Rescue data as an alternative for assessing trends and phenological changes in two invasive parakeet species

Abstract

Monitoring population trends of alien species is pivotal to design effective management plans to preserve native biodiversity, particularly urban areas, where most populations of alien birds are established. Urban wildlife rescue centers, with personnel trained to record species, age and sex of each individual brought by the public, may represent a reliable citizen-science based method to estimate both local changes in alien species phenology and population trends. In this work, we analysed records of monk and ring-necked parakeets by comparing rescue records in the urban area of Rome from the last 15 years. We also tested whether breeding phenology of alien parakeets showed any changes since the start of the invasion processes.We recorded a strong correlation between the number of rescued parakeets and their population trends, thus confirming the importance of wildlife rescue centers in monitoring populations of alien species in urban areas. We also observed a shift in the breeding phenology of these parakeet species. The hatching peak for ring-necked parakeet occurred in early spring, in line with previous studies on the reproduction of this species, but with a slight increase in the number of months with evidence of breeding in the last years. As to the monk parakeet, our findings support the expansion of its reproductive season between 2006 and 2020 in Rome, with chicks currently being observed for seven months a year. Therefore, data collected through wildlife rescue centers may help improving models of population growth of alien species established in urban areas.

Alien parakeets as a potential threat to the common noctule Nyctalus noctula

“…Figure S2 in Supplementary Material 1), citizen-science records provided an exhaustive picture of the species' occurrence within the study area. The increasing numbers of records per year, paired by an increase in the occupied area, also suggest a genuine population growth, as other citizen-based case studies evidenced (Ciprari et al 2022). Conversely, the population of N. noctula breeding in Cervia showed an opposite trend, with a remarkable decrease in the number of roosts (− 77%) and adult individuals (− 52%) in 10 years, even before the arrival of parakeets in this area.…”

“…Therefore, early detection of new invasions and rapid intervention should be the most recommended strategy to prevent or limit the impact by fast-expanding populations of ring-necked parakeets (Genovesi and Shine 2004;Vall-Llosera et al 2016). In Italy, most populations of introduced ring-necked parakeets are expanding in numbers and extent of occurrence (Fraticelli and Molajoli 2002;Fraticelli 2014;Grandi et al 2018;Mori et al 2020;Ciprari et al 2022). Evidence of interactions between parrots and cavity-roosting bats are mostly anecdotal and from areas at the early stages of invasions (e.g.…”

Infrastructure and the ethnographic-cartographic production of urban bird species richness

“…Rehabilitators have challenged the charge that their work does not support the goals of wildlife conservation (Luther, 2018), arguing that population impacts happen through their role as educators promoting greater awareness of wildlife and the threats they face. Yet it is only in the last decade that the conservation sciences appear to be more readily embracing the value of rehab data as a cross-taxa snapshot of the biodiversity of a city or region (Ciprari et al, 2022; Hanson et al, 2021; Heathcote et al, 2019; Kelly and delBarco-Trillo, 2020; Kwok et al, 2021; Long et al, 2020; Pyke and Szabo 2018a, 2018b; Schenk and Souza, 2014; Taylor-Brown et al, 2019).…”

Parrots in the wild in Polish cities

“…As a result, they are traded worldwide and transported to regions where they are not found in the wild. They are then intentionally or accidentally released into the wild, where they often acclimate to local environmental conditions [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Currently, an estimated 120 parrot species have escaped from captivity into the wild and 71 of them have naturalized [15].…”