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Yellow-headed Amazon Parrot pair (Photo by Photochem_PA)
Meet George Packer, proud Belizean, loving father, dedicated conservationist, and some would say, hell-raiser. George has been a ranger in the Rio Bravo Conservation Area in Belize for decades. He is over retirement age but insists he has no interest in taking it easy. He doesn’t trust modern medicine and instead puts his faith in Belizean “snake” doctors, or witchdoctors, whose treatments and teachings descend from the ancient Maya themselves. He holds his machete by the blade and knows every game trail in his side of the preserve. He is well known in his community for being a hell-raiser, all in the name of protecting the birds. Here in the rural swaths of Central America, it is people like George who work the hardest to conserve species on the brink of extinction.
George is the last line of defense for an endangered population of Yellow-headed Parrots, Amazona oratrix, in the Rio Bravo Conservation Area in Belize. These imperiled parrots are distinct and hard to miss. Their green feathered bodies are capped by bright yellow heads and they make harsh squawks as they fly to and from their nests every morning and evening. One of the most senior enforcement rangers, George uses any means necessary to preserve this species. He lives in a small village not far outside of the refuge where he knows all of his neighbors. He even knows which of them are the poachers threatening these birds and he is not above getting in bar fights with them to articulate his point of view. Fights, he insists, he has never lost.
Like many endangered species, the Yellow-headed Parrots of Belize face threats on multiple fronts. First and foremost, they inhabit a very narrow ecological niche, requiring very specific habitats where they nest and forage. They require wet tropical forest or “broadleaf” as the Belizeans call it, to look for their food and they require open pine savannah, marked by large, old-growth pine trees, to build their nests. Both of these native habitats are threatened by fire and deforestation. Their young are also incredibly vulnerable to predators, such as raptors or spiny tailed iguanas. But the most serious threat to this species, at least in Rio Bravo, is poaching. Poachers raid nests and abduct nestlings for the local pet trade. After all, these species are desirable: they are beautiful and what’s more, they can even be trained to speak.
While this species is on the brink of extinction, there is reason for hope. Local and international NGOs (Programme for Belize, Scarlet Six Biomonitoring Team, and others) are working together to save these parrots by protecting critical habitat and reducing poaching pressure. However, to those working here, it often still seems like a losing battle. There is a lack of sufficient funds and resources. In some cases, that paucity includes basic necessities, such as insufficient amounts of gasoline to power the vehicles rangers must use to make their enforcement rounds.
There is also a dearth of political will to enforce anti-poaching laws throughout the levels of Belizean government. George says he knows which villagers are responsible for the poaching from both the neighboring village as well as his own. He rides past some of their houses every day on his bike. But he says the local police are unwilling to do much about them. When they do, it is often in name only, because the poachers are usually tipped off about an upcoming raid before the police arrive.
George remains optimistic though, because he understands that he can take matters into his own hands and make a difference. And he has years of experience at doing so. In one particularly memorable instance, George said he hammered nails in several planks of wood and laid them own on a road poachers normally use to enter the protected area. A group of poachers hit his road block and flattened all four tires on their brand new Toyota Hilux. The driver jumped out in fury only to severely puncture his own foot. George still fondly remembers watching the man being taken away by the authorities. That group, he says, has never returned to the preserve.
Years later, he recalled that a group of poachers tried to park outside the protected area and sneak in through the jungle along the side of the road. George was ready for that too. He had installed trip wires connected to tin cans and bottles filled with rocks and other debris. When the poachers tripped the wires, they were in for quite a surprise in the form of falling rocks and beer bottles. As they went howling back down the road, George says he even noticed that a few of them were still wrapped up in the trip wires, dragging the beer bottles and tin cans behind them.
George doesn’t understand why the poachers seem so intent on plundering this species. It deeply troubles him to think so many people only care about personal gain and believe they have a right to exploit these animals. But he knows that many of his neighbors struggle to get by and can’t afford to send their children to school like he has. For them, poaching offers financial gain, but he insists it is only in the short term. He promises he will do whatever possible to stand in their way.
George does have some critiques, however. He wishes he had a firearm, instead of his trusty machete. After all, he points out, the poachers do and he is currently expected to enforce the preserve comparatively unarmed. George even has a dream of one day installing remote cameras throughout the property so that he can have a video record to catch poachers red-handed. He thinks that even the police won’t be able to look the other way when shown that evidence. Until then, he will make do with what he does have, his ingenuity and tenacity. He will continue to set booby traps, vandalize vehicles, and get in fights to protect these birds. He believes that is his job and somebody needs to do it.
Maybe conservationists everywhere can learn a lesson from George. Perhaps we all must be willing to do whatever possible to make a difference, even if that means sometimes getting in a bar fight.
For more information about Yellow-headed Parrots or Rio Bravo, consult the following links:
[1] http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/yellow-headed-parrot
Sunset over the Pine Savannah.
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