When James Sheppard set out to deploy tiny backpacks fitted with satellite transmitters to track endangered thick-billed parrots in 2019, doubts abounded. His colleagues were concerned it wasn’t going to work. A vendor he worked with refused to sell him the transmitters, worried it might be a futile attempt. The concerns weren’t unfounded. Thick-billed parrots (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) are named after their large and sturdy beaks that they use to break open pine cones and nut shells. “They have a can opener for a face,” Sheppard, a scientist in recovery ecology at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), told Mongabay in a video interview. “We thought they would just rip it [the transmitter] straight off.” However, Sheppard saw an opportunity when a lone bird was brought into SDZWA from another facility. While the bird was under quarantine, he put a backpack on it. Much to his surprise, the bird “ignored it and went on to feed on some pine nuts,” he said. “It stayed on for several weeks.” Four years on, the team at SDZWA along with its partners at Mexican conservation NGO Organización Vida Silvestre (OVIS) have deployed the backpacks on 57 thick-billed parrots. So far, the technology has yielded more than 71,000 data points that have helped the team understand the birds’ migratory patterns and identify habitats that are crucial for protection. “It opened up a whole new world of good decision-making for us,” Ernesto Enkerlin-Hoeflich, scientific director at OVIS, told Mongabay in a video interview. “We were able…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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