opportunity in Northern Costa Rica that would make it possible for us to take the first steps towards bringing this wonderful species under our wings. It wouldn’t have been possible without two local fishermen from Playa El Jobo.
Let’s back up. Earlier this year, some of our MRN team decided to take a trip along the Pacific coast of Northern Costa Rica to have a nice weekend away, do some kite surfing and generally explore. In a purely serendipitous moment, they stumbled across members of the Equipo Tora Carey (ETC) team while chasing down an unruly kite. From that single interaction, a world of opportunities emerged!
ETC is a conservation organization with a historical focus on marine conservation, particularly sea turtles and rays. One of the driving forces for the development of this project was a man named Ricardo, a local fisherman who was aware of the rich marine life in the area and knew that there was little being done to preserve it. He frequently witnessed and even participated in taking turtle eggs from the beach and mourns, “We neglected to take care of the eggs while the people stole them.”
While many people would continue to turn a blind eye, Ricardo instead recruited the help of a German biologist, Maike, and convinced her (with the help of data he collected on the population of El Jobo marine life) to establish ETC in 2016. The project began with marine conservation, but it wasn’t long before the team recognized the need to start working with the YNAP, as the risk to that species was also high and increasing. However, with no experience monitoring parrots, the team decided to start simple and conduct regular roost counts from the beach to gauge the population size.
It turns out there’s an incredible stronghold of YNAPs in the El Jobo area! When our team was visiting, they witnessed this and, following the chance meeting on the beach, started a conversation with ETC to partner and develop the project further. Ricardo was eager to be involved and enlisted himself and his son, Denilson, to help.
Since the breeding season had already begun, it was a quick race to get Ricardo and Denilson trained and equipped to monitor the breeding birds. This would include learning to climb. In El Jobo, there are two main roost locations that also serve as nesting locations and it just so happens that they are both located on remote rocky islands where the Parrots love to nest in the vertical cliffs! While Ricardo and Denilson are both experienced boat operators, climbing was completely new.
Mario quickly planned a trip to train and equip the men and after a few visits to the islands reported, “It’s really exciting! But it’s also really difficult.” (Check out Mario’s blog to read more about this!). For Ricardo, the sentiment was mutual and talks about the climbing saying, “It was an incredible thing which I had never done before. At first it was very difficult, but Mario had the patience to teach us how to do it.”
Prepped with a new and valuable skillset, Ricardo and Denilson have wasted no time getting to work and make frequent trips to the islands to climb, monitor and count. They’ve grown more confident in this new work each day, have become more familiar with the individuals they’re monitoring and joke that before long they will grow wings themselves.
This new partnership (and friendship) has given us the chance to jumpstart the long-anticipated project to protect the endangered Yellow-naped Amazons. We are eager to continue working with Ricardo, Denilson and the larger ETC team as they have generated such amazing results for marine conservation and education, and they are dedicated to continued development of the YNAP project.
In addition to the breeding monitoring, Ricardo recently took part in our 2021 YNAP Census, which was the first time since 2016 that a baseline count of the population had been conducted. He was responsible for counting some of the largest known roosting locations in Northern Costa Rica and committed to counting the birds even when the rains began to fall. For Ricardo, he is not ready for the adventure to end and would like to continue climbing and protecting the Parrots. He says, “If I have the opportunity to continue doing this work, I would do it with a lot of commitment and with great pleasure.”
Brittany Decker
Communications Manager
