Animal INSTINCT
On the shaded paths of 35 wooded acres in rural Loxahatchee, zebra longwing butterflies drowsily weave among clusters of bamboo and tangled vines of magenta bougainvillea. But just a few steps farther, the sleepy atmosphere shatters with a chorus of catcalls, whistles, and random words that soar into the air, gaining volume and making it necessary to shout to be heard. The red-browed Amazon parrots have figured out they’re about to have visitors and are eager to show off. Clinging to the sides of their spacious aviary, they clamor for attention by belting out a recitation of every human sound they’ve learned.
“They mimic everything and are very social, which is part of the reason they are endangered,” says Paul R. Reillo, PhD, founder of the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF) and co-director of the Tropical Conservation Institute, an entity created in partnership with Florida International University. Over several decades, the parrots had been illegally smuggled from Brazil as exotic, rare pets and were predicted to be extinct by 1983.
Reillo has been quietly laboring
