{"id":193237,"date":"2015-03-05T04:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=193237"},"modified":"2015-03-05T04:00:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T18:00:35","slug":"pair-parakeets-spotted-garapan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pair-parakeets-spotted-garapan\/","title":{"rendered":"Pair of parakeets spotted in Garapan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of beautiful rose-ringed parakeets, believed to be escaped pets, have been seen lately roosting on trees along the Beach Road pathway in Garapan, raising concerns from the CNMI Division of Fish & Wildlife that these non-native birds may reproduce.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Two rose-ringed parakeets are seen perched on a flame tree along the Beach Road pathway in front of the JP Center in Garapan last Sunday. The CNMI Division of Fish & Wildlife is concerned that these non-native parrots may reproduce on the island. (Ferdie de la Torre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DFW conservation planner Jill Liske-Clark said yesterday they would appreciate the public\u2019s help in providing information about the owner of the two rose-ringed parakeets or in capturing the birds.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegretfully, if these cannot be captured very soon, they must be removed by whatever means, as we cannot afford the risk that they will reproduce,\u201d Liske-Clark said.<\/p>\n

Parakeets are native to West Africa and southern Asia. They are a species of parrot.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark pointed out that preventing the introduction of new, non-native species to the Commonwealth is of vital environmental and economic importance.<\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune spotted and took photos of the two birds perched on the branches of a flame tree along the pathway across JP Center in Garapan on Sunday before noon and late afternoon.<\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune showed the photos to DFW on Monday.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark said that based on the photos, she can see that it is a male and female pair. She said the male has a ring around its neck, while the female doesn\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey likely are escaped pets, which is how they have become introduced in many parts of the world outside their native range,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rose-ringed parakeets are herbivores, eating fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and grains. They are large birds and measure up to 16 inches, including the tail.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark said that within their native and introduced range, they can form large flocks and can be serious agricultural pests, eating mango, guava, and other crops.<\/p>\n

She said DFW has concerns that if this situation is not addressed, these birds could establish a wild population on the island, potentially harming native wildlife and agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we can\u2019t know for certain what the impact of a wild parakeet population on Saipan would be, we have many examples of the devastating environmental and economic impacts of invasive species in the Mariana Islands,\u201d Liske-Clark said.<\/p>\n

She cited the invasive brown tree snake, which drove most of Guam\u2019s native birds to extinction.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark noted that currently Guam is fighting an invasion of coconut rhinoceros beetle that may ultimately kill all of the island\u2019s coconut palms.<\/p>\n

As to the suggestion of allowing these beautiful parakeets to breed on the island and just control their population, Liske-Clark said that\u2019s how invasive species often end up in new areas, because people bring them in for the reason that they are beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u201cPopulation control of an established population is expensive because you have to do it forever, and sometimes that isn\u2019t even feasible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Liske-Clark reminded the public that any importation of exotic animals requires a valid permit from the Department of Lands and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pair of beautiful rose-ringed parakeets, believed to be escaped pets, have been seen lately…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":193238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[160,1584,51,38],"class_list":["post-193237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-beach-road","tag-dfw","tag-guam","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}