Literature review of the use of birds as pets in Latin-America, with a detailed perspective on Mexico

Abstract

A large amount of birds are harvested from the natural environment for the pet market. This trade is a conservation issue and an economic income for many people, two aspects not analyzed yet as a complex system of causes and effects. Though bird trade is common in Latin-America there are few published studies. Therefore, we reviewed available literature to understand the background of this topic and to identify future relevant research topics. We collected, summarized and discussed literature about bird use as pets in Latin-America, with a detailed approach in México. We searched by keywords in search engines. We got a database of 128 documents. Brazil was identified as one of the main countries of bird use research. Most of the papers focused on parrots (27%) and were conducted at a local geographical level (47%). Half of the papers are focused on the general use of birds, 44% on the use as pets and 5% on other uses. The most common techniques employed for gaining information belong to the social sciences. In Mexico, 82% of the information is “gray literature”, mainly congress abstracts. This literature review shows that wildlife use in general and wild birds use as pets in particular are common in Latin-America. We bring to light that most information is not found in peer review journals and contains only useful bird lists. Finally, we found that social organization and actor’s perception research is scarce so we suggest more research in this direction in order to implement better management policies

Use and management of wild fauna by people of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley and surrounding areas, Mexico

“…This information comes mostly from the dry forests of the arid zone of the TCV [73]. Use and commercialization of living birds as ornamental is a complex activity that has a long tradition in Mexico and involves human specialization, organization and regulations at various levels from individuals and families, to non-profit associations and governmental policies [107]; however, with a few exceptions, breeding is not part of the management strategy for ornamental species [148]. So far, this is the case in the TCV.…”

Rearing and trade of wild birds in a semiarid region of Brazil

“…This distinction among use values also reveals that several factors (local availability, abundance, price, maintenance, rarity) are associated with the choice and use of environmental resources (wild birds) for rearing purposes (Alves et al 2010;Licarião et al 2013;Oliveira et al 2018;Soares et al 2018a, b). The diverse and admired repertoire of birdsongs and the morphological beauty of individuals are the most valued-preferred characteristics when rearing birds as pets, and thus the consequently involvement of birds with these characteristics in clandestine trade in Brazil (Regueira and Bernard 2012;Licarião et al 2013;Alves et al 2013b;Kuhnen and Kanaan 2014;Souto et al 2017) and worldwide (Shanee 2012;Chouteau et al 2012;Roldán-Clarà et al 2014;Su et al 2015). Another important issue is that the species with the highest current use values (effectively used) are those most valued commercially.…”

“…Birds represent the wild vertebrate class most desired for use as pets by several societies throughout the world (Courchamp et al 2006;Nijman 2010;Roldán-Clarà et al 2014;Burivalova et al 2017). Cultural influences, along with the great diversity of colors and vocal repertoires among birds species, have resulted in numerous species being kept as pets in Brazil and worldwide (Alves et al 2012;Alves et al 2013a, b;Roldán-Clarà et al 2014;Su et al 2015). This, in turn, has placed birds among the animals most targeted by illegal wildlife trade on the planet, resulting in negative impacts for their conservation (Alves et al 2012;Baker et al 2013).…”

Folk name and lore of birds from the Sundanese of West Java, Indonesia: An ethno-ornithological survey

“…Avifauna has been an important role in ecological and socio-economic and cultural functions of rural people (Iskandar 2017). The rural Sundanese people, like other traditional people around the world, have served the purpose of birds as climate and weather prognosticator, agricultural augury, pet, meat, traditional medicine, ritual, myth, and symbolism (Dove 1993;Forth 2000;Alves 2012;Agnihotri and Si 2012;Bezerra et al2013;Roldlan-Clara et al 2014;Teixeira el al. 2014;Deikumah et al 2015;Kane 2015;Iskandar et al 2016;Iskandar 2017;Pam 2017;Hull and Fergus 2017;Pam 2017).…”