Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust- The World’s Rarest Parakeet

Introducing the world’s rarest parakeet - in 1986 less than a dozen birds existed in the wild, and only three were female. The echo is one of just nine surviving bird species that are found only on the tiny island of Mauritius, where they exist in alarmingly small populations. Without emergency help from Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, this bird would have become as dead as the Dodo, the extinct Mauritian bird used to symbolise the efforts of the Trust.

Small islands such as Mauritius can suffer from a wide range of environmental problems. These include the introduction of plants and animals to the detriment of existing wildlife, degradation and destruction of the natural habitat so that native animals cannot live there, and the indiscriminate use of pesticides that poison the land and its inhabitants.

Photo credit James Morgan

For more info. check out http://www.durrell.org/Animals/Birds/Echo-parakeet/